Recent Posts
- ICANN accused of power grab over $271 million auction fund
- A registrar is getting blamed for an Israeli war propaganda site
- Two more dot-brands bite the dust
- Google sells five-figure AI domain and six-figure .ing hack
- .blackfriday is still a bit rubbish
- Internet Naming Co acquires five more gTLDs
- Domain universe grows despite .com drag
- Did somebody spend a million bucks on a Google domain hack?
- ICANN cans Freenom
- Call for ICANN to dump anti-Semitic partner
- GoDaddy domains revenue crosses half a billion
- Bosnian government to sue US domain firm that cut it off
- Freenom is “essentially finished as a company”
- Gap drops some dot-brands
- Group to seek .io TLD takeover after OECD human rights ruling
- Meta given 30 days to stop using Threads trademark
- Modest pay rises for ICANN top brass
- Nominet wins Microsoft’s dot-brand business from Verisign
- Looks like the fight for .hotel gTLD is over
- China has .com’s growth by the balls
- .web fight back in “court”
- Nominet takes over failed .desi
- Wright elected to Nominet board
- Identity Digital keeps .org back-end deal
- Freenom spanked for holding Olympics domain hostage
- Belgian MP registers Hamas domain, redirects to IDF
- Seven domain hacks already registered in Google’s .ing
- The first four new gTLDs have been unmitigated disasters
- Team Internet hires Nominet alum as domains CEO
- XYZ adds 35th gTLD to its stable
- Wood company scraps its dot-brand
- Freenom gets yet another ICANN breach notice
- Did Andrew Tate buy university.com for a “record-breaking” sum?
- After Verisign’s sluggish year, ICANN misses funding goal by $2 million
- Russia cuts off ICANN funding after pro-Ukraine stance
- Epik drops another 50,000 domains after scandal
- Palage’s epic rant as he asks ICANN to cancel Verisign’s .net contract
- Papac named interim ICANN Ombudsman
- Nominet takes over Bounty mutineers’ ccTLD
- .tube registry claims victory in linkification fight
- Ancient registrar gets ICANN breach notice over UDRP
- ICANN is starting to auto-renew new gTLD contracts
- Freenom hit by FIFTH ICANN action after litany of screw-ups
- Second DNSSEC screw-up takes down Aussie web sites
- Nominet adds handcuffs clause to proposed new Articles
- Single/plural gTLD combos to be UNBANNED
- ICANN rejects a whole bunch of new gTLD policy stuff
- Volkswagen ditches its dot-brand
- Radix looking for a back-end
- Is this why WhatsApp hates some TLDs but not others?
- Blockchain domain firm raises $2.5 million
- Verisign: 1.7 million domain industry growth in Q2
- Namecheap has given away 500,000 free .me domains
- Epik had another terrible month in May
- Blockchain startup gets $5 million to apply for gTLDs
- Buckridge to replace Shears on ICANN board
- CentralNic rebrands as Team Internet
- .ai sells 100,000 domains in a year
- Google to launch two fun new gTLDs next month
- Domainers not welcome as .music readies September launch
- Another six dot-brands self-terminate (two are very strange)
- Four more years for Identity Digital in Oz
- ICANN might be a director light after election stalemate
- ICANN turns down money from blockchain alt-root
- CentralNic chief calls on industry to tackle climate change
- London Domain Summit starts tomorrow
- Closed generics ban likely to remain after another policy group failure
- Ukrainian domains slide as war becomes the new normal
- Epik had worst month ever in April
- Go.Compare now redirecting to the .com
- Huge telco dumps gTLDs after rebrand
- Rejected former director threatens to sue Nominet
- April 2026 is the date for the next new gTLD round
- Doria leaving ICANN board a loss for new gTLD program
- A second new gTLD has FAILED and will be sold off
- .web hit by second ICANN complaint
- Registrar linked to defunct social network terminated
- Three candidates stand for Nominet board
- Next round of gTLDs could come much sooner than expected
- Registering .cv domains might become easier
- Musk prematurely announces Twitter is now X
- Nominet admits membership fees mistake
- Government to regulate UK-related domain names
- Domainer objects to Epik’s acquisition over Masterbucks collapse
