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The five sexiest figures in .xxx

A premature evaluation of ICM Registry's new .xxx domain, which opens to the general public today. 

 

Jordan Valinsky

Internet Culture

Posted on Dec 6, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 12:37 am CDT

Come one, come all. The .xxx domain is finally for sale.

Starting at 11 a.m. ET, ICM Registry will release the domain to the general public for purchase and hopefully force Gavin, the star in those awful .xxx commercials, into unemployment.

While the domain is already racking up big bucks, not everyone is titillating with excitement. So here are the five numbers you need to know before you start your own Vivid Entertainment.

100,000
That’s the number of .xxx websites already registered since the launch of .xxx, according to Business Insider. The domain has been up for sale since the summer. Priority was given to porn companies, adult-oriented businesses, and some colleges snagged the domain to protect their reputation. Starting today, you can get yours on a first come, first served basis, which incidentally sounds like the purpose of all pornos.

10,000,000
That’s the number of curious web surfers that have visited buy.xxx, ICM Registry’s online storefront, according to The Domains. The site is simple and—disappointingly—not very risque, but the television and radio advertisements apparently did work.

$500,000
That’s how much gay porn studio Corbin Fisher paid for gay.xxx in October. If you go to gay.xxx now, there is, for lack of a better word, a splash page for the studio’s upcoming mega-porn site that probably isn’t safe for work unless you work at a bath house… or the Daily Dot.

$79
That’s how much it will cost you to register the .xxx domain at 101Domain.com, the cheapest registrar we found. There is a $19 “non refundable pre-registration fee” and the charge is yearly. The most you will pay is $99 at GoDaddy, but they forgo the registration fee so it evens out.

0
That’s the number of Manwin websites that will end in .xxx. They are the owner of Tube8, YouPorn, and other sites that you might find buried in your browser’s history. The companies said they will “cease any and all Internet liaisons with the .xxx Top Level Domain,” according to AVN. Last month, Manwin sued ICM Registry and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for uncompetitive practices and price gouging.

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*First Published: Dec 6, 2011, 11:56 am CST