There are now 302 domain name extensions, of which 280 are geographical, and 22 generic. Strengthened by this observation, the ICANN has unilaterally decided the need to drastically increase the number of these extensions by opening an unprecedented process of creation by its order of magnitude.
From January, 12 to May, 30 2012, everyone was able to apply for his own domain name extension. To limit the number of applications (we will stick to this simplistic explanation), the price of the entrance ticket has been set at $185,000, or about €150,000. The big brands rushed on this market opportunity to propose their own name (.google, .volkswagen, and many others).
L'Oréal is an interesting brand in this race, since it is not a web player. However, it made a request for its name (.loreal), including in Chinese (.欧莱雅), its brands (.garnier, .lancome, .maybelline), as well as for generic words (.beauty, .hair, .skin). All in all, 14 applications have been made by L'Oréal.
Other trademarks indicate their main markets for expansion, like Amazon who has filed 76 applications, of which .クラウド , ファッション and .通販 (cloud, fashion and mail order in Japanese), .食品 (food in Chinese), .mail (seven competitors), .movie (eight competitors), .music (eight again), .search (four on the stroke), .tunes, .wow (there are three in the running).
Google is also present with no less than 101 applications through its subsidiary Charleston Road Registry Inc. Among them, we can find:
Cultural and linguistic communities around the world are eagerly awaiting the opening of new extensions, particularly in Europe with Eclid, and in Russia with Ruclid. Bretons (.bzh) watch with envy the success of the Catalan .cat launched in 2006, and the same in true with Basques (.eus), Galician (.gal), Scots (.scot) and Welsh (.cym).
The movement makes followers with for instance Yakuts (.sakha) and Tatars (.tatar), the Irish (.irish), Kurds (.kurd) and Cornish (.ker) communities.
Some large cities are also interested to have their own extension, like Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Tokyo or Ottawa, requiring their cityTLDs. Some regional entities are there also, like Andalusia (.and), Sarre (.saarland) or the Valencian Community (.val).
The ICANN had hitherto difficulties to raise subsidies and was living on fees raised on the registrars it oversees (Network Solutions and others). Now strong of a $357 million renewed capital to which an annual reward of $25,000 per validated extension will be added, it swims in the gray area of conflict of interest, since it is financing itself on the very industry it purports to govern.
The new territory it will soon create from scratch, these 1,900 extensions, are as many mining concessions as in the days of the Wild West. And the only ones to enrich themselves in that gold rush are as usual the vendors of picks and shovels, in this role the ICANN that rents its concessions after applying an exorbitant entrance fee.
From January, 12 to May, 30 2012, everyone was able to apply for his own domain name extension. To limit the number of applications (we will stick to this simplistic explanation), the price of the entrance ticket has been set at $185,000, or about €150,000. The big brands rushed on this market opportunity to propose their own name (.google, .volkswagen, and many others).
L'Oréal is an interesting brand in this race, since it is not a web player. However, it made a request for its name (.loreal), including in Chinese (.欧莱雅), its brands (.garnier, .lancome, .maybelline), as well as for generic words (.beauty, .hair, .skin). All in all, 14 applications have been made by L'Oréal.
Other trademarks indicate their main markets for expansion, like Amazon who has filed 76 applications, of which .クラウド , ファッション and .通販 (cloud, fashion and mail order in Japanese), .食品 (food in Chinese), .mail (seven competitors), .movie (eight competitors), .music (eight again), .search (four on the stroke), .tunes, .wow (there are three in the running).
Google is also present with no less than 101 applications through its subsidiary Charleston Road Registry Inc. Among them, we can find:
- family values: .baby, .dad, .family, .home, .kid, .love, .mom
- media: .film, .fun, .game, .hangout, .lol, .mov, .movie, .music, .play
- means of transportation: .car, .fly, .moto
- education: .mba, .phd, .prof
- technologies: .boo (the next buzz in programming languages?), .cloud, .rsvp (Resource Reservation Protocol)
- business: .corp, .gbiz, .gmbh, .inc , .llc, .llp, .srl
- internationalization: .グーグル and .谷歌 (Google in Japanese and Chinese) and .みんな (everybody in Japanese), .guge (Gǔgē being the pinyin transcription of Google China), therefore the English language remains the priority
- miscellaneous: .med (medicine?), .soy (soybean?)
Other players are interested too
Cultural and linguistic communities around the world are eagerly awaiting the opening of new extensions, particularly in Europe with Eclid, and in Russia with Ruclid. Bretons (.bzh) watch with envy the success of the Catalan .cat launched in 2006, and the same in true with Basques (.eus), Galician (.gal), Scots (.scot) and Welsh (.cym).
The movement makes followers with for instance Yakuts (.sakha) and Tatars (.tatar), the Irish (.irish), Kurds (.kurd) and Cornish (.ker) communities.
Some large cities are also interested to have their own extension, like Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Tokyo or Ottawa, requiring their cityTLDs. Some regional entities are there also, like Andalusia (.and), Sarre (.saarland) or the Valencian Community (.val).
Virtual Wild West
The ICANN had hitherto difficulties to raise subsidies and was living on fees raised on the registrars it oversees (Network Solutions and others). Now strong of a $357 million renewed capital to which an annual reward of $25,000 per validated extension will be added, it swims in the gray area of conflict of interest, since it is financing itself on the very industry it purports to govern.
The new territory it will soon create from scratch, these 1,900 extensions, are as many mining concessions as in the days of the Wild West. And the only ones to enrich themselves in that gold rush are as usual the vendors of picks and shovels, in this role the ICANN that rents its concessions after applying an exorbitant entrance fee.
Source (pdf).
Noms de domaine : le grand saut (in French)
Nombres de dominio: el gran salto adelante (in Spanish)
Nomes de domínio: o grande salto adiante (in Portuguese)
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