ShortDot discloses 40 applications and 80 proposed strings

ShortDot published its 2026-round portfolio on 8 September 2026. Its disclosure page states that ShortDot (Ireland) Limited, which it names as the applicant entity within the ShortDot group, submitted 40 applications to ICANN’s 2026 New gTLD Program, and that those applications carry 40 primary applied-for strings and 40 designated replacement strings. Every one of the 80 is three or four letters long.

The company groups the 80 into seven sets of its own, and says the groupings are a way to explore the portfolio rather than a property of the applications. Its own order, with the strings alphabetical inside each group:

• AI & Technology, 13: .agi, .api, .bit, .core, .dna, .gen, .hub, .key, .lab, .mcp, .neo, .root and .unit.
• Action & Utility, 15: .aid, .aim, .ask, .dig, .find, .fix, .get, .hit, .let, .mix, .see, .set, .tap, .try and .way.
• Business & Ambition, 14: .ace, .big, .bold, .fab, .flex, .gig, .goat, .good, .hero, .icon, .max, .mvp, .tag and .xxl.
• Identity & Collaboration, 7: .bro, .crew, .duo, .fam, .solo, .sub and .uni.
• Culture & Expression, 13: .glow, .hip, .lit, .mood, .omg, .pop, .slay, .vibe, .wild, .xoxo, .yay, .yes and .zzz.
• Lifestyle & Wellbeing, 5: .air, .gym, .heal, .moon and .zen.
• Everyday Language & Discovery, 13: .age, .amp, .ego, .era, .eye, .gem, .hey, .inn, .jet, .owl, .pod, .soon and .why.

The seven counts add to 80, and every published string is distinct.

Which 40 are primary is not public

The page is explicit about what it withholds. The 80 strings are shown, in its words, “without revealing their status or pairing”, and its notice repeats that each application can ultimately proceed with only one confirmed string.

That single sentence decides how these records read here. A replacement string is reachable only if the primary it rides with fails, so two applicants naming the same string are in a contention set only when both filed it as primary. All 80 are recorded on this tracker with an unknown primary-or-replacement status, and none of the overlaps below is a contention set on the strength of this source.

Tracker impact

Thirty-three of the 80 are new to the current catalog: .ace, .age, .aim, .amp, .bold, .bro, .crew, .dig, .duo, .ego, .fam, .flex, .gem, .gig, .glow, .hero, .hip, .inn, .let, .lit, .mix, .mood, .owl, .root, .slay, .solo, .soon, .try, .unit, .why, .xoxo, .xxl and .yay. The catalog moves from 733 current strings to 766.

The other 47 already carried at least one public claimant. Thirteen of them already had more than one, so adding ShortDot moves 34 further rows from a single current claimant to more than one, and the number of strings with more than one public claimant moves from 98 to 132.

.bit now carries five public claimants, more than any other string in these records: dnrater, Link Freedom Group, Oinkadot, Radix and ShortDot. Behind it sit .agi, .fab, .hub and .vibe, with four public claimants each. Primary-or-replacement status is unstated on at least one side of every one of those overlaps.

The company

ShortDot’s page says it was not an applicant in the 2012 round, began operating registries in 2018 with .icu, and now runs .bond, .cfd, .cyou and .sbs alongside it. It says it also provides registry services for .buzz and .qpon and has been entrusted with .hiphop and .lk, and that it manages more than four million domains with over 400 accredited registrar partners.

Only ICANN’s own publication can establish the applicant list for any of these strings, and which application in each pair is the primary. Until then these 80 rows record a public disclosure, not a filing ICANN has confirmed.