The new gTLD website naming system has thrown up a number of interesting details about how individuals and businesses are choosing to address their sites. One such factor is which country is registering the most localised domain names (gTLDs).
Currently the most “connected” city appears to be Berlin. So much so that .berlin accounts for over 6% of all new gTLD registrations, the second most popular of all new addresses. Northern city Hamburg also earns a place in the top 100 new gTLDs, helping Germany become the only country with more than one entry in the league table.
The next most popular gTLD is .london – well ahead of the Japanese capital .tokyo which is the only far eastern address space listed. Perhaps most surprising of all is the relatively poor showing for US-based localised domain names: .vegas and .nyc (New York City) occupy places 199 and 200 respectively, a long, long way behind Berlin. The US addresses are even behind the Austrian capital Vienna, or .wien as it is known locally.
These results could indicate a number of things. Perhaps registrants in the US are less interested in localised website addresses. Or maybe US businesses are more focused on the global marketplace, and feel that localised gTLDs could unfairly limit their brand reach. More likely though is that the US-based gTLD addresses have not yet been on sale long enough to catch up with their German counterparts. We will continue to watch these statistics with interest.
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