The internet’s next expansion is a business opportunity

For the first time in over a decade, the internet’s domain name system (DNS) is expanding. Earlier this year, ICANN opened its next application window for new top-level domains (nTLDs), giving businesses a rare opportunity to shape how the internet’s address book evolves. Over the coming years, this will bring additional domain extensions to market as registries and registrars build and launch the domains ICANN approves. 

 

This comes at a pivotal time as AI rapidly changes how businesses are discovered, understood, and trusted online. As AI becomes a larger part of how people navigate the internet, organizations have an opportunity to strengthen their digital identity and build trust with both customers and AI systems.

 

Domain extensions build credibility

The DNS’s previous expansion demonstrated the value that new domain extensions could create for businesses. In 2012, ICANN broadened the DNS beyond a limited set of extensions, introducing options that reflect industry and purpose, such as .tech and .studio. There are now more than 1,200 generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in operation, and the total number of registered domain names globally has surpassed 401 million.

 

As the internet expanded, businesses that adopted descriptive extensions early gained a new way to communicate relevance and credibility. For example, a law firm on .legal can communicate its industry immediately, the same way a design business on .studio reinforces its creative focus before a visitor reads a word of copy. These descriptive extensions give people and AI systems additional information about a business and its purpose, context that likely helps establish relevance and trust from the first interaction.

 

Beyond credibility, the expansion also lowered the barrier to entry for startups and growing businesses. New extensions opened access to relevant and memorable digital identities. The 2012 expansion sets a pattern this next chapter can follow.

 

ICANN’s current round is a new business opportunity

Today, these lessons carry new significance. The ICANN 2026 gTLD round will introduce new extensions across geographic and industry categories, alongside entirely new categories of online identity that have no precedent. Some will serve specific professional communities. Others will let businesses anchor a regional presence with a geographic identifier.

 

A joint study by name.com and Identity Digital surveyed more than 1,100 business decision-makers across the U.S. and UK, and found that 77% expect domain names to grow more valuable as AI changes how people discover and trust what they find online.

 

The opportunity extends beyond simply having more domain choices. As AI-powered search, assistants, and autonomous agents increasingly become the “front door” to the internet, organizations need digital identities that clearly communicate who they are and why they can be trusted. A domain extension that reflects an organization’s industry or purpose provides valuable context before anyone, or anything, interacts with the business.

 

Beyond building trust with AI systems, this moment is also an opportunity for organizations to reevaluate their broader digital strategy. A clear domain extension allows an organization to redefine what its address communicates and how its brand unifies its digital presence. Businesses that have grown organically often end up with fragmented web properties across different extensions and subdomains. The right extension gives them an organizing principle, bringing products and regional sites under one coherent brand umbrella. The result is a brand customers recognize instantly and search engines reward.

 

Preparing for the internet’s next chapter

The current gTLD expansion gives businesses more options to strengthen their digital identity for an internet increasingly shaped by AI. Those that benefit most will be the ones who approach the moment with a clear sense of what their web address is actually doing for them, and how they want it to serve their business in the years ahead.

 

As these new domains enter the market, businesses have a widening opportunity to register a strategic domain extension and make the most of the internet’s expanding address book.

 

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Ram Mohan is Chief Strategy Officer at Identity Digital and an Internet Hall of Fame Inductee

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and olm26250