The Lowdown

Welcome to the 
The Lowdown from 
DN Journal - your source for notable news and information from all corners of the global domain name industry! 

The Lowdown is compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher 
Ron Jackson.

Public Interest Registry Wants Nominations for 7th Annual .ORG Impact Awards - $180,000 in Prize Money To Be Distributed With $50,000 Going to .ORG of the Year

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the nonprofit stewards of the .ORG domain has issued a call for nominations for their 7th annual .ORG Impact Awards. The awards program was created to recognize outstanding mission-driven individuals and organizations from the global .ORG Community for their positive contributions to society. The winners from seven categories will split a prize pool totaling $180,000 with $50,000 of that going to the grand prize winner that will be named the .ORG of the Year.

Over the past six years, the .ORG Impact Awards have recognized 226 outstanding .ORGs from over 87 countries. Through the Awards, Public Interest Registry has donated $685,000 for transformative work taking place around the world. 

As in past years,  any person or organization with a .ORG domain is welcome to apply for the 2025 awards free of charge.  Just be sure you get your application/nomination in before the deadline - June 4, 2025. Organizations may apply for multiple categories of awards if more than one category is a good fit. The entries will be evaluated by a judging panel of leaders in the Internet, nonprofit, and marketing sectors.  

Categories for the 2025 awards include:

• Health and Healing

• Quality Education for All

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• Environmental Stewardship

• Hunger and Poverty

• Community Building

• Rising Star (For the first time ever, PIR has increased the age limit for the “Rising Star” category from 25 to under 30, offering even more young changemakers making a difference in the world the chance to apply).

35 finalists (five from each category) will be invited on a sponsored trip to Washington, D.C. with opportunities to meet with nonprofit leaders, culminating in the final award ceremony with a surprise celebrity host on October 7, 2025. Winners will be announced at the award ceremony, honoring their work to make the world a better place. Additional event details will be released in the coming months. 

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How to Get Your Own Top Level Domain - New Book from Joe Alagna & Andrey Insarov Will Help You Prepare For the Next Round of New TLDs

Earlier today I posted an article about the .ART registry celebrating their 8th anniversary this week. They are one of the more successful new top level domains to come out of ICANN's first wave of new gTLDs that brought hundreds of new extensions to the Internet. Now ICANN is preparing to launch the second wave of new gTLDs in 2026 and a lot of people will be vying to own a top level domain of their own. As attractive as that prospect appears on the surface, creating a successful new TLD is a lot more difficult than most people might imagine.

In the article about .ART we focused on what the founders did after winning their  TLD to attract hundreds of thousands of loyal supporters. Thanks to a new book, How to Get Your Own Top Level Domain, that has just been released by industry veterans Joe Alagna and Andrey Insarov, you can learn what has to be done before you can take the reins of your own new domain registry.

Joe Alagna (CSO, it.com Domains) and Andrey Insarov (Founder & CEO, it.com Domains)

There are few people in the industry that have more experience in acquiring new top level domains than Joe Alagna. He spent almost 13 years immersed in the process of helping new domains come into existence during the first wave of new TLDs.  Almost 2,000 applications were received during that "gold rush" and Joe worked on about 60 of the applications that were successful. With a massive second round of new gTLDs on the horizon, Joe decided it was time to share what he learned from his experiences on the new TLD battlefield. 

That war zone is a busy one because the potential payoff is tantalizing. Joe explained, "A top-level domain like .realty or .art isn’t just a string. It’s a platform – a naming ecosystem that can host millions of second-level domains beneath it, each potentially worth hundreds, thousands, or sometimes millions of dollars individually. The operator controls pricing, policy, partnerships, and access. Operators of TLDs like .xyz, .io, and .ai have built multi-million-dollar enterprises by monetizing naming rights across niches. Verisign, which operates .com and .net, has become a $20+ billion company doing exactly this."

Joe's co-author, Intis Telecom Founder Andrey Insarov, is already running his own domain registry at it.com Domains. It is  the latest enterprise in what has been an extraordinarily successful entrepreneurial career that we detailed in a July 2022 Cover Story about Andrey. He gives the new book a first hand account of running a new domain registry, along with world class business advice that you can apply to any enterprise. If you are giving any thought at all to applying for a new gTLD next year, getting a copy of How to Get Your Own Top Level Domain would be a great place to start.

