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The domain name market is preparing for one of its biggest changes in more than a decade.
ICANN, the organisation responsible for coordinating the global Domain Name System, confirmed on 22 September that 1,616 applications will proceed in the 2026 round of its New Generic Top-Level Domains programme.
The application window closed in August with 1,663 submissions. The 1,616 now proceeding are those for which the required payment has been received. The public does not yet know the complete list of proposed extensions, with ICANN due to publish the public portions of the applications on Reveal Day.
It means the internet could eventually have a substantial new collection of alternatives to familiar endings such as .com, .net and .org.
Not every application will necessarily result in a new extension becoming available. Applications still have to move through ICANN’s evaluation process, while identical applications can create contention between applicants. The 2026 programme is a process that will run for years rather than produce 1,616 new extensions overnight.
For businesses, however, it raises an interesting question.
If there are going to be even more ways to name a website, does owning the .com version of a name become less important?
More Choice Does Not Automatically Make .com Less Valuable
The argument against paying heavily for a .com is easy to understand.
A company that cannot obtain Example.com might be able to register Example followed by a newer extension instead. Depending on what emerges from the new ICANN round, businesses could have considerably more choice in the years ahead.
That can be useful.
The previous new gTLD programme introduced hundreds of extensions covering industries, interests, geographic areas and general terminology. Another large expansion gives companies more naming possibilities.
But availability and equivalence are not the same thing.
A company may be able to register a different extension without that domain performing the same job for its brand as the corresponding .com.
The decision therefore depends on what the business needs the domain to do.
A Domain Is Part of How a Business Identifies Itself
Domain names are unusual assets because they are both technical addresses and pieces of brand identity.
A customer may encounter a domain on a search result, business card, television advert, social media profile or email address. They may simply hear it spoken in conversation.
That means the extension forms part of the name people are being asked to remember.
For some organisations, a newer extension can work particularly well. It might have a clear relationship to the company, its industry or the purpose of a particular website.
For others, the .com remains the most straightforward version of the brand they want to own.
This becomes especially relevant when the exact .com is already registered.
Businesses then face a strategic choice: use another available name, adopt a different extension, modify the brand or attempt to acquire the domain from its existing owner.
There is no single answer that applies to every company.
More Extensions Could Make Domain Strategy More Complicated
One consequence of expanding the domain namespace is that businesses have more decisions to make, not fewer.
Imagine a company launching under a new brand.
It might need to consider the exact-match .com, its domestic country-code domain, relevant newer extensions and domains that could reasonably be confused with the brand.
It does not follow that the company needs to own every possible variation.
For most businesses, that would be unnecessary and increasingly impractical as the number of extensions grows.
The more useful question is which domains actually matter.
The answer can depend on where the company operates, how customers find it, how valuable the brand is, what domains are already registered and how damaging confusion with another website could be.
A start-up operating in one country can have very different requirements from an international company preparing a global product launch.
Existing .com Domains Are a Finite Market
There is another important difference between a new extension and an existing .com.
A new registry can introduce new registration opportunities beneath its extension.
The supply of individual .com names does not expand in the same way.
If a business wants a particular .com and somebody else already owns it, another identical version cannot be created. The company either needs to reach an agreement with the current owner or choose something different.
That scarcity is one reason some existing domains are bought and sold for considerably more than an ordinary registration fee.
It does not mean every registered .com is valuable.
Millions of domains have little or no meaningful secondary-market demand. Value depends on the individual name, its commercial uses, length, wording, extension, comparable sales and, crucially, whether somebody actually wants to buy it.
The arrival of new extensions does not remove those distinctions.
A New Extension Can Sometimes Be the Better Choice
It would be equally misleading to suggest that a business should always acquire the .com at any cost.
It should not.
There are situations where another extension is a sensible choice.
The .com owner may have no interest in selling. The asking price may be far beyond what the domain is worth to the prospective buyer. Another extension may fit the organisation particularly well, or the company may already have an established identity on a country-code domain.
The calculation should be commercial rather than emotional.
If acquiring a particular domain would consume money better spent elsewhere in the business, walking away can be the right decision.
Equally, if a company expects to invest heavily in a brand over many years, the cost of securing the strongest domain at the beginning may look very different when considered over the lifetime of that brand.
That is why businesses assessing premium domain names need to consider the individual domain and its role in the business rather than assuming that either .com or a newer extension is automatically the correct answer.
The Next ICANN Reveal Will Tell Us Much More
For now, the number of applications is known, but the full picture is not.
ICANN’s Reveal Day will publish the public-facing portions of the paid applications and show which strings have been applied for. It will also identify strings where multiple applicants may be competing for the same extension.
Even then, the list will not represent a catalogue of extensions immediately available for businesses to register.
The programme moves through further stages, including application evaluation and resolving contention between applicants.
The eventual effect on businesses will therefore emerge gradually.
What is already clear is that the domain namespace is about to become broader.
Choice and Value Are Two Different Things
More domain extensions mean more choice, and that is significant.
A business that once had to choose between paying for an existing .com and accepting an awkward alternative may eventually have more credible options.
But established premium domains don’t necessarily become less valuable just because more extensions exist.
A domain’s value comes from the name, the extension attached to it, the businesses that could use it, and the demand for that combination.
For some companies, a new extension will provide exactly what they need.
For others, owning the corresponding .com will remain strategically important.
The 1,616 applications proceeding through ICANN’s latest round will broaden the options considerably. What they are unlikely to do is make choosing the right domain any simpler.