Bentley abandons .bentley domain name, marking a change in brand TLD trend

Recently, British luxury car manufacturer Bentley Motors decided to abandon its brand top-level domain name (TLD) ".bentley", becoming another representative of a large company abandoning its exclusive TLD. This decision reflects the gradual decline in the use of brand top-level domain names, especially when companies fail to obtain expected returns.

Bentley notified the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on December 13, 2024 to terminate the operation of the ".bentley" domain name. On February 15, ICANN issued a preliminary decision that the domain name would not be transferred to others and launched a one-month public solicitation period. Bentley has now redirected ".bentley" related websites, such as "extraordinaryjourneys.bentley" and "events.bentley", to the main website, returning to the traditional ".com" domain name method.

This move is similar to other large brands such as Philips, Volvo and McDonald's, which have also chosen to abandon brand TLDs due to high maintenance costs, limited consumer acceptance and SEO challenges. Although brand TLDs were once seen as the future of enhancing brand independence and digital identity, the actual effect has not met expectations.

Cost and market acceptance are key factors

The high maintenance cost of brand TLDs is one of the main reasons for companies to abandon them. In addition to registration fees, technical support and promotion expenses are also involved. At the same time, most consumers have not yet widely accepted brand TLDs, resulting in their application failing to significantly enhance brand influence. In addition, traditional ".com" domain names still have an advantage in search engine optimization (SEO), affecting the effectiveness of brand TLDs.

Although brand TLDs were once seen as a new opportunity for corporate digital identity, with the retreat of brands such as Bentley, does this trend mean the end of brand TLDs? In the future, will companies re-evaluate the value of brand TLDs? This remains a topic worth paying attention to.