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The .ART Registry is Celebrating Its 8th Anniversary and Expanding Its Reach With a Comprehensive Commercially Released Artist Handbook 

The .ART Registry is celebrating its 8th anniversary this week. Since launching May 10, 2017 .ART has become a digital home to nearly 300,000 creatives in over 170 countries. They have gotten there by constant community building efforts both online and off. Those have included q popular webinar series featuring art and tech leaders, its Open Call offerings, and continued backing of the Healing Power of Art Initiative, including a $1 million endowment for fellowships in Art Therapy graduate studies at The George Washington University.

For this year's anniversary the registry is putting its brand into more hands offline with the commercial release of the comprehensive new Artist Handbook by .ART. The softcover book ($19.95 at Amazon) was developed with input from artists, curators, and professionals working at the intersection of art, law, tech, and funding. The publication was put together by .ART Founder Ulvi Kasimov, Editors Jeff Sass and Anastasia Sukhanov, Illustrator Medina Kasimova and six contributors.

In its 15 chapters, the Artist Handbook covers everything from developing your visual identity to licensing, contracts, grant writing, and building your presence online and in Web3. Contributors include Anna Fischer, a legal advisor specializing in intellectual property and blockchain; Lara Monro, a funding consultant who helps artists secure grants and navigate access support; and Arthur Steiner, a cultural strategist focused on funding innovation in the arts, and many others. 

The artworks featured in the handbook were selected through an Open Call at HUG.art, making this a truly collaborative publication based on the experiences and aesthetics of artists from the global .ART community. Founder Ulvi Kasimov said, “As we mark eight years of serving the global creative community, we wanted to offer something lasting and practical. This handbook reflects our belief that artists need more than inspiration—they need access, support, and tools to thrive.”

Recent highlights from the .ART community include teamLab’s record-breaking immersive exhibition in Abu Dhabi, Sharon Stone’s upcoming solo show in Rome and the launch of the Mediterranean-focused VIMA Art Fair. These are just a few examples of .ART’s efforts to empower artists, institutions, and forward-thinking brands so they can gain visibility and connect with audiences worldwide. 

ICANN is expected to open another of new TLDs next year. Hundreds of new TLDs were added to the Internet in the last wave but only a small percentage of those have thrived - those being, in almost every case, the ones that have heavily invested in time, money and resources to build a loyal following. With the next wave of new TLDs schedule to begin rolling out next year, .ART is one that serves as a reminder to potential operators that making a registry successful requires a lot more than the initial acquisition cost of a TLD. 

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Media.Options.com CEO Andrew Rosener Racks Up 7th Straight #1 Finish on Escrow.com's Annual Master of Domains Honor Roll

For the past nine years, Escrow.com has been shining a light on many of the top domain brokers in the industry through their annual Master of Domains Awards program. The honors go to the top ten brokers, based on total dollar value of transactions closed on the Escrow.com platform. When the 2025 winners were announced today, MediaOptions.com CEO Andrew Rosener broke his own record by collecting a 7th consecutive #1 MOD Award. Just making the list is an honor and that is something Andrew has done in every year of the program's existence. 

Here is the complete 2025 Top Ten: 

1. Andrew Rosener - Media Options 
2. Keith Richter - Lumis Group 
3. Jason Miner - Name Advisor 
4. Brent Oxley 
5. Ryan McKegney - DomainAgents 
6. Steve Miholovich - Name Arena 
7. Jeffrey Gabriel - Saw.com 
8. James Booth - DomainBooth.com 
9. Brian Harbin - Grit Brokerage 
10. Mark Daniel - Domain Holdings Group

In the past the MOD winners have been revealed at the annual NamesCon conference (the photo of Andrew at right is from the June 2024 NamesCon event in Austin where he picked up his 6th #1 plaque). However, this year NameCon shifted its usual summer dates to November when it will be held in Miami. As a result the 2025 honor roll was released online today instead.

