.sexy is a

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of ev ...

owned by Uniregistry. Delegated on 14 November 2013, .sexy was the subject of controversy due to opposition from the government of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and privacy concerns regarding registering domains.

History

.sexy, along with .tattoo, was one of the first two gTLDs launched by Uniregistry on 14 November 2013. Its

sunrise period The sunrise period of domain name registration is a special period during which trademark holders may preregister names that are the same or similar to their trademarks in order to avoid cybersquatting. This occurs prior to the general launch of th ...

, during which pre-existing trademark holders may register URLs prior to general availability to prevent domain squatting, lasted from 11 December 2013 to 9 February 2014, and it entered general availability on 25 February 2014. .sexy was one of the first hundred gTLDs to be delegated. Prior to its release, .sexy was one of many announced gTLDs, variously reported as 31 and over 160, that the Communication and Information Technology Commission of the government of

objected to; other TLDs found objectionable included .gay, .casino, .sucks, .wine, and .bible. On the first day of .sexy's general availability, around 2,000 domain names were registered, which commentators described as a "disappointing" low showing. The domain had a comparable number of first-day registrations as unpopular domains from Uniregistry's competitor

Donuts A doughnut or donut () is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franch ...

such as .gallery and .estate. .sexy's launch was hampered by a lack of support from and availability at major domain name registrars such as

GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet Domain name registry, domain registry, Domain name registrar, domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. GoDaddy is the world's fif ...

, based in privacy concerns around Uniregistry's demands that registrants inform Uniregistry of their real names and identities to purchase domains. A number of pre-orders of .sexy domains were also stymied by domain name collision, the phenomenon where a private (

intranet An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, easier communication, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in ...

)

domain name system The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...

queries a public one, and by names that had been pre-ordered being reserved by Uniregistry. In 2015, a survey by

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

concluded networks in Iran were systematically blocking .sexy domains. In 2017, Uniregistry CEO

Frank Schilling Frank T. Schilling (born July 29, 1969) is a Canadian and Caymanian entrepreneur. Born in Germany, Schilling grew up in Canada and moved to the Cayman Islands 2003. Career Domain Name Industry As the founder of the Name Administration Inc. and l ...

increased the price of .sexy and a number of other domains due to low uptake. Schilling stated that the costs of running a TLD demanded that low-use TLDs, such as .sexy, be sold at higher price points in order to turn a profit.

Usage

According to Schilling, .sexy domains are intended "for fun, for fashion, for recreation, as a novelty, ndfor risqué content". .sexy has also been associated with

cybersquatting Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The term is derived ...

, with cybersquatters purchasing .sexy domains for major companies who rejected having their trademarks associated with adult industries; such misuse was predicted prior to the domain's release, with commentators describing them as potentially costing companies "serious money". Explicit content is prohibited on the home pages of websites with .sexy domains, although sites are permitted to have a landing page with a warning button that needs to be clicked through to access such content. , there are 10,203 registered .sexy domains, making up 0.03% of all domains.

NameCheap Namecheap is an American ICANN-accredited domain name registrar and web hosting company, based in Phoenix, Arizona. The company was founded in 2000 by Richard Kirkendall and has since grown to become one of the largest independent domain registra ...

holds the majority of the .sexy market share with 65.8%, although 14% of .sexy domains are registered by registries outside the top ten. The domain's lack of popularity was described by domain expert Kevin Murphy as a failure of Schilling's own practices:

References

Top-level domains Generic top-level domains 2013 introductions Sexuality and computing {{DEFAULTSORT:Sexy

History

Usage

See also

References