What is .taobao?
Brand TLDs operate under Specification 13 of ICANN's registry agreement. It lets a trademark owner keep every second-level name for itself, so you won't find .taobao names for sale at any registrar.
ICANN's records put the delegation of .taobao on January 21, 2016. Like most of the newer endings, it was applied for in the 2012 New gTLD Program round and its registry agreement was signed on January 15, 2015.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited also runs 3 other TLDs, including .alibaba, .alipay and .tmall.
Under the hood, the root zone points to 4 name servers for .taobao, every one of them reachable over IPv6. The delegation is DNSSEC-signed, so resolvers can verify that answers for .taobao haven't been tampered with on the way. Registration data is published over RDAP and WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.nic.taobao).
Same registry, other endings
3 other TLDs share this operator.
.taobao FAQ
What country is .taobao?
None. .taobao is a generic top-level domain, so it isn't tied to any country.
Who owns the .taobao domain extension?
Alibaba Group Holding Limited operates .taobao as its registry, under a registry agreement with ICANN.
When was .taobao created?
.taobao was delegated to the DNS root zone on January 21, 2016.
Is .taobao a valid domain?
Yes. .taobao is an active top-level domain in the DNS root zone, delegated in 2016, so .taobao addresses work in every browser.
Can I buy a .taobao domain?
No. .taobao is a brand TLD under ICANN Specification 13, so names are reserved for Alibaba Group Holding Limited.
Is .taobao DNSSEC-signed?
Yes, the root zone holds a DS record for .taobao.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed August 27, 2025. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