MediaOptions CEO Andrew Rosener

Escrow.com CEO Matt Barrie said, “We’re thrilled to present the ninth edition of our Master of Domains award. Congratulations to Andrew Rosener for his continued dominance as our 2025 Master of Domains. We also commend Keith Richter and our new entrant in 2025, Jason Minor, for their remarkable achievements. All winners should be proud of their 2024 transactions, delivering tremendous value for your clients and continuing to be consistent forces in the industry.”

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ICA Announces New Venue, Dates and Expanded Schedule for 2026 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas

The Internet Commerce Association (ICA), the non-profit organization that fights to protect domain registrant's rights, has announced some major changes for their next Annual Member's Meeting in Las Vegas. Those include a new venue for the 2026 event and the addition of a third day to the rapidly growing conference's schedule. After running at the huge Resorts World complex for the past three years, the meeting is moving to another popular location on the Las Vegas Strip - the Park MGM - for an

event that will run January 15-17, 2026. Those dates come immediately after Affiliate Summit West which will make them especially convenient for the many members who attend both.

The Park MGM location comes with several advantages including rooms (both at the Park MGM and at an upscale option, NoMad Hotels) that are much closer to the conference spaces - just a short elevator ride down (the NoMad suites occupy the top four floors of the building and have a separate lobby).  For those who don't smoke another huge plus is the fact the Park MGM is the only hotel on the entire strip with a No Smoking policy, including the casino. The Park MGM, formerly known as the Monte Carlo, has 3,000 newly renovated rooms and a variety of popular dining options onsite and next door (the Park is connected to Aria by a walkway and also has a  tram connection to the Bellagio).

The Park MGM sits in the middle of all of the action on the Las Vegas Strip.

Registration will be opening soon with early bird pricing, so keep an eye out for that. The main thing the ICA wanted to do now was get the dates and other major change information out there so you can save the dates. If you haven't been to an ICA meeting you are missing out on what has become one of the most informative, entertaining and productive events on the global conference calendar. You can get a good idea of what the experience entails from our review of this year's conference held this past January. You do need to be an ICA member to attend, and if you are a professional in this industry, you definitely should consider joining!

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Free May 8 Webinar Featuring InterNetX and Sedo Experts Will Take You on a Deep Dive Into Today's Global Domain Industry

A few weeks ago we told you about the release of the 2025 Global Domain Report from  InterNetX and Sedo The two industry leaders have been publishing this extraordinarily comprehensive report annually since 2020 and it has been providing invaluable insight into the worldwide domain business ever since.

Now, they're taking this outstanding resource up another level with a free webinar that will feature two of the key experts behind the report - InterNetX's Simone Catania and Sedo's Semra Koerner. The webinar, hosted by eco - the Association of the Internet Industry, will be presented Thursday, May 8, starting at 11am US Eastern Daylight time (15:00 PM UTC / 17:00 PM CEST). Anyone who wants to attend can register here.

In addition to giving you a first hand account of findings from the Global Domain Report, the webinar, presented in English, will cover these topics:

Simone Catania (left) and Semra Koerner will host the
 Global Domain Report Webinar Thursday, May 8.

• A comprehensive domain industry status quo

• Key insights from the primary and aftermarkets

• Popular TLDs, SLDs, and keyword trends

• A closer look at AI trends, domain security, Web3 domains, NIS2 and new gTLD program

• Essential sales data from the aftermarket

In order to put this year's Global Domain Report together, InterNetX and Sedo interviewed experts from around the world to gather the most up-to-date and most relevant insight, so you can expect this hour to be some of the most informative time you'll spend this year.

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2025 Nordic Domain Days Delighted Attendees from Around the World With 10th Anniversary Event in Stockholm

The 2025 Nordic Domain Days conference concluded its three-day run this evening at The Clarion in Stockholm, Sweden. This was the 10th anniversary edition of the popular event that LG Forsberg created back in 2015 to focus on the domain industry in the Nordic geographical and cultural region that encompasses Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. As has happened with several other major regional conferences, Nordic Domain Days (NDD) has attracted attendees from around the world who are interested in doing business or investing in rapidly growing markets. 

As events like NDD sprang up, global domain entrepreneurs and investors quickly learned that every region offers unique opportunities. With their face-to-face, socially centered formats, the conferences make it possible to quickly form multiple new connections and partnerships that benefit from the fresh perspectives that come from cross-cultural interaction.

