.groupbuy
Is .groupbuy a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody is chasing .groupbuy, as of 7 October 2026. One applicant claimed it and is out. We keep the entry on the record either way.
- Journey To The West
A narrow label for deal and bulk-buying sites; most serious commerce brands would pick a broader name, so demand stays shallow.
operators of group-buying, bulk-purchase, and deals platforms — small e-commerce ventures, community purchasing co-ops, and B2B group-purchasing organizations wanting a self-describing address
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “Better prices, unlocked by buying together.”
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 generic noun naming one specific buying mechanic, open to any operator whose whole business is that mechanic, winning only if "the transaction model" is a strong enough identity to displace a brand domain.
Same bet in a different vertical: a compound describing a single niche transaction mechanic, usable only by the narrow set of firms that run that exact mechanic, so its ceiling is the size of that one business model rather than a whole industry.
Also a discount-instrument generic that deal operators would put primary identity on, but it names the artifact consumers already hold rather than the collective-purchase mechanic itself, so its buyer pool is broader and less model-locked.
What a .groupbuy domain is
.groupbuy is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Commerce. Nobody is chasing .groupbuy today. The applicants that claimed it are out.
Is the .groupbuy domain extension real yet?
.groupbuy is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .groupbuy domain?
You can’t yet. A .groupbuy 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 .groupbuy was .auction, delegated on 18 July 2014.
Is .groupbuy a real TLD?
Not yet. .groupbuy is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant claimed .groupbuy and is no longer in it. We keep the entry, and every entry on this page links to its source.
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
“.groupbuy · Digital Commerce · “Better prices, unlocked by buying together.””Journey To The West Corporation
- I place .groupbuy in the 10-29 band (vanity/narrow) at 19. It describes a business model rather than a product category, and the model is dominated by a handful of large platforms that brand on their own names, not on a descriptive suffix — by analogy, descriptive commerce strings like .deals, .discount, and .promo have seen registrations mostly on price with little primary-identity use and thin aftermarkets. It is not in the 30-49 band because there is no sign of volume or category demand for an eight-character model-descriptor string, and the natural buyer pool (group-buying operators) is small; it is not in the 1-9 band because a real, if small, set of deals sites, purchasing co-ops, and B2B group-purchasing organizations could plausibly use it as a literal, memorable address. Group buying is culturally biggest in China, yet this is an English string, which further splits the addressable audience — that mismatch is an inference from adoption patterns of English generic TLDs among Chinese businesses, flagged as analogy. Main market uncertainty: whether a resurgence of social/community commerce in Western markets creates a fresh cohort of small group-buying startups that want a self-describing domain.