Dot Kiwi registry rebuilds brand to reverse years of decline
in plain words
The .kiwi website domain, aimed at New Zealanders, grew fast after launch in 2014 but then lost most of its users. A small team in Christchurch took charge in 2023 and worked to make people trust and recognize the domain again. They used a famous former rugby player in videos and simplified their marketing so people understood what a domain even is.
The .kiwi domain extension launched in 2014 and initially thrived among New Zealand sports organizations, reaching 177,000 domains under management in 2016 after a telemarketing push. That surge did not translate into renewal Paying to extend a domain registration for more time. Full definition of renewal, and registration Obtaining the right to use a domain name for a set period. Full definition of registration fell to around 20,000 by 2019 and nearly 10,000 before a new management team took over.
In 2023, Andy Ellis and Hannah Duder began running .kiwi from Christchurch through Dot Kiwi Ltd. Speaking on a Hello Registry webinar about launching and growing a top-level domain, Duder said being locally based let the small team respond quickly to customers and stay flexible with promotions. Their first priority was simply to stop the decline in registrations.
Duder said early feedback showed many New Zealanders did not understand what .kiwi was, largely because the country-code domain .nz already dominates local usage. To build recognition, the team launched a campaign called Andy’s Kiwi Journey, using Ellis’s profile as a former All Black rugby player to front videos profiling businesses already using .kiwi, including sporting clubs, real estate firms, ceramics makers and a cup company. Those businesses shared the videos themselves, extending the campaign’s reach.
The team also rebuilt the Dot Kiwi website and increased its presence on Meta and registrar A company that registers domain names for customers with the registry. Full definition of registrar platforms. Website traffic rose from about 50 visits a month to roughly 6,000 after the relaunch. Duder said the new site split audiences into three groups: small and medium businesses, larger brands that might add a .kiwi domain alongside an existing .co.nz address, and individuals seeking a personal .kiwi domain.
Duder said many people, including some in the tech sector, did not understand basic domain terminology, so much of the marketing focused on explaining what a domain is before promoting .kiwi itself. A more recent campaign used the slogan “.kiwi. It’s a domain,” built around six personas such as a CEO, a marketer, an IT professional, a mechanic and a startup founder, distributed nationally on social media.
Duder credited marketing and registrar relationships as central to reversing the registry The central database and system of a top-level domain, or loosely the organization that runs it. Full definition of registry’s decline, though the available transcript ends before detailing the registrar-relationship strategy further.