 April 27-29, 2025 

Here's just one example of that. In the photo below, NDD Founder LG Forsberg is at center with two attendees that came from different continents to get there. At left is DN.com Founder Jack Dai who traveled from China and on his right is UK native Mark Ghoriafi (Sedo's Mr. Premium) who is now based in the U.S. and flew in from Florida.

In another example below, two of the first people to hit town for Nordic Domain Days were Australia's David Warmuz (left) and Nathan Parker. As most of you know, David is the Founder of Trillion.com and their many well-known brands, including Above.com. Nathan is the General Manager of Above's Marketplace and Brokerage.

Above, the first order of business at Nordic Domain Days is bringing people together right off the bat so they can start getting to know each other or re-connecting before the two full business days that followed. So opening day, Sunday April 27, was devoted completely to welcoming drinks at 5pm, followed by a VIP Dinner at the Clarion. (Photo from Sedo).

Business got underway on day 2, Monday morning, April 28 with nine illuminating business sessions spread across the day. In one of those, above, Gabriella Schittek, ICANN Stakeholder Engagement Director Nordic & Central Europe, presented an overview of the topics that ICANN currently is focusing on, including the next round of new gTLDs, DNS Abuse and Internet Governance matters. (Photo credit: Martin Steinkamp)

Below: The final business session Monday featured the well-known trio from The Breakfast Club podcast, Alan Shiflett (GoDaddy), Braden Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing.com) and Giuseppe Graziano (GGRG.com). They shared their proven strategies for building and managing a successful domain name portfolio, along with insights into the latest industry trends. (Photo credit: Jack Dai)

Another opening day highlight Monday was a presentation titled Where Web2 Meets Web3 from Freename.io CEO & Founder Davide Vicente (above). Davide detailed how traditional domain systems are converging with blockchain technology, creating new possibilities for domain resolution and trading across both ecosystems. 

Below: Both business days included a traditional Swedish Fika - a coffee break featuring hot drinks and a smorgasbord of sweet delights. Taking some of that time to catch up are (left to right), Brady Anthony-Brumfield (Unstoppable.com), James Iles (GoDaddy) and Jack Dai (DN.com).

Attendees also enjoyed a 10th Anniversary Nordic Domain Days Dinner and entertainment Monday night. The next morning it was time for another full day of business, Tuesday, April 29, with Policy & Tech matters being the focus of the day - one that was hosted throughout by Lars Steffen (ECO). 

The second day was even busier than the first with more than a dozen sessions presented (you can see the full list of all NDD sessions from both days, including the speakers, here). One major topic was How to implement NIS2 in the domain industry. Above, Thomas Rickert (ECO, topDNS) provided a deep dive into The Network and Information Security (NIS2) Directive that brings significant cybersecurity obligations to the domain name industry. 

Below, after Thomas's session, Hilde Thunem, the Marketeing Director for Norid (the administrator of Norway's .no ccTLD) presented further insight into NIS2 from her country's perspective. Hilde discussed how a ccTLD registry may approach registration data verification and handling requests for access to customer data, while not putting an undue burden on the legitimate registrants of the TLD. (Photos above and below courtesy of Lars Steffen).

After the final session Tuesday, some attendees headed straight to the airport to catch flights to their scattered home around the world but others decided to stay over for the Farewell Dinner and take advantage of the opportunity to spend another day in the Scandinavian paradise that is Stockholm before saying goodbye. 

For NDD Founder LG Forsberg, being able to celebrate his 10th anniversary event with people who came  from around the world to help him do it, was a testament to how well he has turned his vision for the Nordic region into a lasting and treasured reality that will continue to be a highlight on the global industry calendar for years to come.

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The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - GoDaddy Survey Reveals What Various Generations Like and Don't Like About Domains

I just had a chance to look through a recently released GoDaddy Consumer Pulse Survey that provided some interesting insight into what customers of the world's biggest registrar look for when they start searching for a name. It can be a daunting process when you consider the endless options. There are over 1,500 TLDs on the web to choose from at prices that can vary wildly from one extension to another. They also have to decide whether to go with a relatively inexpensive new registration or dig a little deeper for an aftermarket domain that ticks every box for them. 

