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WordPress buys Canadian, swaps CentralNic for CIRA

Kevin Murphy, March 27, 2025, 17:44:19 (UTC), Domain Registries

Automattic, which runs WordPress.com and the .blog gTLD registry, says it’s switching to Hello Registry from its current provider.

Hello Registry is a joint venture of two like-minded national ccTLD non-profits: Canadian (.ca) registry CIRA and Dutch (.nl) registry SIDN. It was launched last November, having been developed under the name CIRA Registry Platform.

Automattic is currently running .blog, which has about 300,000 domains and added about 50,000 in the last year, on CentralNic, the registry services provider owned by Team Internet.

The company has told its registrants that it does not expect any disruption from the migration, saying in a blog post:

We’ve been working closely with our registrar partners since November 2024 to ensure a smooth transition, with the migration scheduled for the end of April, 2025.

It added that it believes the move will create “new opportunities for growth and innovation”.

UPDATE: Automattic has got in touch to ask for a clarification. A spokesperson said:

the decision to migrate .blog was made by Knock Knock WHOIS There (KKWT), which is the official registry operator for .blog. While KKWT is a subsidiary of Automattic, it operates independently as required by ICANN. So, this wasn’t a decision made by WordPress or WordPress.com

So…
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