.xoxo
Is .xoxo a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.xoxo is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Dynadot. Intercap named .xoxo as a backup string for its .omg application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Cardelina Sociedad por Acciones Simplificada named .xoxo as a backup string for its .official application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. ShortDot named .xoxo as a backup string for its .good application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A weak TLD for most names for personal and vanity registrants, influencers, and small gift, greeting, dating, beauty and fan-community sites wanting a playful "hugs and kisses" name.
personal and vanity registrants, influencers, and small gift, greeting, dating, beauty and fan-community sites wanting a playful "hugs and kisses" name
One of the 80 strings ShortDot published for the ICANN 2026 round. ShortDot states it has submitted 40 applications, but publishes the 80 strings without revealing which 40 are applications and which 40 are designated replacements. The submission claim is therefore applicant-level, not string-level: nothing in the source says ShortDot applied for THIS string. Catalogued, not announced.
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .official application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .omg application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
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.
Same bet exactly: a piece of net-native expressive shorthand that belongs to no company or category, sold on the hope that a playful sign-off registers as an identity people want to type after their own name.
Same bet on an affection word with no incumbent owner and no industry behind it — its registrants are individuals, greeting/gifting and personal-brand sites, and it works only if sentiment alone can carry a namespace.
Also a sentiment expression rather than a category or brand — an affectionate phrase sold as a personal/emotional address — though it is a full spoken phrase for a single language market rather than typed slang shorthand.
What a .xoxo domain is
.xoxo is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .xoxo domain extension real yet?
.xoxo is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .xoxo domain?
You can’t yet. A .xoxo name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .xoxo was .lol, delegated on 2 May 2015.
Is .xoxo a real TLD?
Not yet. .xoxo is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .xoxo is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“CS2595-T95743 · Cardelina Sociedad por Acciones Simplificada · replacement string of .official · Deactivated DL2636T-T20452 · DynaReg LLC · primary IRI2679T-T96739 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .omg · Deactivated NA2626T-T32387 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · replacement string of .good · Deactivated”ICANN
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string is a universally understood affection sign-off, which makes it memorable, but its meaning points to greetings, dating, gifts and fan pages rather than to any category where a serious project needs a primary identity; that keeps it out of 30-49, where a TLD earns at least steady volume use with some utility. By analogy (flagged as analogy, no figures asserted) to affection- and expression-themed TLDs such as .love, .lol and .wtf, demand for this kind of string tends to be event- and promotion-driven with weak renewal and a thin aftermarket. It is above 1-9 because the string is short, recognizable across languages, and would find real if shallow use by personal, beauty, fashion and social registrants. Main market uncertainty: whether a lifestyle or social brand adopts it as a real identity, or whether it becomes another promotional-price volume namespace where registrations arrive at scale and lapse; the recorded operator profile (registry behind .icu, .cyou, .bond, .cfd and .sbs, in the registry business since 2018) suggests the latter distribution path is plausible, which would raise headline counts without raising the value of any single name.