Here are some interesting observations about the .art top level domain.
The .art top level domain name launched in general availability a week ago on Wednesday. I downloaded the zone file today to get a better understanding of how it’s doing and what types of domains are being registered.
The backdrop to this is that the registry priced an astonishing 3.5 million domains at premiums, meaning that most decent names are priced at $300 or more retail.
Here’s what I found while reviewing the zone file today:
- There are 7,111 names in the zone file. There were about 2,700 names the day before .art hit general availability so it has added roughly 4,400-4,500 names since launch.
- 26 of the domain names have the word artist in them. 111 have the word gallery in them.
- Apple registered 37 .art domains covering their brands.
- If part of the registry’s goal with so many premiums was to keep domainers away, it worked. Only four domains are on Sedo’s nameservers, three on Bodis and eight on Uniregistry Market. (There are more domains registered at Uniregistry that aren’t parked with its marketplace.)
- Jodee Rich of PeopleBrowsr and the .CEO domain name registered 17 domains in the form of PBtestNN.com. I suspect this stands for PeopleBrowsr test. The domains resolve to a variety of landing pages.
- 2,207 domains are parked on store.art. These appear to be names registered during the early access period for art-affiliated registrants.
- Instra is the top registrar thanks to running the early access program. GoDaddy is #2 with about 1,300 names in the zone.
- Some registrars register their brands in new top level domains. That appears to be limited with .art, perhaps because they are marked as premiums. Just search for GoDaddy.art to see what I mean.
- It’s interesting that someone registered KanyeWest.art during the qualified early launch period.
Finally, here are a few examples of developed .art domains:
Not the best name but I registered justst.art at normal fee. More from my own frustrations sat in front of a blank canvass, or wandering around an art gallery thinking ‘I can do that’, but never do.
Institute of Contemporary Arts, a big and central benue in London switched to ICA.Art a while ago.
I thought gtlds were dead, why are they coming out with more of them? Sounds like someone didn’t get the memo.
Snore…
Those stats are a fair appraisal of what I’ve noticed too.
In terms of big names, it’s noted (since the article was written) that yesterday Amazon and Twitch registered their respective brands.
Additionally, a number of reserved keywords are pointed at UKCI. I have noticed some of the general public registering TMs that they don’t have claim to, something that I advised art professionals during Preferred Access to stay clear of and claim a refund.
It’s unfortunate that GoDaddy haven’t yet accepted the 3.5M Premium Pricing model, where they’re the fastest climbing Registrar in terms of standard registrations. I see the 3.5M Big Data model as being little different to the prices that would be attached by domainers. Those sales would flow back to the Registry, that would otherwise be lost, thereby supporting the view that big data helps a registry, not hinders it. So, a great strategy for any Registry but not a real business opportunity for speculators who have been accustom to the dotcom model, flipping and revaluing at x10 – x100, as has been evident from the replies I’ve read over the past few weeks. dotART appear to be all about promoting getting names into the hands of end users, than parked pages and prohibitive asking prices. Yes, there are some silly prices for strange word combinations but that’s only natural when taking such a large dataset. The core interest prices are about right.
With limited stats (from the zone files) in GA, the daily registrations (standard+premium) appear to have jumped from ~20-30 during PAP to 182 during GA. You could approximate around 60,000-70,000 total registrations in 12 months time.
From DomainIncite June 17, 2016 : “UKCI estimated in its ICANN application that it would get between 25,000 and 80,000 registrations in its first year.”
That sounds about right …
Thanks for this Andrew:
I am pleased that .ART is complying with the zone file access requirement.
As your webpage images demonstrate, as of our opening day, .ART already had 300 active websites. Also check out:
http://www.banksy.art
http://denti-pro.art (real_dental_art)
http://www.kickstarter.art
http://www.brafa.art
http://www.belkina.art
http://www.teamlab.art
http://www.aesf.art
http://www.lovewatts.art
In a case study important to all of us that follow dnw.com: the artist Jordan Watson (lovewatts.art), has a broad and deep Internet presence, > 1.5MM followers. Yet, I understand this was his first domain!
For those of us in the domain name industry, this raises a concern and opportunity. How do we move that demographic toward domains? We think .ART will be one way to create a new set of registrants.
Here is some additional information on unique set of facts you mentioned:
>95% of the registrations are at base price but the considerable majority of the revenue has come from premiums – some registrars selling premium or “inventory” names have experienced the same distribution.
There is some other activity by investors as we saw many place names and art-institution-related words being registered – some at base price, some at premium prices. While it is more difficult to find valuable names at base prices, we think .ART names will appreciate faster than is typical.
I have found several names I would consider as premium to be priced at base price. Given the potential future value of .ART names, some investors might consider this worthy of study.
The PeopleBrowsr registrations are part of a prototype student program where we gifted ~350 domains to Art School students to build webpages and display their work – and become registrants. We are planning to launch a more global school program in a few months.
Finally, the kanyewest.art registrant is an artist that displays his work on his web page and would clearly qualify for the required token during the Preferred Access Period. The IP issue is another matter.
In addition to traditional RPMs, .ART does have fairly rigorous anti-abuse policies and internal procedures for monitoring these registrations.