- Freenom is losing another ccTLD after collecting military emails
- DENIC kicks out NCC as ICANN’s sole escrow agent
- ICANN takes over country’s ccTLD after Hall of Famer’s death
- ICANN Ombudsman quits
- ICA baffled by plan to outlaw domaining in India
- No $8 million discount for dot-brands, says ICANN
- Epik lost 125,000 domains in Q1
- Buckingham leaves Nominet’s board early
- Epik is off the ICANN naughty step
- Identity Digital is gobbling up Verisign’s back-end business
- o.com auction likely a damp squib after Overstock rebrand
- ICANN actually CHANGES Verisign’s .net contract after public comments
- GoDaddy takes over .health
- The looooong road to urgently hiring ICANN’s next CEO
- Rwanda picked for ICANN meeting
- Governments call for ban on gTLD auctions
- Red Cross gets takedown powers over .org domains
- Domain universe grew 1% in Q1
- Closed generics and IDNs debates are big drag on new gTLDs
- New gTLD registry gets second ICANN breach notice
- Epik lost another 22,000 domains to transfers in February
- Mystery buyer rescues Epik at end of crazy week
- Millions of domains to be deleted as Freenom loses its first TLD
- Everyone hates Verisign’s new .net deal
- UAE boasts rapid domain growth in 2022
- ICANN just put a date on the next new gTLD round
- Three more straggler new gTLDs coming soon
- Three more dot-brands realize the futility of existence
- woke.com among domains in NamesCon auction
- Domainer asks court to block Epik sell-off
- .web delay likely after Verisign rival files ICANN appeal
- CentralNic starts returning cash to shareholders as revenue grows
- Newly launched .zip already looks dodgy
- Progress made on next new gTLD round rules
- Brands ask for cheaper ICANN fees
- ICANN salary porn: 2022 edition
- Tucows and GoDaddy see weakness in big-ticket aftermarket sales
- Another registrar seemingly vanishes
- Verisign “pleased” at ICANN’s .web call
- .hiphop returns to GoDaddy after Uniregistry snub
- Danish national registry changes its name. Don’t laugh.
Japanese quake victims get free .org renewals
The Public Interest Registry and 15 domain name registrars are working together to auto-renew .org domains that expired during the aftermath of the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
According to a PIR press release, registries and registrars will waive their renewal fees for one year.
The deal is only good for .org domains registered to a Japanese address that were due to expire between March 11 and June 11 this year.
Participating registrars include: Go Daddy, Ascio, INDOM, WebNic.cc, Net 4 India, Discount Domains, Fabulous, Blacknight, Dotster, Moniker, Spirit Domains, Advanced Internet Technologies, Japan Registry Services, PSI-Japan, Network Solutions, and NameSecure.
Additional details can be found at the PIR web site.
VeriSign’s upcoming battle for the Chinese .com
Could VeriSign be about to face off against China for control of the Chinese version of .com? That’s an intriguing possibility that was raised during the .nxt conference last week.
Almost as an aside, auDA chief Chris Disspain mentioned during a session that he believes there are moves afoot in China to apply to ICANN for “company”, “network” and “organization” in Chinese characters. In other words, .com, .net and .org.
I’ve been unable to find an official announcement of any such Chinese application, but I’m reliably informed that Noises Have Been Made.
VeriSign has for several quarters been open about its plans to apply for IDN equivalents of its two flagship TLDs, and PIR’s new CEO Brian Cute recently told me he wants to do the same for .org.
While neither company has specified which scripts they’re looking at, Chinese is a no-brainer. As of this week, the nation is the world’s second-largest economy, and easily its most populous.
Since we’re already speculating, let’s speculate some more: who would win the Chinese .com under ICANN’s application rules, VeriSign or China?
If the two strings were close enough to wind up in a contention set, could VeriSign claim intellectual property rights, on the basis of its .com business? It seems like a stretch.
