What’s in a (domain) name? CFD specific top-level domains soon going live
Around five years ago, TLDs including .forex and .trading were made available, now.CFD is about to become available
This is very much an online business, and image, positioning, branding and internet presence are vital aspects with regard to ensuring the prominence of a retail FX and CFD brokerage.
A few years ago, it was of great interest that the possibility had arisen of being able to register specific URLs for corporate domains which end in interesting suffixes such as .trading and .forex as top-level domains.
Indeed, one particular company, Japan’s GMO, considered its internet uniqueness so important that it paid $6.8 million to acquire one of only three single letter domain names in the world, Z.com having purchased it from Nissan Motor Company, the Japanese car manufacturing giant which gave the American market the famous Z cars of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
This week, another effort in this direction has taken place, as ShortDot, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions like .icu, .bond, and .cyou, is preparing to launch its fourth and newest domain extension – .CFD.
ShortDot has positioned .CFD as a short, memorable, three-letter domain extension that is ideal for clothing brands, fashion houses, fashion designers, models and influencers, apparel manufacturers, footwear businesses, cosmetics companies, and online retailers with a flair for artistic expression and appreciation for stylish clothing and creative fashion design, but does not limit it to those sectors. The domain registrar says that it stands potentially for ‘Clothing, Fashion and Design’ however that is a mere suggestion for it to market to a large industry sector, and there is absolutely no limitation on its usage, hence it could easily be used for ‘Contract For Difference’ in the electronic trading industry.
With .CFD, ShortDot targets new-age apparel and clothing businesses, creative fashion designers, forward-thinking fashion vloggers and influencers, cutting-edge fashion brands, and progressive cosmetics and footwear companies looking to reshape the world of fashion and haute couture.
Set to launch in March 2021, .CFD will be launching in its Sunrise Phase, for trademark holders, on March 10, 2021. Sunrise will end on April 12, 2021. .CFD will officially be available for all end users on April 13, 2021, and will be preceded by a seven-day Early Access Program (EAP) that will last till April 19, 2021.
ShortDot was founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs Lars Jensen, Kevin Kopas, Michael Riedl, and Christian Tecar. Their broad experience on both the registry and registrar sides of the business has helped create a customer-centric registry model driving the company’s rapid growth and establishing ShortDot’s reputation as a formidable force in the domain industry. It is, in fact, now the fifth-largest new domain name registry in the world.
