PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – June 4 marks the public debut of the new kids on the adults-only-domains block: .porn and .adult. Domain names will be available to anyone with the cash and interest.
“With nearly 15,000 names already registered even before general availability opened, there is clearly a strong interest in these adult TLDs,” said Stuart Lawley, chairman and chief executive officer of ICM Registry, overseer of the domain spaces. “Considering the success of our previous launch phases, we’re looking forward to .porn and .adult becoming accessible to the general public.”
ICM Registry has sold approximately 7,000 names in .porn and .adult since launching the sunrise periods in March 2015, Lawley said.
He also said major mainstream brands and celebrities including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Liam Hemsworth, Paris Hilton and David Beckham purchased their names in the new Top Level Domain spaces in order to ensure “brand consistency.” The sales resulted in both TLDs nearly doubling initial revenue forecasts.
Registering adults-only domains has proved a successful business strategy for ICM: Brands and individuals paid premium prices for .xxx domains when that domain space premiered out of concern their identities might be coopted by smut merchants.
“The opening up of .porn and .adult to the public brings exciting opportunities for those creative enough to capitalize on the SEO inherent in our new TLDS and to experiment with new marketing initiatives and sites,” Lawley said.
The social and cultural acceptance of “porn” as a way to express enthusiasm for a topic means both mainstream and adult brands can explore creative marketing initiatives in .porn — for example, food.porn, shoe.porn, etc. — he added. The .adult TLD could be used by multiple verticals including hospitality, alcohol, online dating and e-cigarettes.
ICM created a resource that provides the public, domain-name holders and brands a way to ascertain whether a name of interest is available in any of the registry’s TLDs. Visit ICM Registry’s Domain Check Tool for more information.
Lawley said ICM plans to launch the next wave of adults-only TLDs, .sex, in the fall.
