New gTLD registrants now at 290

There are now 290 registered users of ICANN’s Top-Level Domain Application System, according to the organization.

As before, there’s not a one-to-one mapping of TAS accounts to gTLD applications, because each account can hold up to 50 applications.

It’s difficult to estimate how many individual gTLD applications these 290 slots represent, but I expect it could be easily double that number.

Many attendees at ICANN 43 in Costa Rica last week were expecting a last-minute rush of TAS registrations over the next 10 days before ICANN closes the doors to new registrants.

Big brands are expected to be among the last to sign up for their TAS accounts, but perhaps not for the reasons you might think.

In order to sign up for a TAS account, you have to answer the first handful of basic Applicant Guidebook questions by including the contact details of the applying entity and its officers.

For many organizations, getting this information has apparently caused difficulties internally – directors of large public companies for example don’t want to hand over their home addresses, even though ICANN has promised not to publish them.

Despite all the other controversies, vagaries and uncertainties in the Guidebook, simply confirming the name of the applicant is turning out to be a big problem for some applicants.

Some likely applicants are therefore likely to set up a shell LLC or two, along with a bunch of straw-men officers, before registering with TAS.

This, according to consultants and registries, is one of the major reasons ICANN might see a last-minute rush of applicants shortly before the March 29 registration deadline.

GMO to apply for .yokohama

GMO Registry has said it has obtained government consent to apply to ICANN for yet another Japanese city top-level domain.

This time it’s .yokohama for Yokohama, which with 3.7 million inhabitants is Japan’s second-largest city.

GMO has also been successful in bids for support for .tokyo, .osaka and .kyoto applications.

Other Japanese geo-gTLDs expected to be applied for include .okinawa, .sendai, .wakayama and .ryukyu.

Survey says 44% of brands to apply for gTLDs

Forty-four percent of major consumer brands plan to apply for dot-brand top-level domains, according to a survey carried out on behalf of Afilias.

The research, carried out in the UK and US by Vanson Bourne, found that only 82% companies were aware of their ability to participate in the the new gTLD program.

That’s a high number, but it still suggests that almost one in five companies are still completely oblivious about the program, despite months of media coverage and ICANN outreach.

Of those companies stating that they are aware of the program, 54% plan to apply and 40% are still thinking about it.

The survey covered 200 consumer-facing businesses with 3,000-10,000+ employees and was carried out in February.

ICANN has no plans to extend new gTLD window

The March 29 and April 12 deadlines to register for and submit new gTLD applications are currently not open to negotiation, according to ICANN chair Steve Crocker.

“We don’t really have any indication of sufficient reasons to change the schedule,” Crocker said at a press conference here at ICANN’s public meeting in Costa Rica this afternoon.

“We have no proposals we are actively working on to cause it to be changed at the moment,” he said. “The message needs to be understood that the application window will close April 12.”

I asked about the possibility of an extension largely because almost every registry services provider and new gTLD consultant I’ve talked to recently is expecting a mad rush of new gTLD applicants.

There are only 17 days remaining for applicants to sign up for a TLD Application System account. After March 29, applicants then have two weeks to file and pay for their applications.

Despite these pressing deadlines, many potential applicants – including dot-brands and some geographic gTLDs – have yet to make their minds up about applying.

Other confirmed applicants still haven’t selected their partners – I heard today about a city gTLD with a tender offer closing March 20, just nine days before the sign-up deadline.

ICANN said today that it has 254 registered TAS users.

A last-minute stampede for application services seems likely. With a limited number of registry back-end providers and decent consultants on the market, we could see bottlenecks.

But it seems that the ICANN board — which is the only body that could extend the schedule — has no plans to do so presently.

Aussie telco to apply for dot-brand gTLD

ARI Registry Services has managed to persuade another client to come clean about its dot-brand gTLD plans.

According to a report in the Australian press, Perth-based carrier/ISP iiNet plans to apply for .iinet using ARI for application support.

The report also states that rival telco Optus is mulling its options, while Telstra is saying it will not apply.

ARI has previously announced Singapore telco StarHub and the Australian Football League as dot-brand clients.