A Brand TLD is very similar to a gTLD except it is not offered to the general public. A major benefit in having a Brand TLD is to have 100% control of your domain. It provides greater protection for your brand because no one else can get that domain. When more companies switch to brand based TLDs it will create a higher sense of trust for non .COM domains. As of right now, a lot of companies are still using .COM, so having your own TLD is a great way to set yourself apart from the competition. Anyone can have a generic.com, but owning something like home.yourbrand will make your domain feel special.

Another major benefit of having a Brand TLD is controlling who is allow to use your domain. You can create partnerships and affiliate programs by having partnerfirm.yourbrand as a way to build a connection between the two companies. This will also ensure that your customers are going to the right place for an additional feel of security.

Major companies that have acquired their own Brand TLDs are:

• Barclays switched to home.Barclays
• Canon switched to global.Canon
• Saxo switched to home.Saxo
• Google owns registry.google
• BMW owns the .bmw extension

The cost of registering a brand TLD is $185,000, but there are support programs that will help lower the cost from $185,000 to $47,000. This is still a substantial cost for newer companies so it still seems to be geared toward companies with a lot of disposable income. The window for new gTLD is currently closed and it is not an easy process to apply for your own brand TLD. The process will go through an application review, then there might be a dispute resolution and other process highlight in this chart.

You can visit the ICANN website here.