Introduction
As has been remarked in a number of previous overviews, the availability of short, memorable, unregistered domain names across popular domain-name extensions (top-level domains, or TLDs) has increasingly been running low over recent years. This issue presents potential difficulties for entities looking to launch new brand names, and is likely to drive a push towards other approaches, such as the use of novel or invented brand names and/or alternative TLDs (including 'dot-brands')[1,2]. One additional possible alternative is the use of numeric domain names (i.e. those consisting only of the characters 0 to 9), which are already popular in certain markets such as China, where their use can circumvent language barriers and particular numbers may have specific cultural significance.
In this article, I consider the universe of numeric domain names which are already registered, using the ever-popular .com TLD as a case study, giving insights into registration and usage patterns.
Overview
As of 21-Nov-2024, domain name zone file analysis shows that there are 1,008,834 unique registered .com domains with second-level domain (SLD) names (i.e. the part to the left of the dot) consisting of numeric digits only[3]. These range in length from 1 character (one instance in the zone file, 1.com, a domain reserved by IANA) to 63 characters (32 instances) (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Numbers of registered numeric .com domain names, by SLD length (logarithmic scale)
Next, it is informative to exclude any domains beginning with a leading '0' (i.e. concentrating only on those where the SLD is a 'natural' or 'counting' number - of which there are 928,086 such examples). Considering all numeric domains from 10.com upwards (i.e. those with a length of two or more characters), we find that (for example) all numbers under 1,000 except 215.com, 968.com and 992.com appear in the .com zone file as the SLDs of registered domains - and even these have active whois records and appear unavailable for registration.
Furthermore, in total, there are only 93 numeric domains with SLDs under 10,000 which are absent from the zone file but, similarly, all of these also have active whois entries. Accordingly, there are no numeric domains of four characters (i.e. digits) in length or shorter which are available for registration.
In fact, there appear to be only ten numeric .com domains with SLDs under 100,000 which appear not to have valid whois records and may therefore be unregistered. However, even these appear to be unavailable for standard purchase - seven of them are listed as 'taken' and three of them (36923.com, 65879.com, 81632.com) are deemed 'premium' (according to GoDaddy), with purchase prices in excess of £1,000.
Usage trends and patterns
As an indication of the typical nature of usage of numeric domains, it is instructive firstly to consider the set of 988 domains in the .com zone file with SLDs which are numeric strings below 1,000. Of these, 331 (34%) generate some sort of live website response (i.e. an HTTP status code of 200). It is noteworthy that, of the 224 homepages configured with a webpage title, 99 (44%) are in far-eastern Scripts (mostly Chinese), highlighting the popularity of numeric domains in this region. Also of particular interest is the number of examples where the numeric domain name itself is very closely associated with the brand identity, with notable examples including '76 Gas Stations' (76.com), 'TheNumber118118' (118.com), '311' (music artist; 311.com), '555 International' (555.com), 'Six Eight Six' (apparel; 686.com), and a significant number of casino websites, including '444.com' (444.com), '777 casino' (777.com) and '888' (888.com). Other domains in the dataset also use names of particular relevance, such as 107.com, which re-directs to a prime-number calculator. The dataset also includes examples of what could be considered brand infringements, such as 168.com, which resolves to an e-commerce website (Figure 2), perhaps trading off the popularity of the well-known Chinese marketplace 1688.com. Many of the other domains analysed resolve to pages offering the domain name for sale.
Figure 2: The e-commerce website at 168.com
Several of the longer domain names in the wider dataset appear to have been registered purely for their collectability or tradability (cf. trends seen in blockchain domain names[4] and Web2 domain 'clubs'[5]). Many examples feature repetitions of the same character or group of characters, whilst others feature alternative significance, such as lists of counting numbers, the Fibonacci sequence, or the digits of mathematical constants such as pi (π) or e.
Additionally, there are 818 domains with SLDs consisting only of the digits 0 and 1, and which may be intended to be significance in the context of binary notation. This is particularly noticeable given the peaks in numbers of domains with SLD lengths of multiples of eight characters (Figure 3), given that blocks of eight binary digits (one byte) are a standard way of encoding regular ASCII characters[6].
