DOTZON presents the seventh edition of the Digital Company Brands study. After having introduced the study in 2018, DOTZON continued to expand and enhance the underlying data to display how companies successfully use their Digital Company Brands. The Digital Company Brand is the digital dimension of a company brand and mirrors the “digitalness ” of a company.

For “Digital Company Brands 2024”, all companies worldwide that have their own internet extension were once again analysed. A good 440 brands currently have their own digital company or product brand on the Internet - in the form of a so-called “dotBrand.” Based on 7 KPIs, the 26,613 registered domains were analysed. The KPIs consist of quantitative values such as the number of registered domains, use for email communication and the relationship between resolving and non-resolving domains, qualitative values such as search engine performance, visibility and links were were also taken into account. But how successful are the company brands, who stands out and which examples are worth mentioning?

Changes compared to the previous year

In this year’s study, the top three from the previous year have swapped places. This year, .audi once again achieved the top spot after a break last year. After taking first place in 2023, the French supermarket chain Leclerc achieved second place this year with its .leclerc extension. The German supermarket group Schwarz (Lidl, Kaufland) follows in third place with its .schwarz extension.

Last year’s dotBrands in fourth and fifth place, .weber and .mma, have slipped to 12th and 14th place respectively. Google is once again in sixth place with its .google. Fifth place is taken by the shorter dotBrand .goog, which moved up five places compared to the 2022 ranking. In seventh place is .gmx, which has also moved up five places. New in the top 10 are .allfinanz, .bnpparibas and .man. The TLD .allfinanz has risen in the ranking, from tenth to eighth place. The French .bnpparibas has been among the top 10 for many years before scoring 22nd place last year. This year, it has reached ninth place. The dotBrand .man rose to tenth place, improving a full 14 places compared to last year’s ranking.

This year, six dotBrands among the top 10 dotbrands are from Germany, and two French and two US TLDs. The two German dotBrands .gmx and .man are new to the top 10 this year, while .bnpparibs, .goog and .dvag are back in the top 10.

Digital Company Brands Ranking 2024

1st PLACE: .audi

.audi was delegated on November 17, 2015. The company uses more than 1,700 domains under the .audi extension to provide German Audi dealers with a standardised domain for customer communication. After several first-place and third-place finishes last year, the German car manufacturer once again secured the top spot. First places in the Sistrix and Tranco rankings and three second places for the number of registered domains, resolving and SSL-secured domains contributed to this result.

2nd PLACE: .leclerc

The internet extension .leclerc was delegated on February 27, 2015. E.Leclerc is a French co-operative and supermarket chain and is now in second place after taking first place last year. The reason for this position is its ranking among the top 5 in terms of the number of registered and resolving domains, new domain use and use for email.

3rd PLACE: .schwarz

.schwarz was delegated on December 10, 2014. The Schwarz Group includes Lidl and Kaufland, making it the largest retail company in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. The group uses the .schwarz TLD mainly for corporate communications. Two rankings in the top 5 for the criteria new use of domains and encrypted communication secure .schwarz third place. Good placements in the criteria number of domains and resolving domains as well as the rankings complete the result.

4th PLACE: .dvag

.dvag was delegated on September 25, 2014. Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG (DVAG) is a financial sales organisation operating in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and has been actively using its TLD for several years. With 6,607 domains, .dvag once again takes the top spot in terms of the number of registered domains. Combined with other top positions for the number of resolving, newly used and encrypted domains, DVAG deservedly achieved fourth place.

5th PLACE: .goog

.goog was delegated on January 21, 2015. Google initially used its own TLDs only very cautiously, but has increased their use in recent years. Once again, Google is the exception in the corporate brand ranking with two brands represented. With the .goog TLD, the US company achieved fifth place, thanks in particular to the many newly registered and good Tranco rankings.

6th PLACE: .google

.google was delegated on September 4, 2014. As in the previous year, Google achieved sixth place with their dotBrand TLD .google, which the company owes to a second place in the Sistrix ranking as well as good rankings in the new use of domains and the number of SSL-secured domains.

7th PLACE: .gmx

GMX is a brand of 1&1 Mail & Media GmbH and was delegated on August 7, 2014. The mail service GMX uses its TLD to offer its customers mailboxes mailboxes with their own first and last name. Two top places in the rankings for encrypted communication and use for email services (sic!) secure .gmx seventh place, while good rankings for the number of registered and resolving domains and resolving domains round off the ranking.

8TH PLACE: .allfinanz

Allfinanz Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG has been operating its TLD .allfinanz since September 26, 2014. It is part of Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG (DVAG), a financial sales organisation operating in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The .allfinanz dotBrand is once again in the top 10 ranking, following a 10th place in the previous year. This is due to consistently good rankings for the number of registered, resolving and newly used domains, as well as domains secured with HTTPS.

9TH PLACE: .bnpparibas

.bnpparibas was delegated on August 11, 2014. The French banking group has been offering its customers online banking at www.mabanque.bnpparibas since 2016. Compared to the previous year’s ranking, BNPPARIBAS is once again in the top 10 this year. Many registered and resolving domains, as well as a good position in the Sistrix and Tranco ranking criteria, ensure good placement.

10th PLACE: .man

The .man corporate brand was delegated on February 27, 2015 and belongs to the Munich-based truck company of the same name. MAN began using its TLD early on, primarily for internal portals. MAN achieved tenth place thanks to its good rankings in terms of the number of encrypted domains and the very good Tranco ranking.

DOTZON is an international management consultancy for digital identities. The detailed study Digital Company Brands 2024 is available at www.dotzon.consulting/studien (German).