.外贸
Is .外贸 a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody is chasing .外贸, 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 Chinese word for "foreign trade" aimed at exporters whose actual customers mostly cannot read or type Chinese characters.
chinese-language foreign-trade service providers — export agents, sourcing consultancies, trade-training and cross-border e-commerce tooling firms marketing to Chinese-speaking merchants, not to the overseas buyers those merchants sell to
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round; a Chinese-script IDN (“foreign trade”, A-label xn--7rs262j). Their catalog line: “China's goods, sold to the world.”
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 script-native generic commerce noun sold as a sector namespace to Chinese merchants who would put their primary trading identity on it, and it only works if Chinese-script addresses get adopted by the businesses in that trade.
Same bet: a plain Chinese-script noun naming a business function, monetized by every firm and intermediary operating in that function wanting a self-describing address, not by any one brand owner.
Same script-native, business-buyer, generic-noun structure aimed at Chinese companies, but it labels what the registrant IS (a company) rather than the industry it trades in, so the identity claim is broader and less sector-specific.
What a .外贸 domain is
.外贸 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 .外贸 today. The applicants that claimed it are out.
Is the .外贸 domain extension real yet?
.外贸 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 .外贸 domain?
You can’t yet. A .外贸 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 .外贸 was .商城, delegated on 31 March 2014.
Is .外贸 a real TLD?
Not yet. .外贸 is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant claimed .外贸 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
“.外贸 (foreign trade) · Trade & Industry · “China's goods, sold to the world.””Journey To The West Corporation
- I place this in the 10-29 band (vanity/narrow). The string carries a structural mismatch: 外贸 means foreign trade, but an export business's primary web identity faces overseas buyers who generally cannot read or input han characters, so the domain works only for the domestic-facing layer of the trade ecosystem (agents, training, SaaS for merchants). By analogy — flagged as analogy — existing Chinese commerce-themed IDN TLDs such as .商城, .网店 and even the flagship .中国 have seen registrations but very little sustained primary-identity use, with Chinese businesses defaulting to ASCII .com/.cn even for domestic audiences; a narrower trade-jargon string is unlikely to outperform them over the next 5 years. It is not in the 30-49 band because neither volume registration nor a credible brand signal is likely given that IDN precedent and the audience mismatch; it is above the 1-9 band because a real, sizable domestic 外贸-services sector exists in China and some genuine defensive and marketing registrations are plausible. Applicant context is neutral: the string comes from a large portfolio applicant (323 strings announced 2026-08-17, 69 Chinese-script IDNs), which informs adoption support expectations only. Main market uncertainty: whether Chinese-script domains achieve any meaningful primary-identity adoption among domestic merchant-facing services in the next 5 years, or remain redirect/defensive assets.