Geographic new domain applications fell sharply in the 2026 round
in plain words
New internet endings like .london are the names of cities and regions. Far fewer companies applied for city-style endings this time than in the last round. Earlier city endings have not always done well.
Full summary
Far fewer companies applied for geographic new top-level domains in the 2026 round than in the previous round. In 2012, applicant An organization that has applied to ICANN to run a new gTLD. Full definition of applicant sought large city names such as .london, .nyc and .miami. This year, 15 applications were filed for strings that applicants identify as geographic, compared with 66 filed for geographic top-level domains 14 years ago.
The applicants include Aruba PEC S.p.A. for .roma, Beijing Data Group Co., Ltd. for .beijing, Città di Lugano for .lugano, and Regione Campania for .campania. PointQuébec Inc applied for the French-language string for Québec, while tldbox GmbH applied for .salzburg and Meta Registry Holdings LLC applied for .meta.
The source says geographic top-level domains have not been a big success overall. It points to the .nyc auction, which it says has slowly slid since then, and to the Miami extension, which it says never matched the .nyc results. It also says MMX effectively defaulted on its deal with the city of London.
The source notes that .meta will need permission from a Colombian government to obtain the domain, even though the applicant wants to use the name as a dot-brand rather than a geographic domain.
The source also describes applications that do not declare themselves as geographic. XYZ applied for .tex and .chi, and its applications include explanations that do not refer to a place. XYZ also applied for .atl, which the source describes as a replacement string A backup string an applicant can switch to shortly after Reveal Day. Full definition of replacement string. Texas opposes any .texas string, according to the source.
The geographic rules do not cover airport codes and nicknames, and a government could file an objection to such a string. The source cites Amazon’s application for .amazon, which it says led to a long battle. XYZ applied for .van, .central, .bay, .west and .north, which are on the ISO 3166-2 list of country subdivision codes. Endpoint also applied for .central, and other companies applied for .pool, .lot and .mono, which also match ISO codes.