Adoption of new short and new long TLDs shows strong momentum, while IDN email compatibility continues to evolve across platforms.

A recent study conducted by Radix, one of the world’s largest portfolio registries, evaluated how well e-commerce platforms support domain names and email addresses that use new top-level domains (TLDs). Driven by Radix’s commitment to improving user experience across modern domain formats, the study highlights the progress made, as well as the gaps that remain. The findings support the broader industry goal of Universal Acceptance (UA), championed by the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG), which aims to make the internet more inclusive and accessible for all users.

Radix evaluated 145 e-commerce platforms across 16 categories, including website builders, payment providers, email services, and social media management tools. The study tested whether email addresses using new short TLDs (three characters or fewer, for example, .fun and .uno), new long TLDs (four characters or more, for example, .online and .website), and Internationalized Domain Names (for example, .भारत) were accepted during standard sign-up processes.

Key Findings:

1. 14 out of 16 e-commerce platform categories showed full acceptance of new short and new long TLDs during user sign-ups.
2. New short and new long TLDs achieved a combined acceptance rate of 98.6% across all platforms tested, indicating strong overall support for these domain types in sign-up workflows.
3. IDN-based email addresses had an average acceptance rate of 39.31% across all platforms tested, indicating significantly lower support compared to new short and new long TLDs.

Commenting on the study’s findings, Neha Nair, Trust & Safety Director at Radix, shared, “This study was driven by our intent to stay ahead of issues that users may face when adopting new top-level domains. As a registry operator, we see it as our responsibility to share insights that can support the advancement of Universal Acceptance. The findings highlight both the progress made and the work that still remains to ensure consistent acceptance of newer domain formats. We hope this research contributes to the collective industry effort to build a more inclusive and accessible internet.”

Radix has shared the findings of this study with platform owners and developers to encourage improvements in email validation and domain acceptance. By identifying these gaps, Radix aims to help technical teams align their platforms with Universal Acceptance best practices.