Following the agreement between EURid and both institutions appointed to rule on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) proceedings for the .eu top-level domain (the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center and the Czech Arbitration Court), the .eu registry announced last week the fee for a basic .eu ADR procedure will remain discounted until 30 June 2020.
This means that the ADR fee per dispute complaint is as low as â¬100. If you wish to dispute a .eu, .ÐµÑ or .ÎµÏ domain name registration, and believe that you have a prior right (within the EU or EEA) to that domain name (e.g. you hold a trademark, trade name, company name, family name, and so on) and that the current holder has registered or is using the domain name for speculative or abusive purposes, you may challenge its registration by initiating an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure.
Criminal activities continue to be an issue and challenge for the domain name industry, and itâs one of the main issues addressed in todayâs Q&A with Katrin Ohlmer, CEO and founder of DOTZON GmbH. Ohlmer cites it as a highlight and lowlight â a highlight because the industry is attempting to tackle domain name abuse and a lowlight with phishing, malware, botnets and pharming being threats to consumers putting the whole industry in a bad light and seemingly not interested in fixing the issue. Ohlmer also sees the growth in usage of .brand new gTLDs as another highlight while she says the whole domain industry could improve in terms of customer experience and customer-centric marketing and communications.
Domain Pulse: What
were the highlights, lowlights and challenges of 2019 in the domain name
industry, both for you and/or the industry in general?
Katrin Ohlmer:
Highlights
A new awareness has
been reached within the industry that many registries and registrars are
responsible and taking actions against abuse, including the âFramework to Mitigate
Abuseâ. We started to communicate our efforts better to the community and will
continue these efforts in 2020.
We noticed a growing use
of domain names of .brands including the likes of .audi, .dvag and .mma â all
with well beyond 1,000 registered domain names. We spotted quite a number of
.brand domains âin the wildâ – in print advertising, on vehicles and social
media ads.
Lowlights
The ever-present existence of phishing, malware, botnets and pharming threats to consumers puts the whole industry in a bad light seemingly not interested in fixing this issue. The industry has to improve its communication activities within the community and to all stakeholders in 2020.
In 2020, we would like
ICANN to focus again on their mission âto ensure the stable and secure
operation of the Internet’s unique identifier systemsâ.
Challenges
GDPR brought to our
industry new challenges and burdens. GDPR and its consequences are an asset for
our industry that personal data are not published anymore. Even though this
negatively affects the interests of the trademark industry.
DP: What are you looking forward to in 2020?
KO: Iâm really looking forward to welcoming the ICANN community to Hamburg in Autumn and showcasing the broad use of .hamburg domain names in the city. With and ICANN meeting taking place only for the second time ever, it will be a great opportunity for the local and national Internet community to meet the ICANN community.
DP: What challenges and opportunities do you see for the year ahead?
KO: As the next round of new TLDs is still ahead of us, .brands including some of our customers have the opportunity to showcase the many usage scenarios which they have already implemented and will be implemented in 2020.
The whole industry has
to increase their communication efforts about DNS Abuse to demonstrate that
they take abuse seriously. Further debates are likely whether registries and registrars
will mitigate abuse beyond DNS like counterfeiting, but hopefully ICANN will
stay within its remits.
Further consolidation
will happen between registries, registrars and vertically integrated groups. We
might also see further investments from equity investment companies within the
industry.
Tech trends like
Artificial Intelligence, Bitcoin, Internet of Things will improve our industry
â whether process-wise, with new products or communication channels.
The topic how ICANN
will consider in its actions the Public Interest â not only at the Board level,
but also within the wider community â will be a challenge. A first step has
been made with the proposal drafted by the Board, and further activities will
likely happen in 2020.
DP: How have new gTLDs fared in 2019?
KO: We observed that the diversity of TLDs being actively used across the globe is slowly but constantly increasing. Therefore we expect a steady uptake over the next few years and establishing the new gTLDs as a valid alternative to former TLDs.
A number of the new
gTLDs are doing very well â they are chosen by users because they have a
meaning like .realestate, .consulting and .rich, some provide local and
regional identity to users like .berlin, .bzh and .nyc, and some represent the
brand online like .audi, .google and .edeka. The more generic TLDs are, the
less differentiation and meaning they have making it harder to develop a
long-term value proposition beyond the price.
DP: What progress do you see on a new round of applications for new gTLDs in 2020?
KO: We are currently finalising the last open issues within the Subsequent Procedures PDP Working Group. I expect that the substantive progress of our ongoing work will continue in 2020, leading to a final report being sent to the GNSO Council and later to the ICANN Board for approval.
DP: What one thing would you like to see addressed or changed in the domain name industry?
KO: I tend to repeat myself: I still think the whole domain industry could improve in terms of customer experience and customer-centric marketing and communications including lower barriers to set-up a website, easing the whole domain registration process, and setting up an email account.
