.London Tops 20,000 Domain Name Registrations And Priority Allocation Is Not Over Yet

The .London new extension went over 20,000 domain name registrations today as everyday more and more domain names are allocated to those who applied for .london domains during the London Priority Period that ended on the 31st of July. The registry is undertaking validation according to the priority rules for the London Priority Period. Names where there was only one applicant are in the process of being released for registration by applicants.

The .London New gTLD Priority Period was designed so that businesses and people with a London address would have priority over the rest of the world.

The .London registry has been allocating .London domains since Monday the 25th of August to the different allocation categories. The latest zone file update brings the total number of registered .London domains to 20,647. But it seems that allocation is not yet over. Here are the 7 different priority categories:

Priority 1 – London Address & Registered Trade Mark
Priority 1 – London Address & Unregistered Trade Mark/Trading Name
Priority 1 – London Address & Registered Company Name
Priority 1 – London Address & Registered Charity Name
Priority 1 – London Address & Personal Name
Priority 2 – London Address Only
Priority 3 – No London Address

I am sure that the allocation has not yet reached Priority 3 because there are no domains in the zone files with an address outside London. And it has probably not yet reached Priority 2. So there are a lot of domains to be allocated still.

Furthermore the domain names with more than 1 applicant have not yet started to be allocated. During August, names where there was only one applicant are going to be released for registration by applicants. Then, names where there remains more than one applicant with the same priority will go to auction. Auctions should run for several weeks from the end of August.

At the end of London Priority Period, if there is more than one applicant in the same priority ranking, those applicants will be invited by their registrars to participate in an auction for the applied-for domain name. The auction will then take the form of a private and closed auction via an online platform.

So far there are only 3 registrars that have more than 1,000 domain names registered with them. Mesh Digital Limited (Domainmonster) that is part of the Host Europe Group is leading with 9,293 domains. 1&1 Internet AG (United Internet AG) is second with 5,550 domains and Tucows Domains Inc. (OpenSRS / Hover) is third with 3,400 registrations. The Mind + Machines registrar is 4th with 552 domains. Mind + Machines is the company handling the .London backend.

The .London registry said they were expecting about 50,000 priority applications. Let’s see how close they are to their prediction.

The .London priority period was not without problems. Far from it. Registrars were totally unpredictable and a lot had serious problems accepting .london domain name applications.

Dot London currently does not accept registrations until 9^th September. This scheduled downtime has been planned to allow for the allocation of names applied for during the London Priority Period.

From 9^th September 2014, Dot London domain names will again be available for registration. From that date onwards, names will be available on a first come, first served basis via our registrars. A full list of these can be found here. Some registrars may be taking pre-registrations ahead of 9^th September.