Donuts’ fresh TLD renewal rates range from 55% to 72%

Firm releases updated figures for renewal rates.

Fresh top level domain name firm Donuts has released updated renewal rates for the first 25 top level domain names it launched. Rates range from regarding 55% to 72%, well under the firm’s predicted 80% renewal rate. (The firm now states it expects rates to trend toward 80% later in the year.)

The highest renewal rate belongs to .technology at 71.7%. The lowest is .directory at just 54.7%.

.Guru, which received more first year registrations than any other Donuts domain, has a renewal rate of 57.5%. The firm believes there were “a disproportionate number of speculative buyers” in .guru.

So what does this mean for other top level domain names that are approaching renewal? It’s hard to say with certainty. There are a lot of variables at play here, counting price.

What will happen with .club, which has a sizable number of registration (over 200,000)? Lots of registrations means the marginal quality of the most recent domains are perhaps lower than ones in smaller domains. At the same time, .Club is priced lower than Donuts’ domains.

The best indicator might be usage, as Donuts suggests in its blog post.

One thing is for sure: it’s not easy predicting renewal rates.