Valideus and Nominet launch ‘dot brand’ service

Domain name consultancy company Valideus and the .uk registry Nominet have combined to offer a ‘dot brand’ top-level domain (TLD) service.

The companies announced that they are offering prospective dot brand TLD applicants an end-to-end service covering consultancy, application and management.

In the first round of new TLD applications in date, nearly 600 companies applied for a dot brand TLD. The second round has not yet been announced, but Valideus and Nominet said they expect the application stage to open in 2021.

Dot brand applicants in the first round included Barclays and Sony. 

Valideus and Nominet said there are more than 2,000 active websites using dot brand domains: “ranging from simple microsites and tailored content to full migrations of a brand’s entire web presence”. 

Nick Wood, managing director of Valideus, said the company is seeing more brands express an interest in “having their own space” online. 

Oli Hope, director of registry services at Nominet, added: “Brands that weren’t in the vanguard of round one are beginning to focus on how a dedicated registry will advance their digital strategy.