As we’re nearing the end of summer, it’s hard to believe that .xyz’s June 2nd launch was over 2 months ago. We are incredibly focused on the user experience @ .xyz as 2014 is The Year of the Registrant. I get excited when I continue to see end users come online, businesses individuals alike from around the world – innovating on .xyz domain names.

In my previous blog post “How to Define Success” I explored a new way of determining the success of a domain extension by looking beyond raw registration numbers. Although it has been about 9 months since the launch of the first new gTLD, the misnomer of looking at registration numbers alone still exists.

Registrations are only one piece of the puzzle and although it is an important metric – it is not the only metric. Utilization and adoption is key.

Let’s look at utilization on a few levels:

1. Registration numbers
2. Active website statistics
3. Quality of these active websites

1. Registration numbers
.xyz has received the most registrations of all new gTLDs with 447,544 domains registered.

2. Active website statistics
According to nTLDStats – which has a new ‘Parked’ Domain feature (for the record, I disagree with their methodology) – .xyz also has the highest number of active websites.

Top 4 New gTLDs by number of active websites
1. .xyz = 23,254 Active  (447,544 Domains – 424,290 Parked Domains)
2. .club = 19,904 Active (97,482 Domains – 77,578 Parked Domains)
3. .berlin = 18,740 Active (137,882 Domains – 119,142 Parked Domains)
4. .guru = 16,179 Active (68,698 Domains – 52,519 Parked Domains)

(Source: ntldstats.com; retrieved 8/20/2014. The active number of websites is derived from removing the number of parked sites from the overall registration numbers for each gTLD.)

Among all the new domain extensions, .xyz has the most registrations and the most active number of websites This information is useful, however, only provides a snapshot of a domain extension’s success.

Keep in mind .xyz launched on June 2nd, which is later than the others in this analysis.

3. Quality of active websites
To dig deeper and look beyond the raw numbers, I examined individual websites to consider the quality of these active sites. That is what these domain statistics do not offer: an in-depth view of the content, design, and execution of websites to assess new gTLD usage.

I discovered that not only do these sites span across types of uses, but also industry, language, demographics, and location.

.xyz is For Every Website, Everywhere™

.xyz utilization is global

Japan/US – www.newnewyork.xyz
newnewyork.xyz

Japan – www.ishibe-dance.xyz
ishibe-dance.xyz

UK –  www.futureproof.xyz
futureproof.xyz

Netherlands – www.ishe.xyz
ishe.xyz

Taiwan – www.iwaishin.xyz
iwaishin.xyz

My team is closely following and documenting how end users are utilizing their websites. We’ve found everything from personal blogs, online tools, University research sites, to news and informational sources. While writing this post, I also received news of an upcoming iPhone App called FlyStay (www.flystay.xyz), which chose to join Generation XYZ.

As demonstrated by the wide range of applications, .xyz indeed is a platform for users to express themselves. With the freedom to create sites on a domain name of their choice, with a truly global .xyz domain extension, end users are no longer limited by the label or accessibility barriers prior to .xyz’s launch.

To celebrate the broad spectrum of sites, the .xyz blog began highlighting outstanding .xyz websites.

Discovering unexpected uses
To continue even further with end users, I was pleasantly surprised that .xyz domain usage goes beyond websites. In addition to personalized emails, we found users leveraging their own .xyz domain names as attractive URL shorteners rather than relying on services such as Bitly or TinyURL. .xyz domains as shortened URLs receive more click-throughs in social media due to their inviting appearance.

 NASCAR star, Kyle Busch
kyle2

Keep in mind, well developed websites require a considerable time and resource commitment by an individual or team. Despite this, within 3 months of launching, internet users worldwide have welcomed .xyz as seen by my analysis.

As the operator behind a domain extension – to be able to provide a platform that gives users the freedom to innovate – witnessing wide .xyz adoption is how I measure success. As we continue to see registrations grow and welcome more innovative .xyz websites, our industry as a whole (and beyond) will have access to more data and experience on how to assess the success of domain extensions.

I am incredibly proud of my team and my registrars / resellers promoting the next generation of the internet with .xyz!

Welcome to Generation XYZ.

Daniel Negari
CEO.XYZ