Almost 60% of new gTLDs are parked – is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I find myself somewhat frequently checking nTLDStats.com to follow what’s going on in the world of new gTLDs. One of the recent trends I’ve been keeping an eye on is .TOP overtaking .XYZ as the “most registered” new gTLD and .LOAN is getting closer and closer to overtaking .XYZ to move into the #2 spot.

One of the stats that I haven’t actually looked at in a while is the percentage of new gTLDs that are parked. Well today I looked and the number is 58.89%, and since it’s pretty safe to say that a parked domain name is owned by a Domainer…it’s fair to say that close to 60% of new gTLDs are owned by investors.

My initial thought it…uh that’s not good news, it means that at most, only 40% of registered new gTLDs could be businesses actively branding on them. However let’s be honest, there’s now way that all of the non-parked domains are developed. So how many new gTLDs are actually developed? I think it’s safe to say that a quarter of the names registered by end-users are actually developed and used as a primary domain for their business. Still that number could even be high.

For the sake of argument, let’s say my guess is right and a quarter of the non-parked new gTLDs are being used as a primary domain for a business. That would mean that only 10% of the new gTLDs out there are actively developed and being used as the primary brand for a business.

So I like to play devils advocate with myself, so I thought…well how could this be seen as a good thing? Well with a majority of the registered new gTLDs owned by Domainers that could mean that investors might be able to set the bar for what the new domains are worth. I think we all know that bar is going to be much lower than .COM pricing, and since Domainers actively list names for sale it could get consumers more comfortable with the idea of branding around a new gTLD.

Still, even playing devils advocate I’m disappointed in this number. Now if we really wanted to go deep we’d have to pull .TOP, .XYZ, and .LOAN out of the mix since those all have huge registration numbers that likely do not correspond to demand or typical user behavior. I don’t have time to do the math now, but if you do I’d be interested to know what you come up with.

Okay – but now back to the question I posed in the headline of this post. Close to 60% of the new gTLDs are parked, is that a good or a bad thing? I want to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton