.import
Is .import a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody is chasing .import, 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 real trade-industry word, but importers overwhelmingly stay on .com, so expect modest, price-driven uptake rather than a go-to address.
import/export firms, sourcing agents, customs brokers, and cross-border e-commerce sellers, plus a small fringe of developers drawn to the programming keyword
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “Bringing the world's goods home.”
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: an open, unowned commerce-activity word sold as primary identity to the merchant/intermediary class that moves goods for a living, where value depends on that trade sector self-identifying by function rather than by brand.
Same word family and same function-as-identity bet for firms whose business IS the transaction, but the gerund pulls a financial-markets registrant pool alongside the goods-trade one, splitting the buyer from .import's narrower cross-border-goods audience.
Also a generic business-function noun bet on wholesale/distribution firms naming themselves after their role in the goods chain, though it sells a domestic supplier identity rather than the border-crossing one that gives .import its specificity.
What a .import domain is
.import 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 .import today. The applicants that claimed it are out.
Is the .import domain extension real yet?
.import 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 .import domain?
You can’t yet. A .import 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 .import was .trade, delegated on 19 March 2014.
Is .import a real TLD?
Not yet. .import is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant claimed .import 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
“.import · Trade & Logistics · “Bringing the world's goods home.””Journey To The West Corporation
- The string is a genuine, high-usage commercial term with a real industry behind it, which keeps it out of the vanity/joke band; but the closest analogous sector strings (.trade, .shipping — analogy, exact figures unknown) have historically leaned on discount-driven registration volume with little primary-identity adoption, and trade/logistics firms are among the most .com-conservative buyers, which keeps it below the strong-niche band. That places it in 30-49: usable but limited, weak brand signal, thin aftermarket. A secondary tailwind is the programming keyword ('import' in Python/JavaScript), which by analogy with dev-hack TLDs could drive a small stream of tooling-brand registrations. The applicant is a Beijing-based portfolio filer with a published list of 323 submitted strings, positioning the TLD for trade and logistics; its home market's cross-border commerce sector is the most plausible adoption wedge. Main market uncertainty: whether Chinese cross-border e-commerce and sourcing businesses will adopt a sector TLD as a primary identity at all, versus treating it as defensive or promotional inventory.