For decades, customers were attracted by prices. This led to many registrations with no or very limited usage. Now itâs time to encourage existing customers to use the product they bought and improve processes for new customers making it easier to bring their website with their new domain online.
BRS Media and FSM Telecommunications Corporation (FSMTC) recently
announced the extension of their existing agreement to continue the partnership
to market .fm, the ccTLD for the Federated States of Micronesia.
.fm has become popular with the rise in broadcasting,
podcasting, streaming and social entertainment. In addition to brands like
Coca-Cola.fm, Southwest.fm, Douban.fm and CarrieUnderwood.fm, the fastest growing
category is podcasting, with recognisable names including Anchor.fm,
Castbox.fm, Megaphone.fm, Overcast.fm and Transistor.fm. Registrants not only
includes broadcasters, Internet radio, podcasters and the music community, but
also interactive companies, premier social media ventures and streaming
entrepreneurs worldwide.
âWe continue to be honoured by the trust and partnership we
have developed over the past twenty plus years with FSMTC,â remarked George T.
Bundy, Chairman and CEO of BRS Media Inc. âThis year, the .FM TLD reaches a
milestone of being online for 25 years. We are excited to be celebrating this
event, and are privileged to be a part of one of the best recognised and most
successful rebranded Top-Level Domain in the history of the Internet.â
âWe are pleased to renew the existing contract, and look
forward to BRS Media continuing to manage and promote our .FM TLD. In a
competitive online space, there isnât a more stable and consistent Top Level
Name than the unique sounding .FM,â remarked Fredy S. Perman, President &
CEO of FSM Telecommunications Corporation.
The FSMTC is the telephone, wireless, internet and cable
service provider for the Federated States of Micronesia.
Last week the Polish ccTLD registry ended the possibility
where it was possible to reserve .pl domain names for 14 days prior to
registration. So now under .pl, itâs a first come, first served basis as is the
norm for registering domain names in probably all other top-level domains.
After 8
January, .pl domain name reservations will be effected only by NASK in the
following situations:
execution of the option for a .pl domain name, i.e. providing a domain name for registration for the benefit of an option holder in accordance with the information published on this website.
With the withdrawal of reservations, NASK eliminates the status for unregistered .pl domain names that have passed after the reservation period, i.e. the BOOK_BLOCKED state. All reservations, from this moment on, will result in a direct release of a domain name to the public. NASK originally advised of the upcoming change in June 2019.
Donuts and the United Federation of Travel Agents’
Associations (UFTAA) have announced a new partnership to include the long
underperforming .travel gTLD as an additional benefit for its members and the
industry.
UFTAA members can now secure and use .travel domain names
for a significant, “members-only” multi-year discount. One of the
roles of the UFTAA is to work globally to enhance the interests and image of
their members.
Donuts is the largest operator of new gTLDs with 238 and 4.478 million domains under management according to nTLDstats. In 2019 they added the .travel generic top-level domain to its stable, and theyâre undoubtedly hoping to add to its current 20,145 DUM, according to DomainNameStats.
“We are delighted to partner with UFTAA, a leading
global travel agent association’s Federation. UFTAA goes beyond to support
industry stake holders as well. UFTAA responded excitedly about the benefits
that .Travel domain names bring to UFTAA members to truly stand out ‘online’ in
this massive and growing industry,” said Trang Nguyen, Vice President
Business Development for Donuts Inc. “It is more important than ever for
travel agencies to have a strong, persuasive online presence. Using a .Travel
domain name clearly distinguishes travel businesses when customers are using
Google and other search engines for their travel solutions.”
“In the fast growing and rapidly evolving environment
of travel & tourism industry and its approaches, globally, many organisations
have undertaken an aggressive run up to gain greater visibility. .Travel will
certainly be an advantage to support an identity of specialisation and
focus,” said Sunil Kumar, President of UFTAA. “UFTAA is pleased to
associate with .Travel in our most ambitious objective to lead the global
tourism connect and support members with a very special status. And this comes
via UFTAA to our members as a very special offer,” he added.
The number of .vn domain names had passed the half million mark at the end of October according to the Viá»t Nam Internet Resources Report 2019 published last week with the total number as of 31 October being 501,027.
These 501,027 .vn domain names represents almost half (49.0%)
of all domain names registered in the country according to the report, with
49.4% for legacy gTLDs and the remaining 1.6% for new gTLDs. The 49% figure for
.vn in Viá»t Nam ranks the country somewhere in the middle of its peers in the region
with .tw (Taiwan), .kz (Kazakhstan) and .uz (Uzbekistan) all having over 90% market
share within the country while .th (Thailand) is less than 10% being the extremes
of the 16 profiled.
There was also a reform of administrative procedures and
supplementing regulations to resolve some practical situations such as
electronic records, marking a major improvement in the management of .vn during
the year.
The major cities of Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi accounted for the
majority of .vn domain name registrations with 189,336 and 174,171
respectively, while no other city or town managed more than 10,000.
