.bao
Is .bao a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.bao is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is XYZ. .TOP Registry named .bao as a backup string for its .sou application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A short Chinese-flavoured word (bun, treasure, bag) that could sell on price in China and food niches, but few projects would build on it.
Chinese-language and diaspora small businesses, bao-bun restaurants and food brands, and price-driven registrants who want a short three-letter pinyin-style name
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .sou 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: a three-letter pinyin common word carrying several unrelated Chinese meanings at once, run as an open generic whose registrants are small Chinese-market businesses reached through registrar pricing rather than any single category that would make the string an obvious primary identity.
Same bet: a short romanized Chinese common noun sold as an open namespace where the string is semantically inert to Latin-script readers, so volume depends entirely on Chinese-channel distribution rather than on the word doing recognizable work in a buyer's name.
Same pinyin-generic, price-driven channel bet aimed at Chinese-market registrants, but its meanings point more squarely at one idea (net/king) than the target's scattered bun/treasure/bag readings, so it asks less explaining of a registrant.
What a .bao domain is
.bao is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Commerce. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .bao domain extension real yet?
.bao 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 .bao domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .bao name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .bao was .xin, delegated on 7 March 2015.
Is .bao a real TLD?
Not yet. .bao is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .bao is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited), at its floor. The string reads as pinyin for several common Chinese words (bun, treasure, bag, protect) and as the English-borrowed food term for steamed buns, so it has real semantic hooks in Chinese-language commerce and in food culture, but the ambiguity means it signals no single category and would need explaining as a primary identity. By analogy (flagged as analogy), short pinyin-style Latin-script TLDs from the previous round tended to see registrations driven by promotional pricing through Chinese-market registrars, with thin end-use and a weak aftermarket; that pattern is what places .bao above the vanity band rather than in the strong-niche band. It is not in the 10-29 band because the string is a plausible brand suffix for a volume of small Chinese-market and food businesses rather than a one-off joke, and it is not in 50-69 because there is no identifiable community for which .bao would be an unexplained default. The record shows a single confirmed applicant, XYZ.COM LLC, with no category tag recorded; other registration or demand figures are unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether distribution into mainland Chinese registrar channels actually materialises (which would drive volume) or whether demand stays limited to the Western food-and-diaspora niche, where it would sit nearer the top of the vanity band.