Figure 3: Numbers of registered numeric .com domain names with SLDs consisting only of the digits 0 and 1, by SLD length (logarithmic scale)
Indeed, if we consider examples where the length is 32, 40, 48 or 56 characters, we find that the SLD names are, in many cases, in fact binary representations of other terms, including brand names (see Appendix A). The exact purpose of these domains - beyond collectability and attempts at monetisation through their sale - is not clear, though some do feature content relevant to the brand referenced in their name, or other material where the binary encoding appears to be a way of 'hiding' the name of the site (Figure 4).
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 4: Examples of live website content on 'binary' numeric domain names - SLDs are:
- (a) 010001110110111101101111011001110110110001100101 ('Google')[7] and 011001110110111101101111011001110110110001100101 ('google')
- (b) 01111001011011110111010101110100011101010110001001100101 ('youtube')
- (c) 01101000011000010110001101101011 ('hack')
- (d) 0100000101010111010100110110001101100010 ('AWScb' - apparently in reference to 'AWS Community Builders')
Amongst the remainder of the domains, there is doubtless a range of other use-cases. For example, there are 1,162 domains in the dataset with SLDs 11 characters in length and beginning with a '0' - i.e. potentially consistent with the format of a telephone number in various countries (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Examples of 'telephone number' domain names: (top to bottom) 07077777777.com; 07178888888.com; 07712361119.com; 07759158517.com[8]
Discussion
The universe of numeric domain names sits alongside the more familiar text-based options, and provides an interesting alternative in terms of branding options and use-cases, particularly in view of the continuing lack of availability of brandable names. Currently, over one million numeric domain names have been registered just on the .com extension.
Numerics are particularly popular in the Chinese-speaking world, where particular numbers can have special cultural significance (e.g. the association of '8' with wealth and fortune, due to the similarity in pronunciation to the character of the same meaning), or where other similarities in pronunciation can convey implied meanings. For example, three highly-priced domain sales in 2021 (2698.com, 8499.com, 9599.com) were for domains ending with '98' or '99', similar to the Chinese terms for 'being rich for a long time' and 'for a long long time'[9]. Moreover, in view of the universal understanding and appeal of numbers, two of the ten most popular Chinese websites are 163.com and 360.cn.
More generally, numeric domain names can be extremely versatile and can convey specific brand messaging, with some very expensive sales reported - these include 360.com ($17M), 123.com ($3.2M), 114.com ($2.1M), 520.com ($1.6M) and 999.com ($1.2M)[10].
Numerics may also be amenable to familiar types of brand abuse, such as the use of popular, common or other strings which may be similar to (numeric) brand terms to drive traffic to third-party, potentially infringing content.
Moreover, there have been instances of UDRP disputes involving numeric domains, such as the 2016 case brought by Cube Limited, the owner of a number of gambling-related marks named '188', against the registrant of a group of eight six-digit numeric .com domains all beginning with 188 (and displaying advertisements relating to betting) and resulting in the transfer of the domains[11]. A year earlier, the owner of 11315.com - trading as '11315 Credit Services' - had won the transfer of 11315.so[12]. The list of UDRP cases from 2024[13] includes a dispute regarding the domain name 100101.art[14,15]. The domain formerly resolved to an NFT marketplace and now displays a parking page following successful transfer to the complainant, the owner of the EU word mark '10101'.
Other attractive characteristics of numeric domains are also apparent from the dataset. It is clear, for example, that collectable and tradable domain names are of appeal to some users, as is the use of binary encoding to 'hide' brand names or other terms within the domain name for sites which - in some cases - may also be of concern or infringing for other reasons.
