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Aussies get to drop the .com

Kevin Murphy, April 19, 2016, 11:51:46 (UTC), Domain Registries

Australia’s ccTLD manager has confirmed that local registrants will be able to register .au domains at the second level, eschewing the usual .com.
auDA said yesterday that its board has approved a plan that will let people register names such as example.au, rather than example.com.au or example.org.au.
The country follows the example of New Zealand and the UK, which have also started to permit second-level registrations in recent years.
auDA agreed with its policy committee that direct .au registrations would:

– make available domain names which are shorter, more appealing and more memorable
– give Australians more choice in deciding what domain name to register
– respond to market demand
– be more attractive to natural individuals than the current option, id.au
– strengthen the “.au brand” in a globally competitive market
– add value to all three main categories of users – registrars and resellers, registrants and ultimate users of the .au domain name system.

There’s no timeline yet on when 2LDs will become available, much less a policy on how potential conflicts will be handled, but auDA said it will provide updates later in the year.


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