City domain name rockets out of the starting gate.
The .Berlin top level domain name has quickly racked up over 30,000 domain name registrations according to the latest published zone file.
A lot of domain industry insiders think .city domain names have some of the best potential among new TLDs, and .Berlin’s quick start is certainly a positive sign.
Perhaps encouraged by the success of Germany’s country code domain name .de, applicants applied for eight city and region names in Germany: .Cologne, .Bayern, .Berlin, .Hamburg, .Koeln, .Saarland, .ruhr and .nrw (North Rhine-Westphalia).
Although that’s a sign that German’s appreciate localized TLDs, it could also be that they already feel like they have a local TLD and won’t be as inclined to register (or at least use) a city domain. It will be interesting to see how much usage .Berlin domain names get.
German domain name registrar 1&1 registered the most .Berlin domains with over 10,000 registrations, according to new TLD tracking site NTLDstats.com. Prior to .Berlin 1&1 had registered about 15,000 domains, so this is a big boost. (1&1 sister registrars, including United Domains, have registered more.)
1&1 is giving a free year of .berlin registration to people in Germany and Austria.
A quick scan shows that about 1,500 of the domain names are internationalize domain names.
Two of the .city domain names I’m keeping an eye on are .nyc and .London.
InterNetX – also an 1&1 sister registrar – was able to secure 81 percent of all preregistrations for its clients, making it the #1 registrar for .BERLIN domains in the B2B sector. Right now we are managing more than 6,777 .berlin domains. We are using our domain since Monday: http://www.internetx.berlin
Thanks Michael. Are some of your registrations under an accreditation other than InterNetX? nTLD stats shows a lot fewer domains under you, so I figure some are under a different registrar.
Hi Andrew, PSI-USA is a subsidiary of InterNetX. 🙂
Got it – thanks. The 1&1 corporate structure has always confused me.
@X it would be nice if we can see ur saleprice bevor registering. did not found it for .berlin
You forgot .saarland in your list of German regional TLDs. The Saarland is the smallest German non-city state with a population of about one million.
Thanks Volker. I just added it.
.ruhr as well
Thanks – with .ruhr it makes 8.
There’s a usage clause in the .BERLIN nexus rules that states that the domain must be put to use within 12 months. It should be interesting to see how that is enforced. What is different is the low count for sedoparking.com and the almost complete lack of Godaddy registrations. However it is following ccTLD patterns rather than gTLD patterns as it really is a quasi ccTLD.
What does it say qualifies as “usage”. Some usage clauses I’ve seen consider parking as usage.
“…and the almost complete lack of GoDaddy registrations”
I checked the availability of a few (4) .berlin domains at GoDaddy this morning, and in each case, the search defaulted to a .com search. Out of curiosity, I entered ‘garbage’ searches (e.g. gdjdjfkfudhbf.berlin) to see what would happen. The same result – the search defaulted to .com, with no mention of .berlin (either being available or unavailable). Previously, this “default to .com” search result only happened when searching the availability of new gTLD’s that GoDaddy was NOT supporting/selling.
So, perhaps the low GoDaddy registration numbers for .berlin has something to do with this?
Did anyone experience a different outcome when searching for single .berlin domains at GoDaddy?
I don’t believe GoDaddy is offering .berlin domains.
It might have to do with the local presence requirement.
It doesn’t specifically state what the usage means but there is a mention about website content (if a website is set up on the site). It is in section 5.2 of the registration policy document. Measuring web usage is a very difficult thing to do well and the real statistics can be quite terrifying for registries. The website, if there is one, is supposed to be relevant to the registration details.
“As the gTLD .BERLIN is a so-called “community based” gTLD, where the registration of domain names is subject to restrictions, a domain name must be put into use within 12 months of registration.
If the registrant sets up a web site which can be reached via the registered domain name, the content of this site must have be directly related to the authorisation to register. “
My guess is they will interpret this provision rather loosely.
Will someone translate this for me? It appears 1&1 is giving a free year of .berlin registration, but I’m not sure:
https://hosting.1und1.de/berlin-domain
yes. but only for germany and austria. i am from switzerland and I was not able to register there. and its only 1 free for each account. if you like to have more it will be 1.99 euro (instead of 3.99)
…and it is just for new accounts. 1&1 extends this offering for one week. BTW: InterNetX is offering a free local presence service for .berlin domains: http://www.internetx.berlin
3.99 is the regular price? geez, sure beats the $30-40 donuts pricing model.
1&1 is selling per month
sry for mixing
What .Berlin seems to be demonstrating is the inherent demand for geographical that we’ll see across the board.
Those registrys securing those domains should do very well indeed.
As Andrew mentioned, it should be interesting to see the major pick up on .London & .NYC, both global brands in their own right.
Isn’t this a subsidized model, reminds me of .info at 99 cents
I don’t know how true these numbers can be when you offer a population of millions a free domain to register.
The revenue figures were those quoted in the article. You’re more then welcome to check with Nic.at, the registry offering the .berlin domain.
The average cost of domains is between €30-€60 each. The .berlin registry took $1.5M in its first day!
Some people might not like to hear that.
where do you get this info from? we now know that a % of this number were given away free. the question is, what percentage represents the free domains?
A percentage may have been given away free or at a discount but the registry still gets paid.
That is a dummy retail number, the registry does not get 100% of the revenue, and the names that were given away for free, would essentially represent a loss. There is no true #, that dollar figure you came up with is essentially 30,000 registrations x $50… just bs
Pull your teeth in young man.
The figure was obtained from Thedomain.com article. The discounted domains may result in a loss for the registrar initiating a marketing strategy to secure initial uptake through them with a view to recurring revenues thereafter.
It doesnt necessarily equate to a loss for the registry wholl receive their fee irrespective.
I think Ryan’s point is that those are retail prices. The registry probably takes in about half that amount. Still not bad.
Sounds like the truth is being stretched on Philip’s part. The only thing we know is the number regged and that some unknown % were free.
You’re more then welcome to check with Nic.at, the registry involved with .berlin. The figure quoted is that stated in the article with certain registrars offering a hook for discounted domains rather then any indication of the registry doing so. If that were the case, we could perhaps expect discounted domains from all the registrars dont you think?
My message above was wiped out. What gives?
There was a message with just “nd” in it. Not sure what happened.
Latest zone file shows another 4,000 domains or so on day 2.