Could China leapfrog to the end of the process with a community application and a demand for a Community Priority Evaluation?
That also seems like a stretch. It’s not impossible – there’s arguably a “community” of companies registered with the Chinese government – but such a move would likely stink of gaming.
Is there a technical stability argument to be made? Is 公司. (which Google tells me means “company” in Chinese) confusingly similar to .com?
If these TLDs went to auction, one thing is certain: there are few potential applicants with deeper pockets than VeriSign, but China is one of them.
UPDATE: VeriSign’s Pat Kane was good enough to post a lengthy explanation of the company’s IDN strategy in the comments.
Cute sees .org’s future in new TLDs
The Public Interest Registry sees new top-level domains as an opportunity to strengthen the .org brand as well as add new TLDs to its stable, according to newly appointed CEO Brian Cute.
“We have the new round of gTLDs opening up soon, and I see that as genuinely an opportunity for PIR, so a lot of our strategic focus will be there,” Cute said in an interview.
Internationalized domain name TLDs will play a major role in this strategy. Cute said that “expanding .org into the IDN world” will be the key focus.
While PIR plans to apply to ICANN for several IDN variants of .org, there’s less interest in expanding into ASCII strings or outside of the company’s “public interest” mission.
“We not particularly looking at that opportunity,” Cute said.
He also believes that the large number of new TLDs ICANN is expected to authorize could actually strengthen .org as a brand.
“There will be lots of new entrants, lots of new competition,” he said. “The environment will be one where if we play our cards right, we’ll be able to be successful and in fact flourish.”
Cute was named CEO of PIR earlier today. Previously, he worked at Afilias, a close partner, so his learning curve at his new employer will be relatively gentle.
He said he doesn’t plan to shake things up much.
“I don’t see any need to make any major course corrections to our strategy,” he said. “It’s now a matter of execution. There will be new competition so we will have to execute well.”
Brian Cute named CEO of .org
Public Interest Registry, which manages the .org domain, has named Brian Cute as its new CEO, following the resignation of Alexa Raad last August.
Cute was most recently a vice president at Afilias, which provides .org’s back-end registry infrastructure. Before that, he was with VeriSign, .org’s original custodian.
He’s a familiar face to many in the domain name industry and the ICANN community, most recently chairing ICANN’s Accountability and Transparency Review Team.
Cute replaces Maarten Botterman, PIR’s chairman, who had stepped into the CEO’s office temporarily after Raad quit. He starts February 1.
Afilias to raise .info prices
Afilias has notified ICANN that it plans to raise the maximum annual registration fee for a .info domain next year.
The new price, which will come into effect July 1, 2011, will be $7.42. It’s been $6.75 since November 2008, although the registry often offers deep discounts on new registrations.
Afilias’ contract with ICANN allows it to raise prices by up to 10%, which it appears to be doing in this case.
At least two other other gTLDs have already said they plan to up their maximum prices next year.
NeuStar’s .biz fee will rise by $0.45 to $7.30 in April. PIR’s .org will start costing registrars a maximum of $7.21 at the same time.
Second-tier TLDs gain aftermarket traction
The average aftermarket selling price of domain names in second-tier TLDs is creeping up, according to the latest numbers from Sedo.
Sedo’s latest quarterly sales review shows that namespaces such as .biz, .info and .org are selling for far better money than they were a year ago.
In fact, the median selling price of .biz, .org, and .net domains is now higher than that of .com.
The price of .biz names, which only accounted for 1% of overall sales, has almost doubled in the last four quarters, up 97% at $537.
The .info namespace fared almost as well, recording a median price of $418, up 91% on the $219 recorded in the second quarter of 2009.
The long-established .org has also appreciated over the last 12 months. Its median price rose 45% to $550.
While there’s no doubt that .com is still where the high-end money is, the median price for a .com was only $510, a 24% increase over the same period.
Sedo has started reporting median prices because big one-off sales can have an impact on the mean averages it also reports.
Its full Q1 Domain Market Study report can be downloaded here.
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