Brazil loses its only registrar as UOL bows out
There are now no ICANN-accredited registrars in Brazil, following the termination of Universo Online’s contract this week.
I understand the agreement was ended at UOL’s request. It’s not a case of it breaching its contract.
UOL is a big deal in Brazil, getting beaten in the eyeballs stakes only by the likes of Google and Facebook, but as a registrar it wasn’t in the top 100 globally.
It had a little over 100,000 gTLD domains under management at the last count, with a peak over the last five years of roughly 200,000
I hear that these remaining domains will be transferred to Tucows’ accreditation.
Brazil has had at least four registrars, including UOL, over the years.
Countries roughly the same size as Brazil by population (over 200 million) include Nigeria and Pakistan, each of which still have one active registrar.
There are 10 contracted registries, managing nine 2012-round new gTLDs, in Brazil.
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Brazil’s GDP is 4.4x Nigeria’s, 6.4x Pakistan’s. Brazil is 8th country in GDP; other large economies with no ICANN registrar include Saudi Arabia (19th GDP-wise), Iran (28th and OFAC restricted) and Egypt (31st).