.餐厅
Is .餐厅 a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.餐厅 is already a TLD, in the DNS root today. In the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, Internet DotTrademark Organisation applied to add .餐廳, another written form of .餐厅 (ICANN calls it an IDN variant label).
A Chinese-script "restaurant" address: clear meaning, but few restaurants in Chinese markets build identity on a web domain at all.
restaurants, food-service chains and dining-platform brands in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Chinese-speaking diaspora markets wanting a Chinese-script web address
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
It is the identical bet — a plain category noun that an individual dining establishment puts its own primary identity on, sold to the same buyer class (independent eateries and chains) with the same requirement that restaurateurs register a web identity at all; only the script and language market differ.
Same shape of bet as the target: a venue-type category noun for the eating-out trade, bought by the operator of a single location who wants the category word as their own address, rather than by a brand or a community.
A non-Latin-script generic sector noun (食品, food) aimed at the same Chinese-language commercial registrant pool and depending on the same precondition — that businesses in a food vertical will adopt a native-script category domain as their main identity — though it names a goods trade rather than a dining venue.
What a .餐厅 domain is
.餐厅 is already a live TLD. It is on our record because its registry operator applied in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round to add the variant spelling .餐廳.
Is the .餐厅 domain extension real yet?
.餐厅 is already a domain extension: it is in the DNS root today. The ICANN 2026 new gTLD round application recorded on this page does not create it. It asks to add the variant spelling .餐廳.
When can you buy a .餐厅 domain?
.餐厅 is already live. Whether you can register a name in it is up to its registry: some live TLDs are open to anyone, others are one company’s private space. What is not settled is whether .餐廳 gets added. It is not in the DNS root yet.
Is .餐厅 a real TLD?
Yes. .餐厅 is already in the DNS root, so names in it resolve. The application on ICANN’s Reveal Day list is to add the variant spelling .餐廳, not to create .餐厅.
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string is the simplified-Chinese word for "restaurant", so meaning is unambiguous and the target category is large, but the buyer group is small businesses in markets where discovery and identity run through platforms, apps and messaging accounts rather than a web address, and where ASCII namespaces (the national ccTLD and .com) remain the default for the businesses that do want one. By analogy (flagged as analogy), the Chinese-script generic gTLDs from the earlier round - words for company, network, shop, online and similar - have shown shallow uptake and little visible primary-identity use or aftermarket, and a dining-specific word narrows that further; the record also notes a traditional-script variant (餐廳) applied by the same applicant, which supports consistency of the namespace across scripts but does not by itself create demand. Not the band above (30-49): there is no sign that registrations would happen at volume or on price in a way that produces a thin but real market; demand looks defensive and event-driven at best. Not the band below (1-9): a real category exists, a Chinese-script address for a restaurant is a plausible if rare choice, and some registration by chains and platform brands is likely. Registration counts, prices and renewal figures for comparable Chinese IDN TLDs: unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether Chinese-language IDN acceptance in mainstream browsers, apps and payment/messaging flows improves enough within five years to make a Chinese-script domain a usable primary identity for a local business.