During a special meeting in Singapore, ICANN's board has approved a plan to increase the number of Internet generic top-level domains (gTLD). From now on, any organization, brand, city or territory will be able to have their own domain extension on Internet. Today's decision is the biggest expansion ever, as the current system is based on 22 top level domains (TLD) as well as the country-code top level domains (ccTLD) which add up to 250. This is one of the biggest changes in the for decades of Internet history.
This opening will not only be addressed to organizations, who will be able to have their own generic domains (.google o .yahoo) but also to communities, regions and cities which will be able to use relevant extensions (.gal, .berlin, .mad, .bcn,...), which include the cities name or any organization who wants to create a new extension and commercialize it (.bank, .eco, .car,...).
For some organizations, this is the ideal opportunity to assure their organization's name as a domain “.mybrand” and this represents a significant market opportunity. It also provides a bigger control of organizations on their domain web, which allows them to protect their brand and create confidence on the digital world which is getting more complex.
Also, the domains can be registered in any language or script, which means there are infinite possibilities for domain names. ICANN doesn't reject an auction system if there are more than one legitimate candidate for the same domain name. According to some members of this entity, this opening will change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. The domain endings will include any word in any language (including characters from any alphabet), allowing organizations from all the world to commercialize their brand, products, community or the cause of innovations.
New gTLD Program Timeline:
- 20 June 2011: New gTLD program approved.- 12 January 2012: Program application period starts.
- 12 April 2012: Applicationwindowis closed.Applications will be published 15 days later.
- November 2012: Initial Evaluation Results Publication.
- From that moment registrars will be accepted and the first domains could be active on 2013.
The cost of each of this domain extensions will be more than 180.000 dollars and operating this registration will imply an annual payment of 25.000 dollars. This type of prices is thought to prevent the illegal use of these domains. Once the request period is closed there will probably be no more opportunities in 2 or 3 years. ICANN expects between 300 and 1.000 new TLD's which could be created at the start of the new program.
If you want more information about the new gTLD or want to register the domain your .BRAND get in touch with Entorno Digital.
