.monster

Internet top-level domain .monster Dot-monster gTLD logo.png Active XYZ.com Initially for Monster.com, later made generic 85,593 17 March 2024 .monster is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) owned by XYZ.com. Originally delegated in 2014 by the employment website Monster.com as a brand-specific domain name, .monster was acquired by XYZ in 2019 as a general domain. History Following the announcement in January 2012 that Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for internet top-level domains, were accepting applications for new domain names,Brief history of top-level domains and challenges for information professionals Orduña-Malea Enrique Aguillo Isidro F Anuario ThinkEPI 14 e14f06 2020 https://thinkepi.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/ThinkEPI/article/view/83054/61429 10.3145/thinkepi.2020.e14f06 free 2023-10-23 2023-10-21 https://web.archive.org/web/20231023165216/https://thinkepi.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/ThinkEPI/article/view/83054/61429 dead both the audio and video cable manufacturer Monster Cable and the employment website Monster.com sought to register the gTLD .monster as a dot-brand, a type of gTLD restricted to use by a specific company. Though they both applied prior to June 2012, the date ICANN revealed the names of early applicants, the matter of which would ultimately acquire the domain was not settled until late 2014. The two companies were scheduled to participate in an auction, ICANN's "mechanism of last resort" for unresolvable disputes over the owner of a domain, that December; a week prior, Monster Cables withdrew their application, leaving Monster.com to acquire the gTLD. Monster.com's application referred to .monster as a "restricted, exclusively-controlled gTLD" for which only the company themselves and "authorized business partners" could register domains, with parties who were unconnected to Monster.com or deemed to use .monster domains in ways that harmed the company's "brand reputation" at risk of suspension without warning.https://www.techdirt.com/2012/06/13/rip-off-highlights-top-level-domain-scrum/ .Rip .Off: Highlights From The Top-Level Domain Scrum TechDirt.com Masnick Mike 13 June 2012 21 October 2023https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/auctions/proceeds New gTLD Auction Proceeds icann.org Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers 1 August 2016 21 October 2023https://www.thedomains.com/2014/12/13/monster-com-jobs-beats-out-monster-inc-high-end-audio-co-for-the-gtld-monster/ Monster.com (Jobs) Beats out Monster, Inc. (High End Audio Co.) For The gTLD .Monster TheDomains.com Berkens Michael 13 December 2014 21 October 2023 Though dot-brand domain registrations were popular at the original launch of new gTLDs, many companies later relinquished them due to lack of use.http://domainincite.com/23668-first-non-brand-gtld-to-go-dark First non-brand gTLD to go dark Domain Incite Murphy Kevin 14 November 2018 21 October 2023https://domainnamewire.com/2019/03/22/challenges-of-brand-domain-names/ Challenges of ".brand" domain names Domain Name Wire Allemann Andrew 22 March 2019 21 October 2023https://www.managingip.com/article/2a7cr03ux3sqhec8vctmo/10-years-of-new-gtlds-why-brands-have-never-got-the-memo 10 years of new gTLDs: why brands have never got the memo Managing IP Walters Max 8 June 2022 21 October 2023 Monster.com retired .monster in 2018, at which time it was picked up by XYZ.com with the intent of running it as a general-purpose TLD. It was the second former dot-brand to be repurposed as a general domain, following the 2016 acquisition of .observer from The Observer by Top Level Spectrum.https://domainincite.com/23670-bad-monster-two-more-gtlds-have-been-acquired Bad.monster? Two more gTLDs have been acquired Domain Incite Murphy Kevin 14 November 2018 21 October 2023 Its thirty-day sunrise period, during which pre-existing trademark holders may register domain names prior to general availability to prevent domain squatting, launched 18 February 2019. .monster became available for general registration on 1 April 2019.https://domainincite.com/23887-xyz-reveals-monster-gtld-launch-dates XYZ reveals .monster gTLD launch dates Domain Incite Murphy Kevin 4 February 2019 21 October 2023 84 .monster domains were registered during the sunrise period, including cookie.monster, pocket.monster, https://www.techrepublic.com/article/should-you-buy-a-monster-domain-for-10-what-this-and-other-gtlds-mean-for-business/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190401195104/https://www.techrepublic.com/article/should-you-buy-a-monster-domain-for-10-what-this-and-other-gtlds-mean-for-business/ dead Should you buy a .monster domain for $10? What this and other gTLDs mean for business TechRepublic Sanders James 1 April 2019 21 October 2023 1 April 2019 and lochness.monster.https://domainnamewire.com/2019/04/01/yes-domain-names-really-can-end-in-monster-now/ Yes, domain names really can end in .Monster now Domain Name Wire Allemann Andrew 1 April 2019 21 October 2023 Usage At the launch of .monster, XYZ.com CEO Daniel Negari referred to it as a "wacky and creative" domain for users wanting to metaphorically demonstrate being "a beast at what [they] do". Multiple commentators have described the use case of .monster as unclear, with James Sanders at TechRepublic saying "the 'who is this for' question is a difficult one to answer" and Andrew Allemann of Domain Name Wire feeling the announcement "seem[ed] like a bad April Fools' Day joke". The journalist and gTLD commentator Kevin Murphy compared .monster to .guru and .ninja, describing it as a "quirky" option but not necessarily one suitable for widespread use. .monster has been associated with spamming and phishing. Research in 2023 by the cybersecurity analyst David Barnett and domain name brand manager Justin Hartland found .monster to be one of the thirty highest-threat TLDs for phishing attacks.https://circleid.com/posts/20230117-the-highest-threat-tlds-part-2 The Highest Threat TLDs - Part 2 CircleID Barnett David 17 January 2023 21 October 2023 The cybercrime prevention company Netcraft defines .monster as one of the TLDs with the highest ratio of "cybercrime incidents" to active websites, with around 1.2% of all active .monster domains in 2023 fitting Netcraft's definition of cybercriminality.https://trends.netcraft.com/cybercrime/tlds Cybercrime on Top Level Domains Netcraft 2023 21 October 2023 .monster domains may be blocked by email providers; Jarland Donnell, owner of the email hosting service MXroute, said that same year that blocking emails from .monster domains had "a 0% correlation [with] blocking legitimate emails" and that every email from the gTLD his service received was spam. Donnell speculated that .monster itself was a "strategic spamming campaign" rather than a legitimate gTLD, stating his analysis of the networks from which .monster emails originated found a limited number of networks using a vast number of throwaway domains.https://blog.mxroute.com/unmasking-the-monster-tld-are-spammers-running-rampant/ Unmasking the .monster TLD: Are Spammers Running Rampant? MXroute.com Donnell Jarland 10 August 2023 21 October 2023 2023, there are 99,096 registered .monster domains, making up 0.29% of all domains. No registrar holds a majority of the .monster market share; Namecheap and Name.com hold 34.7% and 30.7% of .monster domains, respectively. July 2025 Other registrars with significant .monster market share are NameSilo, GoDaddy, and Porkbun. https://ntldstats.com/tld/monster .monster nTLDstats.com greenSec GmbH 2023 21 October 2023 See also The Spamhaus Project References Category:Generic top-level domains