Appendix A: List of binary numeric .com domain names
| Domain name |
SLD length (characters) |
Decoding of SLD name |
|---|---|---|
| 00110001001100110011001100110111.com | 32 | 1337 |
| 01000011010010000100000101010100.com | 32 | CHAT |
| 01000100011001010100011001101001.com | 32 | DeFi |
| 01001100011011110111011001100101.com | 32 | Love |
| 01001101010001010101010001000001.com | 32 | META |
| 01001101011000010111001001110011.com | 32 | Mars |
| 01001101011001010111010001100001.com | 32 | Meta |
| 01100010011010010110111001100111.com | 32 | bing |
| 01100010011011000110111101100111.com | 32 | blog |
| 01100011011010000110000101110100.com | 32 | chat |
| 01100011011011110110010001100101.com | 32 | code |
| 01100011011011110110110001100101.com | 32 | cole |
| 01100011011011110111001001110000.com | 32 | corp |
| 01100100011000010111010001100001.com | 32 | data |
| 01101000011000010110001101101011.com | 32 | hack |
| 01101101011011110110111101101110.com | 32 | moon |
| 01110000011010000110100101101100.com | 32 | phil |
| 01110000011100110111001001100111.com | 32 | psrg |
| 01110010011000010110110001100110.com | 32 | ralf |
| 01110010011011110110111101110100.com | 32 | root |
| 01110011011010000110111101110000.com | 32 | shop |
| 01110100011000010111100101100001.com | 32 | taya |
| 01110101011001100110111100001010.com | 32 | ufo |
| 01111000011011110111001001011111.com | 32 | xor_ |
| 0011010000110010001100000000110100001010.com | 40 | 420 |
| 0100000101010011010000110100100101001001.com | 40 | ASCII |
| 0100000101010111010100110110001101100010.com | 40 | AWScb |
| 0100000101110000011100000110110001100101.com | 40 | Apple |
| 0110111001101111011011000111010001100101.com | 40 | nolte |
| 0111010001100101011100110110110001100001.com | 40 | tesla |
| 010000010110110001101001011000110110100101100001.com | 48 | Alicia |
| 010000010110110101100001011110100110111101101110.com | 48 | Amazon |
| 010001110100111101001111010001110100110001000101.com | 48 | |
| 010001110110111101101111011001110110110001100101.com | 48 | |
| 010010100100000101010010010101100100100101010011.com | 48 | JARVIS |
| 010100110110100101110010011010010111010101110011.com | 48 | Sirius |
| 011000100110100101101110011000010111001001111001.com | 48 | binary |
| 011000110110111101101110011011000110000101101110.com | 48 | conlan |
| 011001110110111101101111011001110110110001100101.com | 48 | |
| 011100000110000101111001011100000110000101101100.com | 48 | paypal |
| 011100110110010101110010011001110110100101101111.com | 48 | sergio |
| 011101000110100001110010011001010110010100100000.com | 48 | three |
| 011101110110010101100010001101000110000101101001.com | 48 | web4ai |
| 01000001011100100110110101100001011011100110010001101111.com | 56 | Armando |
| 01011010010001010101001001001111010011110100111001000101.com | 56 | ZEROONE |
| 01100010011001010110001101101000011101000110110001100101.com | 56 | bechtle |
| 01100010011010010111010001100011011011110110100101101110.com | 56 | bitcoin |
| 01100010011010010111010001100110011011000110100101110000.com | 56 | bitflip |
| 01100010011010010111010001100110011011000110100101110001.com | 56 | bitfliq |
| 01100011011010000110000101110100010001110101000001010100.com | 56 | chatGPT |
| 01111001011011110111010101110100011101010110001001100101.com | 56 | youtube |
References
[1] 'Patterns in Brand Monitoring' (D.N. Barnett, Business Expert Press, 2025), Chapter 9: 'Domain landscape analysis'
[3] Note that this overview is based on the list of domains present in the .com zone file as of the date of analysis. However, the absence of a domain from the zone file does not necessarily mean that the name is unregistered and available, as other factors (such as the domain having being put 'on hold', or having no associated nameservers) may result in the domain being absent from the file. For example, the majority of one-letter names have been explicitly reserved by IANA (the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) since the early 1990s.
[4] 'Patterns in Brand Monitoring' (D.N. Barnett, Business Expert Press, 2025), Chapter 13: 'Analysing trends in Web3'
[5] https://vision.io/ (formerly https://ens.vision/market)
[6] https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/binary-to-ascii.html
[7] Note that a .eth blockchain domain with the same SLD is offered for sale at https://vision.io/name/ens/010001110100111101001111010001110100110001000101.eth
[8] Screenshot courtesy of Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/web/20240913005719/http://07759158517.com/); telephone code consistent with that given at https://pitchbook.com/profiles/person/233703-37P
[10] https://www-bak.gname.com/news/20231101123113.html
[11] https://domaingang.com/domain-law/udrp-for-188-domains-puts-owners-of-short-numerics-in-danger/
[12] https://www.thedomains.com/2015/11/10/five-number-domain-lost-in-udrp/
[13] https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/casesx/all.html
[14] D2024-1039, onezeroonezeroone d.o.o. vs. Gleb Martynov
[15] https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/pdf/2024/d2024-1039.pdf
This article was first published on 12 December 2024 at:
https://www.iamstobbs.com/opinion/the-universe-of-numeric-domain-names
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