Is it worthwhile to register new domains?

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The entity managing domains in Poland is NASK. I.e. this institute is responsible for domains with .pl extension - both national and local, e.g. waw.pl. Globally, domains are managed by ICANN. It was she who decided to significantly increase the number of domains. That's how the nTLD domains appeared.

Why was the nTLD domain introduced?

Initially, customers had 5 top level domains at their disposal. These were specifically: .edu, .com, .org, .gov, .mil. In 1990 the .pl country domain was launched, whereas the first country domains were available in 1985. The fact that the number of available addresses was still decreasing caused ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to start accepting applications for new top-level functional domains in 2012. In this way, 1900 submissions were made, and the available extensions included .beer and .photo. An application to ICANN for its own extension could have been made by anyone, the problem being that the entry fee was $185,000 and no one could guarantee that the application would be accepted. Another cost, if the extension is approved, is an annual fee of $25,000. According to "Newsweek", Google itself reported 101 dTLD domains. New domains have been gradually introduced since 2013.

Popularity of new domains

According to nTLDStats data, the popularity of new domains is constantly growing. At the beginning of September 2018, the number of registered addresses was 24.8 million. Which extensions are currently the most popular? The most popular are:

• .top - over 3.5 million domains and 14.1% market share of new domains,
• .loan - 2.3 million and 9 percent,
• .xyz - 2 million and more than 8 percent,
• .club - 1.4 million and more than 5 percent,
• .online - 0.9 million and more than 3.5%.

What is the popularity issue, considering the location? Poland is currently on the 36th position with 0.13% share and the number of domains exceeding 32 thousand. So what are the results of the leaders? The highest positions are held by countries such as:

1. China - strong leader of the ranking. More than 9 million new domains and more than 37% of all new domains have been registered in this country.
2. Unable to be determined - the location of the recorder is not known. This is as much as 20% of all new domains, and the number of new domains exceeds 5 million.
3. USA - with a result of 3.3 million and a percentage share of 13.2%.
4. Japan - nearly one million domains and 3.82% market share,
5. Singapore - nearly 600 thousand domains and 2.3% market share.

Do new domains make any sense at all?

It is hard to say that new domain extensions are very popular. According to NASK's data, the current number of .pl domains exceeds 2.6 million, so the result of less than 25 million for the whole world can hardly be considered a spectacular success. On the other hand, new domains are still a creature that is still building its popularity, and not everyone is aware of the possibility of using such an extension. Prices may also be a factor influencing the popularity of new domains. Such extensions are offered, among others, by the fast search engine of Az.pl domains. And here we see that the prices are as follows:

• .pl domain - registration price PLN 12.18 gross, renewal price PLN 123 gross;
• .bar domain - registration price 319.80 gross, the same amount for domain renewal;
• .flowers domain - the price of registration and renewal is the same - PLN 713.40;
• .finance domain - the price for the first year of use is PLN 258.3, the same as for the second year.

Of course, some extensions are available for about 100 PLN, but certainly in the case of these domains there is no price argument. No doubt such a domain extension is a good solution for those website owners who simply care about an attractive address, immediately suggesting the type of services provided. The address of a pizza place with the .pizza extension may look good, but it will also be easy to remember for the client.

New domains - worth it or not?

If our name is busy with a national or local domain or we just want to have an attractive address related to our business, then the new domain name can be considered a good idea. However, it is certainly difficult to say that this is a solution for everyone.