The Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries (CENTR) commissioned a study to look at the impact of new gtlds in the sales and the registar- registry relationships.

Introduction: In August of 2014, CENTR commissioned Architelos to conduct a study documenting the new gTLD sales channel and registry-registrar dynamic. The goal of the study was to review the most prevalent beliefs and predictions prior to the launch of new gTLDs and determine what if any had thus far proven to be accurate, and draw lessons learned from each. The agreed approach was to document the top expectations by or concerning the registrar channel for new gTLDs and determine nine (9) months into the program, which were borne out by facts thus far, which had proven to be a myth, and which were simply too early to tell. We labeled the study “Myths & Fact: New gTLDs, Registries & Registrars”. As part of the analysis, we undertook independent research, conducted ten (10) one-on-one interviews with C-Level executives at prominent registrars and new gTLD registries, as well as asked CENTR to conduct a survey of its membership. The following is an initial summary of our findings. We identified six widely held or prominent predictions, none of which has been borne out by facts thus far. Of the six almost all are judged to be a myth, save two, which we deemed too early to call. We note that there are many moving parts and variables in the program and welcome discussion and feedback on the material presented.

The study looked at what were myths and what were facts

1) Brand Registrars will sell a lot of defensive registrations, conclusion myth, the study looked at registrars that deal with brands and would be handling all these protective domain registrations. They also noted the DPML that Donuts instituted.

At the time of our analysis in September 2014, CSC and MarkMonitor each had roughly 10,000 domains registered. It is unclear how many TLDs each covered, but if it was 100 TLDs that is an average of 100 brand registrations per new gTLD, or if 200 TLDs, then an average of 50 registrations per new gTLD. So what happened? The answer is nothing other than what we should have expected if we had looked at past trends. A 2009 study2 showed that among the seven most common legacy gTLDs, less than 200,000 names were registered across all the TLDs — but only three percent were registered by the same entity, or about 6,000. In other words, the vast majority of trademark holders are not registering their trademarks in all the current legacy gTLDs, let alone all the TLDs, so why would they change that approach for new gTLDs? Brands learned long ago that the volume of relevant traffic is the main determinant of whether to purchase names in a TLD or not. Lacking the incentive of capturing traffic or the threat of missing out on it, brands did not register in the volumes or numbers that had been predicted.

To read the other myths and facts of the study click here