A few days ago, Canon announced its move to a new domain name using its “.canon” extension, but did you know that there is a .NIKON new gTLD too? While the photography industry strengthens its presence online with these two major trademarks launching their dedicated top-level domains, there are a lot more generic extensions in the world of photography.

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Branded New TLDs in Photography

The truth about Canon is that it is the first Trademark to have announced its intention to apply for a new generic top-level domains. The announcement was made in 2010—six years after it starts to use its first personalized domain name. As of today, there are three “.canon” domain name registered.

Nikon has its own domain name extension too but only one domain name is registered—the
registry’s webpage: nic.nikon

Olympus also submitted a new gTLD application which it later withdrew.

Generic New TLDs in Photography

There are many domain name extensions for the business of photography. I have listed 23 of them: some are linked to the photography vocabulary (ie: “.photo”), some are close to the photography business (ie: “.media”) and some are branded TLDs of trademarks including Canon and Nikon mentioned above:

Registration Volumes

You may have noticed in the list above that there are two versions of the .PHOTO - singular and plural version. The interesting thing to know about the plural and singular versions of the extension is that .PHOTOS was launched before the .PHOTO but the singular version then received more registrations. Today, in terms of registration volumes, it appears that the singular version tends to attract more registrants (a “Registrant” is the person to acquire the ownership of a domain name).

In general, most of the domain name extensions related to photography attract consumers: their registration volumes increase little by little. In the top five of this selection, we have the .CLUB which is a generic one and not limited to photography but a perfect match for a photography club. In second position we have the .WEBCAM new gTLD. In third position we have the .PHOTOGRAPHY new gTLD which was launched before .PHOTOS and .PHOTO. Then we have .PICS in position four and .PHOTO in position five. Trademarks such as .CANON and .NIKON are often listed in the end of domain name volume registration reports since they are not available for sale to the general public.