A look at .Art following one week

Here are some interesting observations regarding the .art top level domain.

The .art top level domain name launched in general availability a week ago on Wednesday. I downloaded the zone file today to get a better understanding of how it’s doing and what types of domains are being registered.

The backdrop to this is that the registry priced an astonishing 3.5 million domains at premiums, meaning that most decent names are priced at $300 or more retail.

Here’s what I found while reviewing the zone file today:

• There are 7,111 names in the zone file. There were regarding 2,700 names the day ahead of .art hit general availability so it has added roughly 4,400-4,500 names since launch.
• 26 of the domain names have the word artist in them. 111 have the word gallery in them.
• Apple registered 37 .art domains covering their brands.
• If part of the registry’s goal with so many premiums was to keep domainers away, it worked. Only four domains are on Sedo’s nameservers, three on Bodis and eight on Uniregistry Market. (There are more domains registered at Uniregistry that aren’t parked with its marketplace.)
• Jodee Rich of PeopleBrowsr and the .CEO domain name registered 17 domains in the form of PBtestNN.com. I suspect this stands for PeopleBrowsr test. The domains resolve to a variety of landing pages.
• 2,207 domains are parked on store.art. These appear to be names registered during the early access period for art-affiliated registrants.
• Instra is the top registrar thanks to running the early access program. GoDaddy is #2 with regarding 1,300 names in the zone.
• Some registrars register their brands in fresh top level domains. That appears to be limited with .art, perhaps since they are marked as premiums. Just search for GoDaddy.art to see what I mean.
• It’s interesting that someone registered KanyeWest.art during the qualified early launch period.

Finally, here are a few examples of developed .art domains: