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Jesse Friedman brings together domain experts from across Automattic for a unique registrar registry roundtable. Leanne Hogben from the registry team, Ronald Gijsel who leads registrar partnerships, Elise Prather from WP Cloud business development, and Joshua Goode from technical solutions share insights on how domains and hosting intersect in the WordPress ecosystem.

The conversation covers the upcoming opportunity to apply for new domain extensions starting in April 2025, the first time since 2012 that new generic top-level domains will be available. The team explores how registrars can move beyond transactional domain sales to offer complete publishing solutions, and why diversity in hosting providers strengthens the open web.

For hosting companies and registrars looking to expand their offerings, this episode provides practical insights on leveraging domains as the entry point to WordPress hosting. The discussion includes strategies for niche hosting solutions, the technical considerations for different use cases like e-commerce versus blogs, and how infrastructure-as-a-service approaches can help domain companies compete with established hosts.

00:00 Teaser
16:46 What's the difference between registries and registrars?
17:59 What new domain opportunities are opening up in 2026?
22:26 How do registrars preserve the open web?
24:26 How can domain sales connect better with WordPress publishing?
31:56 Why should registrars consider offering hosting services?
36:31 What technical challenges do registrars face when entering hosting?
39:11 How can hosting packages be optimized for different use cases?
42:25 Conclusion