.zoo
Is .zoo a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .zoo in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. XYZ named .zoo as the replacement string of its .zzz application.
A fun, memorable word that few real zoos or serious projects would make their main address; mostly novelty and playful branding.
zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks wanting a short memorable address, plus playful brands and machine-learning projects riffing on "model zoo"
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
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 as .zoo: a generic venue-type noun whose only natural primary registrants are a small, finite set of place-based cultural institutions that already carry their own proper names, so the string has to persuade incumbents to re-identify rather than attract new buyers.
Also a category noun for a physical institution with a closed, licensed operator base that is already branded by city or founder, so value depends on institutional adoption rather than open registration demand — but the addressable market and willingness to pay are far larger than a zoo's.
Shares .zoo's economics of a narrow, non-commercial, civic/sentimental noun with a very small addressable base and no business-category depth, though its buyer skews to individuals commemorating someone rather than to a chartered institution.
What a .zoo domain is
.zoo is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. Nobody has applied for .zoo in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .zoo domain extension real yet?
.zoo 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 .zoo domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .zoo name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .zoo was .theater, delegated on 6 May 2015.
Is .zoo a real TLD?
Not yet. .zoo is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .zoo as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- XYZ · first recordedICANN
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/joke/narrow). The string is a real dictionary noun with a real institutional constituency (zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks), which keeps it above the 1-9 band, and it has secondary playful uses ("it's a zoo" slang, petting.zoo-style names) plus an AI-adjacent hook in the machine-learning term "model zoo" for collections of pretrained models. It is not in the 30-49 band because, by analogy (flagged as analogy), institution-targeted strings such as .museum saw institutions keep their established .org identities rather than migrate, and the number of zoo-type institutions worldwide is small and already well-served; the likelier registrant is a hobbyist or a brand making a one-line joke, which is shallow, event-driven demand with a thin aftermarket. Applicant facts, stated neutrally from the verified block: one standard application is on the record, from XYZ.COM LLC, recorded as a replacement string for a primary .zzz application, with no contention recorded; a single-applicant standard string suggests an open generic launch rather than a community-restricted one, which by analogy to other open animal/pet-style generics (.pet, .dog, .fish — analogy) points to modest volumes, often price-driven. Main market uncertainty: whether the machine-learning "model zoo" convention turns into real primary-identity use by AI teams, or whether any sizable zoo or aquarium group adopts the string as its main web identity; either would lift it toward the low 30s.