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.my global relaunch starts slowly despite cheapo prices

Kevin Murphy, September 16, 2024, Domain Registries

Malaysia’s .my ccTLD has so far failed to attract the hoped-for thousands of new registrations since it relaunched to a global audience a few months ago, according to registry statistics.

MYNIC puts the total number of .my domains, including third-levels under the likes of .com.my and .biz.my, at 313,588 at the end of August, barely 3,500 above the end of May number.

Second-level domains directly under .my grew by about 3,000 over the same period to end August at 149,273.

June was when .my was due to go to general availability with scrapped local presence restrictions and a worldwide registrar channel under partnership with Internet Naming Co and Tucows.

Previously, .my domains were only available to Malaysia-based entities. Third-level domains continue to be available only to Malaysians.

MYNIC told the local Malaysian press in April, before the global launch was announced, that it hoped to hit the 400,000-domains mark by the end of the year. Its best monthly number so far was about 341,000, back in June 2018.

There’s not a great deal of retail registrar coverage outside of Asia right now, judging by the registry’s web site, but those registrars actually selling it are selling it cheap — around the $2 mark for the first year at Spaceship and Namecheap.

.my domains to be sold globally next month

Kevin Murphy, April 17, 2024, Uncategorized

The .my namespace is to be opened up to international registrants next month under a deal between the Malaysian registry and Caymans-based Internet Naming Co, according to INCO’s CEO.

Shayan Rostam said that MYNIC will continue to be the registry for .my, but that INCO will look after it outside Malaysia. The deal will allow non-Malaysians to register .my domains for the first time, he said. Currently, some registrars offer local presence services to get around the rules.

INCO already runs a portfolio of gTLDs, the initial batch acquired from UNR a few years ago, and adding .my should bring the ccTLD to a wider range of registrars. There’s going to be a new Registry-Registrar Agreement that is “less restrictive” than the old one, Rostam said.

.my has been around since 1987 and currently has about 313,000 domains under management, split roughly 50:50 between the second-level under .my and third level under .com.my. There are also lesser-used spaces such as .org.my and .net.my.

Rostam said the third-level spaces will still be reserved for Malaysians, but that no local nexus will be required under the second-level. It’s a similar idea to how Colombia’s .co was operated when it relaunched in 2010.

The TLD is of course potentially attractive because it’s an English word commonly used in domains, albeit usually at the start of the name rather than the end. According to my database, “my” is the most commonly-registered ccTLD-match two-letter domain among dot-brands.

Rostam said that he expects to start the relaunch with an Early Access Period, with prices starting at about $25,000, in late May, with full general availability in June.

Renewal pricing in GA is expected to be around the $30 mark — substantially cheaper than current retail prices — but registrars are expected to run first-year promotions in the sub-$10 area,

There will also be a list of premium-priced domains that could pump the pricing up to between $100 and $10,000 per year.

There’s no formal sunrise period — ccTLDs are not governed by ICANN rules and .my has of course been around for almost 40 years — but brand-protection registrars have been given special early access in case they have clients that want protection, Rostam said.

Under a separate deal, INCO has also taken over management of .forum and .feedback on behalf of two of Jay Westerdahl’s companies, Rostam confirmed.