Amsterdam accepts pre-registrations for city gTLD
The City of Amsterdam has confirmed that it has joined the ranks of major international cities applying to ICANN for a new generic top-level domain.
It has commissioned local publishing company HUB Uitgevers to manage .amsterdam, along with its technical partner SIDN, the .nl ccTLD registry.
Unusually, the project has also already started accepting pre-registrations at its official site.
The ICANN application fees are being covered by the local government, but a City of Amsterdam spokesperson said it expects to make the money back from annual royalty payments from HUB.
The famously liberal tourist destination has about 1.2 million inhabitants, according to Wikipedia.
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Size matters.
Just wait until Nominet announces its plans for .llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Ah yes, pre registrations. There’s a topic that may see some discussion as this whole process unfolds.
The .mls guys have been ‘allocating’ second level names for some time.
Interesting, I thought registries were not allowed to participate in a commercial relationship with end users, as per the ICANN agreement they will enter into.
It might lead to some interesting preferential relationships.
ICM took pre-reg for years before launching .xxx. I got on the pre-reg list. Recently, I got an email from ICM, asking me to register my domain with Go Daddy.
How long before someone offers pre-UDRP’s for pre-registered domains?
With the Vertical Integration, NEW TLD applicants can become registrars and take also TAKE PRE ORDERS RIGHT? Am I missing some thing here?
@Raj,
Vertical integration removes cross ownership restrictions, yes. But, I think that the registry and registrar are still separate and distinct entities, performing separate and distinct functions.
Can there be only one single authoritative end user source for a specific tld?
Seems like an environment ripe for abuse.