The number of .vip domain registrations grew 49 percent in the three days from 3 to 6 June, the registry announced.

As of 16:00 UTV on 6 June there were 404,892 registrations which would mean the gTLD would sit seventh on the nTLDstats.com list of new gTLDs when it is updated.

The gTLD has been a financial boon for the Minds + Machines Group with billings and orders received since its launch on 17 May 2016 now exceeding US$5.5 million.

“The exceptional take-up we are seeing of .vip is being achieved without using a freemium strategy or equivalent to boost numbers – the latest surge coming from standard name registrations bought through the registrar channel,” said Toby Hall, CEO of MMX. “This bodes well for renewal rates and the long-term reputation of the domain. We very much look forward to the ongoing growth of .vip billings.”

.VIP was awarded “China’s Most Welcomed New gTLD 2016” at the Global Domain Summit in Hangzhou this weekend MMX announced. Both the Summit and .VIP are new to China, with .VIP being born only 17 days before the major new domain investment conference was staged for the first time. The award, granted by the largest gathering of Chinese domain name investors and professionals in history, beat out more than 1,000 other new gTLDs currently delegated to the internet. .VIP has also been awarded the Outstanding Performer in the Chinese IDC industry at HostingCon China.

The Chinese domain investors have taken to the new gTLD market and of the 21.442 million domains registered across the 1,025 new gTLDs that have been delegated, account for 10.116 million registrations where the registrant is known or 47.18 percent of the market. The registrant is unknown in 17.06 percent of registrations while the USA accounts for 10.04 percent, Cayman Islands 6.52 percent and Germany 2.48 percent.

For .vip while the numbers aren’t known, Chinese registrars account for around 90 percent of all registrations indicating Chinese registrants are dominating the gTLD’s registrations.