Study finds most .do domains have no working website
in plain words
A researcher looked at more than 41,000 web addresses ending in .do, the code for the Dominican Republic. He found that most of them, around 61%, don’t actually lead to a real website. This hints that many people register these addresses to hold onto them or resell them, not to build a business online.
Wilson Ramírez, an internet researcher writing for CircleID, examined the structure and usage patterns of domain name A readable internet name made of labels separated by dots. Full definition of domain name registered under .do, the country-code top-level domain for the Dominican Republic, which is administered by the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra through nic.do. The ccTLD country code top-level domain A top-level domain for a country or territory, usually two letters long. Full definition of ccTLD supports second-level extensions including .org.do, .edu.do, .gob.do, .com.do and others, and currently counts more than 46,000 registration Obtaining the right to use a domain name for a set period. Full definition of registration, a figure Ramírez says is four times higher than many neighbouring Caribbean ccTLDs.
Using a dataset of 41,140 .do domains sourced from Domain-Monitor, Ramírez applied a structural characterization method, looking at domain length, numerical composition and character entropy to infer strategic intent behind registrations. He reports that 61% of domains in certain scenarios, based on data through 2026, lack a properly configured website, which he presents as a signal of potential domain speculation rather than genuine commercial or institutional use.
The study classifies domains as long if they exceed 15 characters and short if under 4 characters, a threshold Ramírez says was inspired by prior work on domain name statistics. It also analyzes numeric domains, distinguishing functional uses, such as 911.gob.do, from domains like 8888.do, where numerals may reflect speculation, user-experience choices, or cultural symbolism. Ramírez notes that in some cultures, including China, numerals carry semiotic meaning, citing the number 8 as a symbol of wealth, and describes examples such as 2do.do, where the numeral substitutes for a word.
Finally, the study uses character entropy to measure randomness in domain names, contrasting low-entropy examples like aaa.do with high-entropy examples like a long resort-branded domain, as a way to detect automatically generated or simplistic registrations versus brand-reflective ones.