What are the 5 most common domain extensions?

Ruhi Angel · May 9, 2019

Here are the 5 most regular space name augmentations:

.com — Commercial > Business/eCommerce.
.organization — Organizations > Non-benefits/Forums/Resources.
.net — Network > Internet Provider/Services/Technology.
.co — Colombia Country Code TLD/Company/Corporation.
.us — United States Country Code TLD.

Bob Hawkes · Sep 7, 2019

According to DTs the 5 most registered currently are

.com
.tk
.de
.cn
.net

Now most common might have other meanings than most registered. Like if as in web use tk would be off and .org or other country codes like .uk on.

Bob

Artem LuiN · Sep 8, 2019

Fancy.domains said:
Sorry, I don’t get it? Space name augmentations?

The five most registered extensions (in total) are:

1. .com (+150,000,000 regs)
2. .net (+15,000,000 regs)
3. .de (+14,000,000 regs)
4. .cn (+13,000,000 regs)
5. .tk (+12,000,000 regs)

Afaik this is old stats. A year or 2 ago .ru rose above .de. Russians and germans like their country codes

Prophecy · Sep 17, 2019

Artem LuiN said:
Russians and germans like their country codes

I agree with you. I have had the chance to read various books related to domaining and one such wonderful book is "The Domain Game". When I first read it, I understood as to how .com came into being the preferred TLD and also as to how it had the early mover advantage with the support of the USA government.
Even though .com is a gTLD, it is a fact that it started out like a ccTLD for Americans. Not to forget, USA government still likens .com .org .net to be theirs(wired dot com/2012/03/feds-seize-foreign-sites/)
Even in my country, I grew up watching businesses use dotcoms, but not anymore, they seem to dump .com for ccTLD. Also, these days with the growing debate on data localisation laws, G20 Digital tax rules and added to it fervent patriotism across the globe, businesses are heading towards ccTLDs(it is a safe bet for them). Dotcoms will continue to be the preferred global and American ccTLD, but other ngTLDs will turn out to be nothing more than a fad.
So, common domain extensions are ccTLDs.

branding · Sep 17, 2019

Prophecy said:
I agree with you. I have had the chance to read various books related to domaining and one such wonderful book is "The Domain Game". When I first read it, I understood as to how .com came into being the preferred TLD and also as to how it had the early mover advantage with the support of the USA government.
Even though .com is a gTLD, it is a fact that it started out like a ccTLD for Americans. Not to forget, USA government still likens .com .org .net to be theirs(wired dot com/2012/03/feds-seize-foreign-sites/)
Even in my country, I grew up watching businesses use dotcoms, but not anymore, they seem to dump .com for ccTLD. Also, these days with the growing debate on data localisation laws, G20 Digital tax rules and added to it fervent patriotism across the globe, businesses are heading towards ccTLDs(it is a safe bet for them). Dotcoms will continue to be the preferred global and American ccTLD, but other ngTLDs will turn out to be nothing more than a fad.
So, common domain extensions are ccTLDs.

.com is used a lot in the US instead of their ccTLD but that definitely does not mean .com could be concidered the US ccTLD. In fact .us, the ccTLD, predates .com by a month or so.

So no, .com didn't start out as America's ccTLD, that is factually wrong.

Bob Hawkes · Sep 17, 2019

NameDeck said:
.com is used a lot in the US instead of their ccTLD but that definitely does not mean .com could be concidered the US ccTLD. In fact .us, the ccTLD, predates .com by a month or so.

So no, .com didn't start out as America's ccTLD, that is factually wrong.

I agree that it was never intended as a country code extension (at least as we now interpret them). It was however in 1985 sponsored by the US Government, and a bit later the US department of Commerce in 1997 assumed authority for it and the other generic TLDs (.org was later split off from that control). That is why the US government still, in conjunction with ICANN, approve price caps or not. See the history section here. Currently use-wise it is certainly a global extension, but this authority link to US government, in troubled and splintered political and economic times, could potentially be problematic at some future date.
Bob

branding · Sep 17, 2019

Bob Hawkes said:
this authority link to US government, in troubled and splintered political and economic times, could potentially be problematic at some future date.
Bob

Great addition. Nice little history lesson

seriously, I recommend any domain invested reading up on stuff like this. It will broaden your horizon.

As for what I quoted, I totally agree and feel a real challenge lays ahead to tackle this.

sharastar · Sep 17, 2019

NYJimbo said:
Wrong, it's .ORG

But thanks so much for your very helpful post, none of us knew any of this.

@NYJimbo lol

gtldomainer · Sep 17, 2019

.US is crap, nobody wants them. .tk is mostly spam and hackers.

.de and .cn are more popular. Other top ones are .com, .net and may be, .io, co.uk and then .org.

Prophecy · Sep 17, 2019

NameDeck said:
.com is used a lot in the US instead of their ccTLD but that definitely does not mean .com could be concidered the US ccTLD. In fact .us, the ccTLD, predates .com by a month or so.

So no, .com didn't start out as America's ccTLD, that is factually wrong.

You are mixing two different events - .us ccTLD was implemented in February 1985 and the first dotcom was claimed in March 1985.
But Dotcom was first implemented for use on the Internet in January 1985(VeriSign dot com/en_IN/domain-names/com-domain-names/what-does-com-mean/index.xhtml), and the first non-commercial registered domain name of the world was in as early as December 1984(nordu dot net). Also, it is a fact that many ccTLDs were implemented starting from 1985, but the liberalisation or opening up for commercial registration was only after a decade or two. I never meant that .com was intended to be released as ccTLD for America, but among the seven gTLDs that were released in the 1980s(.com .edu .gov .int .mil .net .org), only three were available without restrictions and dotcom became the chosen among Americans. So, .com gTLD became a sort of a ccTLD for many Americans, that's what I meant.
CMIW..

Trader247 · Sep 18, 2019

Having held them all, including decent new GTLD's, I am personally not touching anything other than .com ever again.

So 5 x .com for me thanks!

namekahuna · Sep 23, 2019

I know a firm that has sold a bunch of .co domains for $xx,xxx each but I can't verify their sales. Personally, I'm only interested in .com domains.

What are the 5 most common domain extensions?

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