.monster

.monster is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) owned by XYZ.com. Originally delegated in 2014 by the employment website Monster.com as a brand-specific domain name, .monster was acquired by XYZ in 2019 as a general domain.

==History== Following the announcement in January 2012 that Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for internet top-level domains, were accepting applications for new domain names, both the audio and video cable manufacturer Monster Cable and the employment website Monster.com sought to register the gTLD .monster as a dot-brand, a type of gTLD restricted to use by a specific company. Though they both applied prior to June 2012, the date ICANN revealed the names of early applicants, the matter of which would ultimately acquire the domain was not settled until late 2014. The two companies were scheduled to participate in an auction, ICANN's "mechanism of last resort" for unresolvable disputes over the owner of a domain, that December; a week prior, Monster Cables withdrew their application, leaving Monster.com to acquire the gTLD. Monster.com's application referred to .monster as a "restricted, exclusively-controlled gTLD" for which only the company themselves and "authorized business partners" could register domains, with parties who were unconnected to Monster.com or deemed to use .monster domains in ways that harmed the company's "brand reputation" at risk of suspension without warning.