As published on June 24, 2025, it is with no surprise that the AFNIC was renewed as the backend registry provider of the .PARIS new generic Top-Level Domain.

What caught my attention in the announcement was this paragraph:

“Afnic’s remit will also be expanded to include communication and promotion of the .paris TLD, as well as the development of initiatives designed to increase its adoption by businesses and private individuals.”

The Backend Registry is also going to include communication in its role. My understanding of this paragraph is that the number of domain names created (“sold”?) should evolve to include more domain names on the market.

An interesting test

If more communication to me means more domain name registrations, it is going to be easy to check if the Backend Registry does a good job: .PARIS domain name registrations have stagnated at around 25,000 in 2023 and dropped to 19,500 in 2024 and 2025 (up to June 2025). These numbers should normally increase now (source).

The role of the Backend Registry provider

If such a communication role was not the role of Backend Registries in the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program in 2012, this trend could have developed since:

• Some Backed-Registry providers also own one or more Registrars, which can greatly contribute to launching a new Registry (and help bring more domain names to the market faster).
• There are more Backend Registries that want clients for the next round of the ICANN new gTLD program: they come in competition with already existing providers.
• There are now lots of Backend Registry providers with experience from the first round of ICANN new gTLDs: they need to add that little something more to their offer to generate interest. Contributing to a Registry’s communication is a strong asset in an offer.
• Some Backend-Registry providers already offer the “key-in-hand solution,” adding the feasibility study to writing and submitting the new gTLD application to ICANN. These are very competitive solutions, but are they enough? They don’t address the important question: how do you increase sales?