.sample

Is .sample a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?

Commerce
applicants
  • Journey To The West CorporationAnnounced
on the record since Aug 17, 2026 · updated Aug 17, 2026
AI score
18/ 100
Vanity and narrow

A word that means "not the real thing" — handy for sample-order pages, but few serious projects would live at a .sample address.

assessed by claude-fable-5 · Aug 17, 2026
AI score 18 of 100. .com scores 96, .ai scores 84.
who it’s for

manufacturers, wholesalers and sourcing platforms offering product-sample orders; secondarily music-sample libraries and marketing teams running free-sample promotions

CommerceCultureOther
applicants
1 on file
Journey To The West CorporationAnnounced
Aug 17, 2026

In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “The first piece, before the big order.”

closest 2012 bets
3 of 1,408

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.

.promostrong parallel
delegated 2015 · live

Same bet: a thin, singular English marketing-utility noun with no industry vertical and no registrant who would put a primary identity on it, sold instead as a campaign or secondary address for brands running offers.

uncontested · scored 40* in 2012 · run by Play.PROMO Oy

.freemoderate
delegated 2016 · live

Same underlying commercial premise of try-it-at-no-cost as the hook, played as a broad meaning-soft common word whose value is marketing pull rather than any defined registrant category.

5 applicants contested it · scored 45* in 2012 · run by Amazon EU S.à r.l.

.gratismoderate
delegated 2014 · live

Another no-charge giveaway word aimed at promotional usage rather than an occupation or community base, though its language-specific audience narrows the buyer pool in a way .sample's plain English does not.

2 applicants contested it · scored 28* in 2012 · run by Pioneer Tigers, LLC

* A separate 2012-only read, time-locked to what was public that year. Different scale from this page’s score — the two are not comparable.

history
  1. Journey To The West Corporation · first recordedAug 17, 2026
    Journey To The West Corporation
news & sources
Announcementxiyou.domains: published portfolio of 323 submitted gTLD applications
.sample · Trade & Logistics · “The first piece, before the big order.”
Journey To The West Corporation
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This record is corrected in the open. See the changelog and methodology.