ICANN’s new Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) program has been in full swing for over a year now, so it seems an apt time to examine some statistics as to how brands are engaging with new gTLDs, utilizing the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), and which new gTLDs may give .com a run for its money.

gTLD Registration -

While ICANN is expecting more than 1,300 gTLDs to go live in the following years, for the moment only slightly more than 400 are available. Despite the relatively slow roll-out of new top level domains (the characters following the ‘.’ in a domain name), the total number of registrations within these new domains has exceed the one million mark.

To date, the top five strings sitting atop the gTLD registrations list are: .xyz, .club, .guru, .berlin, and .photography. The most popular new string .xyz, which is marketing itself as an alternative to the crowded .com registry, has amassed nearly 525,000 registrations alone...