What’s really behind .xyz, domain names that want to be the .com of the future and succeed among scammers and web3?

In 2011, ICANN, the organization that manages Internet domain extensions, began a process to initiate new gTLDs, which are generic topdomain extensions. The .com, .org and .net already known in practice would have new partners.

11 years after the start of that process, we are used to seeing domain names that end with endings like .pro, .info or .online today. Its weight is still insignificant compared to raid .com, but among these new domains has emerged one that, in principle, is not among the most popular in the pools. we talk about Domains ending in .xyzCurrently used by more than 4.8 million websites worldwide, from those under the umbrella of big tech companies to those that have not passed any anti-spam filters.

Born with no ambition but a “becoming the new .com” profession, .xyz domains gain a seat on the board, Daniel Negari, CEO of the company of the same name behind them, told Xataka. Terminations based on three leverage: the trust of some big companies, a subsequent derivative for the crypto world, and aggressive promotions that make them one of the most used terminations, sometimes for criminal purposes.

An explosion directly associated with a company

Before founding his .xyz management company, Negari made a fortune by buying and selling domain names precisely in a very early Internet era and investing his income in real estate. Negari, who studied business administration at the University of Southern California, says he always had the idea to initiate his own domain name termination, and he got to work when ICANN initiated the process.

ICANN has opened up the process several times over the past two decades to find and launch new domain extensions. The agency itself explains that the ultimate goal is to reduce competition and price increase, which could mean that the entire internet continues to rely on original endings, thus “facilitating competition between registrars, paving the way for greater consumer choice.” .

Any public or private legal entity that offers sufficient assurance that it can then properly operate these terminations can apply to these programs. Almost no limitations about what endings to request, other than those that are already in operation, restricted by geographic location (from our .es to Tuvalu’s .tv), or endings that try to forge a registered trademark (we won’t see a .cocacola for now, at least). .

A group of experts then reviews the proposals and approves or rejects the applications regardless of the maximum or minimum number. That’s why hundreds of finishes have been created to date with the hassle of standing out from so many offers. We went to someone in the industry to explain the decision-making process regarding the management of domain name terminations. Xavi Idevik is the marketing director for DonDominio, a Spanish domain name registrar.

“From the outside, the process of creating and managing a domain extension may seem complicated, but it is not. Initially, any legal entity can propose to ICANN the existence of a new domain extension, and then ICANN evaluates it and passes through different filters. The process that results in the approval of the .xyz file it was as follows: most comprehensive to dateWith over 500 newly approved domains,” he explains.

Negari recalls that when he started the procedures, “people all over the world needed more options and made an effort to create websites with simple and easy-to-find addresses, but it was very difficult for them.” to a large number of .com domains already registered.

So what does “xyz” mean?: “We ended the alphabet with ‘xyz’ and I thought we should end domains the same way. We also saw it as a link to the next generation X,Y and Z. The new termination that will bring digital natives together” explains the CEO of XYZ and then took advantage of the success of this dissolution to buy more. Currently managing total from 23 domain extensions These include: .college, .rent, .monster, .baby, .security, .protection, .thheatre, .cars, .car, .auto, .beauty, .homes, .boats or .tickets.

Today, .xyz is the most successful new domain extension after these 8 years, eighth overall in the rankings, including country extensions, and fourth among new and old generic domains; just behind the podium, still very prominent, all made up of .com, .net and .org according to Namestat data.

Confirmation of Google, Jack Dorsey and the crypto world

Some of this growth is based on bets from big tech companies. In 2015, after the search engine company changed its parent company’s name from Google to Alphabet, it put this domain extension on the map by hosting one of its corporate websites at abc.xyz.

Others, like Starship.xyz, the delivery service’s website, would come later. autonomous robots From the beginning created by the founders of Skype; or more recently, Square Inc. to bring together all of Jack Dorsey’s ventures at the intersection between online payments and the crypto world after he left Twitter. and the decision to rebrand Square Crypto as Block.xyz and Spiral.xyz. On another level, but still within the same ecosystem, Kevin Rose, a well-known investor, started his podcast focused on the NFT market on Proof.xyz.

All extensions managed by XYZ

In Spain, its presence and acceptance is currently lower, despite being one of the fastest growing domains by percentage compared to previous years, according to data provided by MrDomain on registrations on its platform. “We currently have about 300 .xyz domains registered, and that’s a very low number compared to 200,000 for .com, but they’ve been growing at a rate of 150% per year since 2018,” Idevik says.

The XYZ CEO is taking advantage of a growing ball in his favor with regard to the crypto world and its markedly growing ties to Web3: “.xyz domains were designed for any website anywhere, a true generic ending. no special meaning to the right of the point. The brand or domain name to the left of the dot makes full sense. However, that doesn’t mean that .xyz doesn’t make sense to use in the world of cryptocurrencies, blockchain, metaverse and web3 as it is completely generic and can be used for anything. We are delighted that it has become synonymous with everything.”

In this way and by seeing the demand, they did it to get even closer to the crypto world. .xyz was a pilot domain for Ethereum Name Service (ENS) integration and released Eth.xyz, an abbreviation that helps convert ENS hosted profiles into shareable URLs for any browser. The result is a website that displays users’ addresses. wallets cryptocurrency and NFT collections are more accessible. Paris Hilton, for example, is wearing it.

The dark side: pscammers and lawsuits

But part of .xyz’s success is based on another pillar: highly aggressive promotions, often used as fodder for scammers and other types of online scams.

“After so many new domain extensions were launched in 2014, there were a few questions in the air: How would they get noticed? Which would stand out? Many launched aggressive promotions, especially .xyz, to start gaining market share,” says Idevik.

This has led some registrars to end up with .xyz when you buy a .com, for example. But it also led to the deliberate purchase of random .xyz domains to be used as support for scams. Some of these promotions were particularly popular. For example, in 2017, class 1.111B was launched with .xyz domains. price of $0.99 per year and renewed at the same amount.

There was little in them that could be used other than for technical testing or nefarious purposes. They were numeric combinations of 6, 7, 8 and 9 digits from 000000.xyz to 999999999.xyz.

Negari, CEO of XYZ, advocates this action as a marketing resource to put himself on the map in such a competitive industry today, again calling it his “company mission”: to make an Internet space accessible to all” and “although these are” low prices They have a team that says, “It also poses a risk.” abuse prevention “removes questionable domain decisions meticulously and quickly.”

Idevik argues that such a price eventually leads to some of these areas being used for attempted criminal activity. Their company is from MrDomain, but today they say both they and other registrars have mechanisms and filters to prevent questionable purchases.

This was not the only controversy surrounding the .xyz file. Negari and his company’s tremendous vocation of making their denunciation the heir to an increasingly saturated .com led to the dev .com or .net registrar, Verisign, suing them in 2015.

This case was perhaps the first major indication that Verisign was concerned about the impact of new TLDs on the hegemonic .coms, and was also an additional display tool for .xyzs. Argument of XYZ and Negari discredited the termination Inflated the company’s success through domain and marketing campaigns. The courts dismissed the case and settled with XYZ, which received compensation for litigation costs in 2018.

It’s clear that .xyz or any other domain name still has a long way to go before it becomes a realistic alternative to .com and the fame they’ve captured in the Internet imagination. For now, however, .xyz remains by far the most recorded new gTLD, with an average of 10,000 new registrations per day.