46 Percent Of Internet Users Are Aware Of New Domain Extensions [Survey]

Almost half of internet users say they’re familiar with the new, generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that have become available to website owners in the past 18 months, while legacy domain extensions like .com, .net and .org have almost universal awareness.

That’s from an ICANN-sponsored, Nielsen-conducted online survey in February of more than 6,100 adults across 24 countries. The survey targeted consumers that spend a minimum of five hours a week online.

ICANN has delegated more than 600 new domains extensions since October 2013, but in this survey Nielsen focused on the seven most popular new gTLDs as of January 2015 (.email, .photography, .link, .guru, .realtor, .club, .xyz) and regionally relevant domains depending on where the consumer is based (like .london and .nyc, for example).

Forty-six percent said they’re familiar with at least one of the new gTLDs included in the survey, compared to 98 percent that are familiar with at least one of the legacy domains.

Among the legacy domains, .com, .net and .org scored a 94 percent awareness level, compared to only 50 percent awareness for .info and .biz, and more than double the 37 percent awareness that extensions like .mobi, .pro, .tel, .asia and .coop have.

The survey also revealed that new gTLDs have a way to go when it comes to earning consumers’ trust. Ninety percent of respondents said that each legacy domain included in the survey was very/somewhat trustworthy, while only 49 percent said the same thing about the new domain extensions.

Domain Extensions & Website Creation

The survey also asked these 6,000 consumers about domain registration preferences if they were to build a website themselves.

Overall, 52 percent said they’d consider registering one of the new gTLDs — but that figure was significantly lower in North America and Europe, where only 36 percent and 35 percent, respectively, would consider one of the new domain extensions. On the other hand, about 60 percent of consumers in South America, Africa and Asia are open to using a new gTLD.

To compare, 88 percent overall said they’d consider a legacy domain if they were creating a website.

The full study is available as a free PDF.

Nielsen and ICANN say they’re working on a similar survey focused on existing domain name registrants.