The next round is coming! The next round is coming! The. Next. Round. Is. Coming.
OK then. Are you one of the non–“portfolio player” hopefuls thinking of sending ICANN your application funds for a single TLD (or two) and hoping to survive past a possible auction? Do you believe running your own registry is the best way to make money in the domain name industry other than investing in generic, one‑word .com names?
Congratulations.
Are you sure you want to do this?
Have you run a completely independent string and financial modeling analysis outside of your own bubble? I can’t imagine you haven’t. But if not, reach out. I’m here. Full disclosure: I’m not applying for a TLD, nor am I investing in one with anyone else.
That’s the commercial. Now, on to the meat.
Let’s say you’ve jumped through all the hoops and your ultra‑fantastic TLD string is going to be delegated by ICANN. Colleagues with deep, long‑term operational and management experience in the domain industry will tell you there is no way you will be successful unless you get wide distribution through the registrar channel.
Is that true?
That has certainly been the prevailing wisdom. And if that’s the route you plan to take, then my number one piece of advice is:
SECURE SIGNIFICANT CAPITAL AND PATIENT INVESTORS. THEN DOUBLE—NO—TRIPLE THAT AMOUNT. AND THEN ADD A FEW MORE YEARS OF PATIENCE.
Don’t agree? Then go ahead and approach some major registrar players and see how much it will cost just to get on their online shelf, above the fold in search results, etc., for a few weeks, months, or quarters—or for a one‑year commitment. See how things go when you are up against dozens of other ultra‑fantastic new TLD strings trying to get in the door at MegaGiantRegistrar Inc. or SmallRegistrarWithNoResources LLC. Will you be able to compete against a well‑capitalized operator selling domains for 99 cents—or even for free?
Side tip: If the backend RSP you plan to use (or your own, if approved by ICANN) is not already integrated with registrars, then good luck. Strongly consider an experienced ICANN‑approved RSP with deep registrar connections, experience, and influence.
Money talks—marketing, placement, and dev‑support money. But even then, any registrar you work with will look at the opportunity cost of placing your TLD in their registration flow versus what your competitors will offer them. They will also consider which existing product or TLD has to come out of the flow and be replaced with yours, without confusing arriving potential customers so much that they abandon the cart and buy nothing.
If you don’t think you can secure a lot of capital until you hit certain milestones (like delegation), then I suggest you and your investors need to be open to new ways of being successful without depending on registrars as the primary means of discovery and use for your TLD.
Treat “registrar-only” distribution as just one tool—not the whole strategy. The operators who survive the next wave will be the ones who own their demand funnel, not just their registry back end.
Here are three high‑level suggestions:
- Build a vertical, app‑first use case where the domain is invisible plumbing.
- Bridge DNS and Web3‑style identity/liquidity so your TLD rides on entirely different distribution rails.
- Create a multi‑stakeholder commercial alliance (platforms, SaaS, telcos, devices) that bakes your TLD into existing high‑traffic ecosystems.
Let’s unpack those a bit more.
1. App‑first “embedded domains” instead of registrar sales
The shift here is to stop thinking “sell domains” and instead “sell outcomes where a domain is bundled and invisible.”
- Build or partner on a vertical SaaS/app (e.g., booking, creator pages, professional identity, SMB storefronts) where every new account automatically gets a domain on your TLD, with DNS and basic content preconfigured. The user never sees EPP, auth codes, or traditional registrar UX.
- Technically, you still use registrars for compliance, but commercially they become back‑end pipes. You control UX, branding, and lifecycle in your own app and use one or a few wholesale registrars purely as infrastructure, similar to how some ccTLDs or larger SaaS‑led TLDs operate today.
- Differentiate your TLD around that outcome (e.g., “instant verified practitioner pages,” “trusted supplier catalogs,” “auto‑local business identity”), not around the string itself. Measure success in activated live sites or connected profiles, not just DUMs.
This model breaks the crowding problem: users discover your TLD inside a solution they already need, not from a registrar search page listing hundreds of new strings side by side.
2. DNS–Web3 identity and liquidity rails
A second direction is to deliberately design the TLD as a hybrid Web2/Web3 naming and identity layer, plugging into crypto wallets, token markets, and ENS‑style resolution rather than fighting for the same registrar shelf space.
- Work with ENS‑style resolvers and tokenization protocols so each domain corresponds to a transferable on‑chain token, enabling wallet‑based ownership, secondary markets, and programmable permissions while still resolving in the “normal” DNS.
- Position the TLD as a canonical namespace for a specific high‑value sector (e.g., blockchain infrastructure, credentials, AI agents, IoT endpoints), where on‑chain features like verifiable ownership, signing, or payments actually matter. That can give you distribution via wallets, dApps, and exchanges instead of classic registrars.
- Structure pricing and rights so that ecosystem partners (protocols, marketplaces, dev tools) share upside from primary and secondary activity, aligning them to promote your namespace as their default identity primitive.
If executed cleanly, the registrar channel becomes optional: power users acquire, manage, and trade names entirely through Web3 interfaces while the DNS side gives them universal reachability on today’s internet.
3. Alliance‑based default naming in big platforms
A third path is to skip the fragmented retail registrar channel altogether by making your TLD the default naming layer inside a few large‑scale platforms.
- Target high‑volume “account‑creating” platforms (hosting/CDN, low‑code site builders, CRM/marketing SaaS, POS vendors, telcos/ISPs, device makers) and create a commercial and technical package where every new tenant gets a subdomain that can be frictionlessly upgraded to a second‑level domain on your TLD.
- Offer these partners a radically simpler economic and operational model than the traditional registry–registrar stack: predictable flat pricing, revenue share or SaaS‑like bundles, APIs tuned for bulk lifecycle operations, and possibly co‑branding of the TLD as part of their product story.
- Combine this with selective participation in the ICANN channel (one or two “strategic” registrars for compliance and niche retail) while treating the alliance distribution as the primary business engine rather than an add‑on.
None of these paths are easy, cheap, or risk‑free. But if your entire business case depends on registrars discovering, prioritizing, and evangelizing your new string for you, you are effectively outsourcing your fate.
If you’re seriously considering an application in the next round and want a brutally honest second opinion on your model, reach out and share a draft of your thinking. I’m happy to pressure‑test your assumptions—before ICANN, investors, and the market do it for you.
PINKY BRAND 