While domain investing pros often think that the general public has a minimal grasp of

what makes one domain better than another - the survey suggests otherwise. The vast majority (80% of the 1,500 consumers polled in March) put a high priority on getting a short, properly spelled name - a must for making sure their web address provides an easy, memorable route to their website. 

That group was already in the habit of practicing what they preached, noting that they personally avoided visiting or purchasing from a website because it had an oddly spelled domain name. This sentiment was strongest across younger generations, with 85% of Gen Z and 82% of Millennials reporting they passed up a business due to the spelling of its domain, compared to 76% of Gen X and Boomers who reported doing so. A huge majority (74%) also also put a high premium in the domain being an exact match for for the company's brand name.

Qualities consumers said make a domain memorable (ranked in order by how many picked the attribute):

• Full words spelled correctly – 43%

• A short domain of two words or less – 40%

• If the domain is easily pronounced – 38%

• Unique domain extensions (like .AI or .shop) – 23%

• A funny domain (rhyming or punny) – 19%

Qualities consumers said make them NOT trust a domain:

• Misspelled words – 56%

• The domain doesn't match the business's name – 55%

• Hyphens in the domain name – 20%

• Numbers in the domain name – 20%

• Free domains (like sites.google.com, name.wixsites.com, godaddysites.com, etc.) – 20%

Younger generations tend to be more open to new TLDs than those of us from previous generations. Only 17% of respondents from the Gen X and Boomers categories found an alternate extension (like .AI or .shop) to be memorable but 34% of Gen Z said they were and 30% of Millenials agreed. Of course, it could also be that their memories are a lot better than ours are now! :-)

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Global Domain Registrations Passed the 368 Million Mark at the End of 1Q-2025 - New Verisign Brief Breaks Down What Went Up and What Went Down

VeriSign, (the administrator of the .com and .net TLDs) has released their latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) covering the 1st quarter of 2025. This update showed that the total number of domain registrations across all TLDs worldwide ended the most recent quarter at 368.4 million. That is up 6.1 million registrations year over year representing a 1.7% increase.  

.Com remains, by far, the dominant TLD on the Internet but .com's total number of registrations continued a trend of slipping in year over year comparisons. With 157.2 million domains at the end of 1Q-2024, .com was down about 2.2 million from the same point last year - a 1.4% decline. .Net has ebbed as well. .Net was down by 500,000 domains YOY to 12.6 million at the end of 1Q-2025, a 3.9% decrease.

ccTLDs finished 1Q-2025 with 142.9 million registrations, 3.4 million more than a year ago, representing a 2.4% increase YOY. New gTLDs enjoyed the largest jump but, being newer, they are working from a much smaller user base than the .coms and ccTLDs. Still, by adding 4.5 million domains, the new Gs reached 37.8 million domains at the end of 1Q-2025, giving them a solid 13.5% increase year over year. 

For legacy gTLDs not including .com and .net (a group that includes older TLDs that were released prior to the beginning of ICANN's new gTLD program in 2012), registrations stood at 17.9 million at the end of the latest quarter. .Org alone accounted for 11.1 million of those - representing over 60% of the category. As a group, this sub-set of legacy TLDs gained about 850,000 domains year over year - a 5% increase.

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Icon.com Sold for $12 Million in 6th Largest Publicly Reported Domain Sale of All Time

In a post on LinkedIn today Icon CEO Kennan Davison revealed that his company paid $12 million to acquire the exact match domain for their artificial intelligence based startup. The sale was made by Andrew Miller (ATM Holdings and Managing Director for Hilco Digital Assets) with Lumis.com representing the buyer. This is the 6th highest publicly reported domain sale since we began tracking the market in 2003 and just the latest of many landmark sales that Miller has helped orchestrate (details of which are in a DNJournal Cover Story profile of Andrew that we published in April of last year).

Acquiring this premier asset was a bold and decisive move by Davison who, based on his post, clearly believes in the go big or go home philosophy. Kennan stated, "I know I’m not supposed to say this publicly, but I want to

Image from Bigstock

make Icon the greatest company of all time. I want to deliver insane value to our customers. I want to create generational wealth for my team and investors. I want to break the $0 to $100M ARR world record!"

