Google, Apple, Facebook & Microsoft Among Major Brands Buying .sucks Domains

Many of the biggest brands in the world — including tech giants Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook — are buying into the controversial .sucks domain.

Vox Populi, the company that won the rights to sell .sucks domains, opened an early registration period for the new, generic top-level domain (gTLD) on March 30. The company has been showing some of the newly-registered names in a scrolling ticker on NIC.sucks, the registry’s website. In this so-called “sunrise” period, only registered trademark holders can purchase domains that match their company and/or product names, and many of the domain names appearing in the past 72 hours are from recognizable tech companies. Here are some of the registrations I’ve seen listed:

Google

• gmail.sucks
• glass.sucks
• nest.sucks

Apple

• itunes.sucks
• imac.sucks
• osx.sucks
• filemaker.sucks
• itunesradio.sucks
• finalcutpro.sucks
• garageband.sucks
• macbookair.sucks
• facetime.sucks
• carplay.sucks

Microsoft

• outlook.sucks
• windows.sucks
• windowsphone.sucks
• msn.sucks
• onenote.sucks

Facebook

• instagram.sucks

In addition to those, Kevin Murphy of Domain Incite wrote last week that he saw another Apple domain, siri.sucks, on the ticker, along with a WordPress-related domain that he didn’t specify. It’s possible that these companies have registered many domains not listed above. John Berard, Vox Populi’s CEO, didn’t respond to an e-mail asking about tech company names not showing on the scroller.

Microsoft: No Intention To Use Our .sucks Domains

A Microsoft person confirmed via e-mail that the company has registered these names to protect its brand, and says it has no intention of ever using the domains.

“Microsoft has registered a number of domains in order to protect the company’s brands. We have done this in order to ensure that these domains will not be used and we do not have any intentions of ever using these domains.”

The Microsoft spokesperson declined to say how many other .sucks domains it’s registered. E-mails sent Sunday to Google, Apple and Facebook about their registrations have not been answered.

.Sucks is one of 500+ new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) approved by ICANN, the international organization that manages the web’s domain system. During the current early registration period, brands are spending $2,500 per year for each .sucks domain, a price that’s caused great controversy in domain and branding circles.

Other major brands with names that have appeared in the NIC.sucks scroller include Wal-Mart, Nike, Verizon, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Red Bull and Kohler.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.