ICANN conducted Phase 2 of its Global Consumer Research Survey to determine consumer response to domain names, both legacy and new gTLDs. The ICANN commissioned survey conducted by Nielsen included 5,452 consumers ages 18+ in 24 countries and was conducted in 18 languages. This research was aimed at measuring several variables like TLD awareness, consumers’ interaction with sites on classic and new TLDs and their trust in them.

The report provides an overview of which new gTLDs own customer mind share, and also serves as a good comparison between legacy & new gTLDs, from the consumers’ point of view. It is interesting to note that in some geos like Europe, Asia the awareness and visitation level of some legacy gTLDs and new domains are at par.

Radix has created an infographic (below) that specifically focuses on ‘How New gTLDs Fare With Consumers’, highlighting insights from the report:

• 52% of surveyed consumers were aware of at least one new gTLD presented to them
• 7 out of 10 of new-gTLD-aware consumers had visited a site on a new gTLD
• Volume vs. Consumer mindshare: TLDs that top the charts in terms of domain volumes don’t necessarily own equal amount of consumer mindshare
• Time in Market does not impact Consumer Awareness: The amount of time that a TLD has been live for is not proportional to the customer awareness for the extension

All Radix generics—.online, .site, .website, .space—rank high on customer awareness and in some cases are even more popular than legacy TLDs in certain geographies. The high level of consumer awareness and trustworthiness for Radix domains can be attributed to extensive end customer marketing like trade shows, hackathons, online marketing, offline ads on bus shelters etc. and so on.

Consumer awareness has always been a top-priority for Radix since launch, and will continue to be a big focus through 2016 as well with conferences like Dmexco, Tech Crunch San Francisco & London, WordCamp among many other on the roadmap.