.top

Overview

.top is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) delegated through ICANN's new gTLD program in 2014. The string was marketed to convey "top" or leadership in an industry and to serve as a specialized namespace for rankings and promotional uses.

History

• Applicant and registry operator: Jiangsu Bangning Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (registry backend ZDNS), based in Nanjing, China.
• Application and delegation timeline (selected milestones):
  • Application submitted April 11, 2012; passed initial evaluation March 20, 2013.
  • Registry Agreement signed March 20, 2014.
  • Entered the DNS root zone in August 2014 (delegated in August 2014; root-zone entries noted in early August 2014).
  • Sunrise period: began October 15, 2014.
  • General availability (open registration): November 18, 2014 (registration volume exceeded 10,000 on the first day).
  • April 24, 2015: recorded with China's MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology).
  • January 2016: registry released Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) support.
• Registry metrics: 2,066,084 registered .top domains (data date: 24 January 2023).
• Compliance event: ICANN issued a Notice of Breach to the registry on 16 July 2024 for failing to respond to DNS-abuse reports and for failing to pay fees.

Usage and Audience

• Intended audience and branding:
  • Marketed for businesses or projects that want to convey they are the "top" or best in a category.
  • The original applicant emphasized use as a specialized space for rankings and competition-oriented content, with a focus on the Chinese market and ranking-related services.
• Common uses and examples:
  • Promotional sites, ranking lists and sector-specific "top" pages were part of the registry's stated vision.
  • The TLD has seen broad open registration since November 2014.

Registration Rules

• Registration policy (actual): .top domains have been available for general registration since November 18, 2014 and can be registered by anyone without special requirements.
• Applicant-intended policy: the original application described eligibility tied to organizations or individuals listed on official ranking lists (this reflects the applicant's intended registration vision, not the open-registration practice).
• Allowed characters and syntax:
  • Second-level labels may include letters, digits, hyphens and certain special characters.
  • Length: minimum 1 character, maximum 63 characters per label.
• Registration period: minimum 1 year, maximum 10 years in advance.
• Additional features:
  • WHOIS privacy (private registration) is supported.
  • IDN support: registry supports internationalized domain names including Arabic, Chinese (simplified and traditional), French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish character sets.

SEO and Brand Impact

• Branding: the literal meaning of "top" is intended to signal leadership or premium status, which can be useful for marketing and ranking-oriented pages.
• Trust and abuse concerns:
  • Multiple sources have reported that .top domains are frequently used for malware, phishing and other abuse types.
  • Because of abuse patterns, some security and antimalware vendors (for example, Malwarebytes) include .top in blocklists, and Snort rules block .top DNS queries by default in certain signatures.
  • Coverage by security analysts has described the registry as "phish-friendly," and ICANN's Notice of Breach in 2024 referenced failures to address DNS-abuse reports.
• Practical effect: association with abuse can reduce user trust and may affect deliverability, blocking or filtering by security products and email providers.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Rapid adoption at launch: registration volume reportedly exceeded 10,000 domains on the first day of general availability (18 November 2014).
• Chinese government record: .top was put on record with China's MIIT on April 24, 2015.
• Security and compliance events:
  • Reports and analyses (Cloudflare, KrebsOnSecurity and others) have documented widespread use of .top domains in phishing and malware campaigns.
  • Some antimalware vendors block or flag .top by default.
  • ICANN issued a Notice of Breach to the registry on 16 July 2024 for failures related to DNS-abuse response and fee payment.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       TOP

organisation: .TOP Registry
address:      3th Floor, BangNing Technology Park, 2 YuHua Avenue
address:      Yuhuatai District
address:      Nanjing Jiangsu
address:      China

contact:      administrative
name:         Sven Chen
organisation: Jiangsu Bangning Science & technology Co.,Ltd.
address:      3th Floor, BangNing Technology Park, 2 YuHua Avenue
address:      Yuhuatai District
address:      Nanjing Jiangsu
address:      China
phone:        +86 18936016161
fax-no:       +86 2586883476
e-mail:       support@nic.top

contact:      technical
name:         YiFeng Shen
organisation: Jiangsu Bangning Science & technology Co.,Ltd.
address:      3th Floor, BangNing Technology Park, 2 YuHua Avenue
address:      Yuhuatai District
address:      Nanjing Jiangsu
address:      China
phone:        +86 15895978960
fax-no:       +86 02586883476
e-mail:       tech@nic.top

nserver:      A.ZDNSCLOUD.CN 203.99.24.1
nserver:      B.ZDNSCLOUD.CN 203.99.25.1
nserver:      C.ZDNSCLOUD.COM 203.99.26.1
nserver:      D.ZDNSCLOUD.COM 203.99.27.1
nserver:      F.ZDNSCLOUD.CN 116.169.54.111
nserver:      G.ZDNSCLOUD.COM 223.72.199.37
nserver:      I.ZDNSCLOUD.CN 2401:8d00:1:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      J.ZDNSCLOUD.COM 2401:8d00:2:0:0:0:0:1
ds-rdata:     26780 8 2 5d6e7869ee8e3b536a617de89482ddd1dcb9db9dbb1ac33d6ed351e2ca095b1b

whois:        whois.nic.top

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.nic.top

created:      2014-07-24
changed:      2025-07-29
source:       IANA