Donuts announces acquisition of .Fan new domain name extension

Donuts Inc. today announced it has re-acquired the .fan top-level domain (TLD), making it the 241^st TLD in Donuts’ portfolio.

.fan names are anticipated to be generally available in mid-September.

“We are excited to add .fan to our portfolio,” said John Pollard, executive vice president and general manager of the Donuts registry. “Fans literally wear their allegiances on their sleeves, and a .fan domain name will clearly signal a destination for those who passionately support sports teams, musicians, performers, entertainers and causes.”

The “competing” new extension .fans is owned by Asiamix Digital Limited. It launched in September 2015 and it now has 1,423 registered domain names. In April the registry was hit with a breach notice from ICANN for unpaid fees. Is .fans heading to Donuts soon?

The announcement also said:

“Fan engagement is a powerful economic driver in sports, e-sports, entertainment, gaming, the arts and other verticals. Social media, new analytics tools and specialized technology are all ways for teams, entertainers, performers, celebrities and their fans to connect. The .fan TLD joins a diverse portfolio of sports and entertainment names that includes: .bike, .football, .bingo, .casino .golf .hockey, .live, .band, soccer, .team, .tennis, .training, .futbol, .dance, .rocks, .events, .movie, .show, .theater, .actor, .dance, and more.”

“Since .fan is a new release, it will enable registrants to obtain high-quality domain names that have long been unavailable in legacy TLDs, and which are more suitable for search and social media.”

“In fact, recent research affirms the growing importance of web links that use real words, including new TLDs. In a survey conducted by Sapio Research and commissioned by Donuts, respondents overwhelmingly opted for branded short links using real words, over links containing long strings of characters and / or legacy short links. Reasons for preferring short links using real words included: more meaningful information, clarity of content, identification with the brand, trust and greater simplicity. To learn more about this survey, click here.”