By Gabe Bonifacio
Amazon.com Inc., an active participant in the 2012 round of new gTLD applications, is currently leveraging the breadth of creative freedoms and marketability allowed by its .BRAND TLDs. As the company continues to innovate in shopping experiences, tech applications, and original programming and streaming services, its .BRANDs (specifically .AWS and .AMAZON) have gone along for the ride – providing short, memorable names by which they are able to reach their customers, with the .BRANDs anchoring the tail-end of user impressions.
Amazon’s domain registry services hosted on registry.amazon
In 2017, Amazon began publicly utilizing .AWS in marketing campaigns, and in 2021, the company started registering names for their flagship products under .AMAZON, such as prime.amazon and alexa.amazon. Since then, Amazon has continued to leverage these TLDs as a marketing tool, registering names aligning with existing services and new products. Examples include:
- amazon, which is utilized to highlight upcoming features on their Prime video streaming platform;
- amazon, which provides quick access to their domain registry services; and
- aws, which is a recently launched AI-assisted app building platform.
Other corporations, such as Google and Microsoft, have embraced similar strategies, tying products and services to their .BRANDs. Examples include ai.google and registry.google, for their AI platform portal and domain registry services, respectively, offered by Google; and outlook.cloud.microsoft and teams.cloud.microsoft for Microsoft 365’s application platforms.
Amazon’s AWS Skill Builder learning platform hosted on skillbuilder.aws
By leveraging their .BRANDs strategically, Amazon maintains complete control over how its domain names are created, presented, and utilized. Social media links can be shortened into brand-specific domains (as opposed to using the formatting of third-party link shortening services), and consumer messaging can be directly delivered through domain names. Additionally, repeat usage of the .AMAZON and .AWS TLDs can familiarize their audience with predictable naming conventions, which also signals to users that the domain they are accessing is authentic and backed by Amazon’s security infrastructure.
The Next Round for new gTLD applications opens in late April 2026. If your company or organization is interested in applying for a .BRAND TLD, contact us today. Our expert team is prepared to discuss the end-to-end process of application, delegation, and operation of your very own new gTLD, ensuring informed and strategic decision-making for every step along the way.