.xyz

Status:	Active
Registry Provider:	XYZ.COM & CentralNic
Type:	Generic
Category:	Lifestyle
Priority #:	1458 - XYZ.COM LLC
More information:

.XYZ is an active gTLD that was proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The Registry Operator is XYZ.COM LLC, and the company was the sole applicant for the string.

XYZ.COM's goal with .XYZ is to provide a memorable TLD with broad appeal to individuals and and all types of organizations. .XYZ's back-end registry operations are provided by CentralNic.

History

XYZ.com LLC's application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 19 February 2014.

Founder Daniel Negari originally purchased XYZ.com with the intention of building a complete web experience where businesses and individuals could register domains, build their website and manage online assets. XYZ.com went on to become an ICAAN-accredited registrar that was also approved by Verisign and PIR to sell .com, .net and .org domains. While building the XYZ.com experience, ICANN announced their intent to implement a new generic Top Level Domain program. The company then pivoted to being a registry. .xyz was its first application.

XYZ.COM was the only applicant for .XYZ.

Uses and Goals

.XYZ is intended to be a truly generic gTLD. It is not targeted toward any particular class of registrant and aims to be the default choice for any registrant seeking a memorable and generic gTLD. According to it's application, .XYZ's goals include "[o]ffering a range of highly valued cross-industry domain names," "provid[ing] business owners across multiple verticals a cost-effective means of establishing a viable online presence," "allowing these entities to register names that are appropriate to their business name or service offering," "a reduction in the price spent on obtaining domain names" and "increased competition within the online space."

Marketing

.XYZ is being marketed with the concept of "Generation XYZ" -- an amalgamation of generations X, Y and Z.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"Offering a range of highly valued cross-industry domain names, .xyz (“the TLD”) will provide business owners across multiple verticals a cost-effective means of establishing a viable online presence, allowing these entities to register names that are appropriate to their business name or service offering. The TLD will provide simple, industry all-inclusive, memorable domain names for every business type.

It will serve as a designated name space where these entities can register domain names spanning across virtually all industries, and in a format that is easily recalled, recognizable and located by consumers.

Its use will include but not be limited to websites, emails, online applications, online transactions, social media, directories and any new usages of domain names. The TLD will provide increased consumer choice opening up a wide array of new industry-ranging domain names, a reduction in the price spent on obtaining domain names (circumventing the exorbitant fees charged for valuable domains in the secondary markets of the traditional TLD space), and improved user experience, allowing consumers access to a greater array of business resources and services within each industry.

The TLD will not only benefit business owners by allowing them to obtain the most appropriate domain name possible – which currently poses as a significantly difficult and ⁄ or expensive endeavor in the traditional TLD space where valuable or appropriate names are no longer available – but because the TLD is dedicated to providing the most expansive domain name offerings, it will enable consumers the ability to locate a larger number of relevant businesses in the online space, thereby facilitating enhanced servicing of consumer needs.

The TLD has been designed to be industry non-specific in order to cater to the widest array of domain registrants spanning all industries, thereby increasing the competitive landscape of online businesses. The short, easily recognizable and memorable TLD string will facilitate consumer access to a greater variety of business entities and their service offerings specifically relevant to individual consumer needs. Increased competition within the online space ensures a healthier online ecosystem at large.

In keeping with the spirit of global access, innovation, and competition promoted by the TLD and by the Applicant, Applicant believes that the registration of domains should be open to all parties for legitimate purposes. Due to the nonspecific, open-ended nature of the string, it is expected that parties from every industry will be interested in registering domain names; thus, Applicant does not wish to impose validation criteria as Applicant believes it would only increase cost and restrict innovation – which conflicts with ICANN’s and our goals for the TLD."

Contract Signed

On December 5, 2013 XYZ.COM LLC received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .xyz after passing all the required processes needed to become a Registry Operator for the string.

Delegation and Availability

.xyz was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on 19 February, 2014, completing the successful application for the string.

.xyz entered General Availability on 2 June 2014.

NetSol Promotion

By 4 June 2014, 36,335 .xyz domain names were found registered under the TLD. However, a few industry bloggers noticed that about 27,000 of those domains pointed to nameservers belonging to NetSol, a subsidiary Registrar] of Web.com. It was discovered that NetSol had run a promotion to its customers in which they registered .xyz domains that matched their customer's .com domains for free. Customers had to opt-out in order for the domain registrations not to go through. NetSol did not confirm the marketing promotion.

Top-Level Domain