We will be charting the Icon.com sale and adding it to our YTD Top 100 Sales Chart when our next bi-weekly report comes out Wednesday evening, April 30. The eight-figure blockbuster is more than five times higher than the top 2025 sale prior to Icon.com.

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It's World Art Day! .ART Celebrated By Announcing Fellowship Winners and the Opening of Applications for Their Annual Innovation Award

The domain industry is filled with creative people - singers, musicians, writers, poets and artists of all kinds. We even have our own all-encompassing TLD in .Art , making April 15 - World Art Day - an occasion to celebrate (it's also Tax Day in the U.S. but, unless they are getting a refund, that's one most people aren't as happy about)! April 15, a date selected because it is also Leonardo Da Vinci's birthday, was designated World Art Day by the International Association of Art (an official UNESCO partner) in 2012. It has been growing in popularity ever since with celebrations in major cities around the world.

As you would expect, the .ART domain registry goes all in on World Art Day, as do many registrars who are running sales on .ART domains today (that makes this a good time for artists and creatives to get their .ART identity). The registry itself used the occasion to announce the recipients of the 2024 and 2025 Kasimov Art Therapy Fellowship - an award established to support the next generation of art therapists through financial and community-based support. 

The Annual Fellowship Award is part of .ART’s ongoing “Healing Power of Art Initiative," which celebrates art as a vital form of expression, healing, and connection. The Fellowship is endowed through a $1 million gift from .ART Founder & CEO Ulvi Kasimov and his wife, Ulvi, to The George Washington University’s renowned Art Therapy Program and is also supported by the sales of .ART domains. The Fellowship reduces the financial burden on students pursuing careers at the intersection of art and mental health - fields that demand rigorous study and extensive internships, yet often lead to lower-paying roles in the nonprofit and public sectors.

The 2025 .ART Kasimov Awardees are:

Christian De Jesus – a Puerto Rican student art therapist whose work integrates creative expression and advocacy to promote healing.

Karina Monroy – a California-born mixed media artist and student art therapist whose work honors feminine ancestry and explores collective healing through creativity and cultural connection. 

The 2024 Kasimov Awardees are: 

Bethany Eddleman – an artist, art therapist, and educator from North Carolina-committed to advocacy and inclusive, community-centered care for children, adolescents, families, and diverse populations. 

Chengjiaoyang Xue – an art therapist from China devoted to advancing mental health awareness and art therapy accessibility across cultures.

As part of the celebration, .ART will host a live webinar on April 17, 2025, inviting the public to explore how art is being used as a tool for healing across borders, cultures, and disciplines. 

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.AM Climbs Aboard the Domain Mirroring Bandwagon Through New GlobalR and ArmeniaDomains Partnership With WebUnited

We recently profiled WebUnited as part of a series of stories we are doing on companies that are working (often in very different ways) to make legacy domain names (Web2) work seamlessly with blockchain-based Web3 domains. If you read that story, you know WebUnited's approach is one of the simplest ones, making it possible to add Web3 services to Web2 domains that are purchased through a registrar that offers the WebUnited domain mirroring technology. The service appears as an add-on option during the usual checkout process. 

With that approach the key to WebUnited's strategy is getting registrars on board with an option that also opens up a new revenue stream for them. GlobalR.com (a U.S. based registrar that specializes in ccTLDs and offers nearly 100 county code extensions) is the latest to adopt

the WebUnited option, doing so in partnership with ArmeniaDomains. The latter is a proponent of .AM domains - a TLD we wrote about when the registry was celebrating their 30th anniversary last summer).

As a result, any .AM domain name can now be mirrored onto the blockchain with just a few clicks, allowing registrants to unlock Web3 functionality without changing their name, workflow, or DNS setup. Once mirrored, domains can function as a wallet address, power Web3 email, and serve as a digital identity. No additional technical knowledge is required.

WebUnited VP Kathy Nielsen, a well-known figure in the Web2 world after spending 15 years as a top executive at leading companies like Sedo, Neustar and GoDaddy, is all in on the Web2-Web3 marriage as well. She said, “As more registrars adopt mirroring, they’re positioning themselves at the forefront of the next internet evolution, We’re excited to support GlobalR and ArmeniaDomains in this pioneering move that gives registrants the ability to take their existing .AM names and turn them into future-ready digital assets."

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