There are 13 second level domains with .com.vn the largest
with 34.56% of .vn domain names, .edu.vn (4.24%) and .net.vn (1.77%) being the only
2LDs with more than a 1% market share, while registrations at the second level
accounted for 57.25%.
According to the report from Viá»t Nam Internet Network
Information Center (VNNIC), the number of IPv4 addresses allocated to Viá»t Nam
reached 16,001,024 at the end of October, ranking the south east Asian country second
in the region, eighth in Asia and 29th globally.
Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)âs statistics
showed that the use of IPv6 for Viá»t Nam reaches approximately 40 per cent,
ranking second in ASEAN and eighth globally with more than 21,000,000 IPv6
users by October.
In their annual report, VNNIC note a number of other
activities for 2019 including signing a new partnership agreement with CCTLD.RU
to strengthen the cooperation in management and ensure the security of national
critical internet infrastructure system.
There are also 14 registrars for Viá»t Namâs country code
top-level domain while registrants of 3,237 domain names have utilised VNNICâs
Registry Lock and 170 domains are made more secure having DNSSEC enabled.
The Viá»t Nam Internet Resources Report 2019 published by the Viá»t Nam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC) is available for download in Vietnamese only here [pdf].
The annual free domain name conference of the German-speaking world, Domain Pulse, is heading to the North Tyrolean Alps city of Innsbruck in Austria in February 2020 with the organisers looking towards the future, asking attendees to âgaze into the crystal ball togetherâ with them.
Day 1 is dedicated to the question of what future will bring
in terms of technology, internet governance and the world of work – and where
the forecasts come from! On the second day, we will highlight the issue of risk
– how much are we prepared to take in our personal lives, careers and as a
society? And at what price?
The presentations will focus on the future of internet
governance, the talents of tomorrow, does the domain name system tell us
anything about the future, artificial intelligence, looking forward with 5G and
its challenges in particular relating to surveillance and citizenâs rights and
what should ccTLD registries expect in the future.
This yearâs Domain Pulse conference (which is not related to
the DomainPulse.com domain name news site) will be held on Thursday 20 and
Friday 21 February. In 2020 the conference is organised by the Austrian ccTLD
manager nic.at, with the conference rotating to be hosted by DENIC in 2021 in
Germany, then by SWITCH in Switzerland in 2022.
For presentations in German, there will be a simultaneous translation service into English, but not for presentations in English into German. However given that networking is as important as the conference topics, it can still be extremely worthwhile to attend.
To register, book hotels, check out the agenda and find out more information in general, go to: domainpulse.at/dp2020. There are plenty of trains passing through Innsbruck and a number of airlines fly to Innsbruck. Conference hotels start at â¬120 per night, plus thereâs the always wonderful Thursday evening event.
UPDATE: This article was updated to reflect a misunderstanding regarding translations. There will be translations of presentations into English from German, but not for German presentations into English. The original version of this article said there would be no translations.
Following CentralNIC’s strategic investment and becoming owner of Slovakiaâs ccTLD manager SK-NIC in 2017, CentralNIC and SK-NIC have been continually investing in and improving the operations of .sk.
Last week there were 2 announcements. The first was SK-NIC
is planning to introduce automated DNSSEC activation on the basis of the data
on the DNS servers (so called CDS scanning). DNSSEC was launched in .sk in
April this year and already one quarter of domain names are secured, ranking
.sk among the top European ccTLDs in the share of domains secured by DNSSEC.
In the second announcement, for 2020 SK-NIC have announced
theyâre preparing several new services that will increase the security of the
virtual Slovakia. For the joint endeavours to continue to deliver such results,
SK-NIC want to support these with their continued attractive price for .sk.
Therefore, the long-term promotions are being extended for
2020 with the cheaper new domains promotion running until 31 December 2020.
This promotion, called the New Domains for Cheaper promotion, makes it possible
to register a new domain for a single promotional price of â¬7 (plus VAT)
instead of the standard price for Registrars according to the Price List. As
well, the Achieve 100, Gain 100 promotion is also being extended until 31
December 2020. This promotion is in recognition of Registrarâs activity in
registering new .sk domains by returning â¬100 (excluding VAT) for every 100 new
domains registered through this Registrar. However in line with the goal of
increasing security in .sk, the condition for securing the domain through
DNSSEC has been added to include the domain in this promotion.
Nominet is donating £1 to the Samaritans for every new, paid
for .uk domain registered from 9 December 2019 until 17 January 2020. Going by
new registrations statistics provided by Nominet for 2019, Samaritans is likely
to benefit to the tune of around £170,000.
Funds raised through new domain registrations ending in
.co.uk, .uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .ltd.uk, .plc.uk and .net.uk, will support
Samaritansâ work developing its vital webchat service from its pilot stage to
launch.
Samaritans is the leading suicide prevention charity in the
United Kingdom, and is the only organisation that provides free emotional
support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to anyone across the UK and Ireland who
is struggling to cope. Nominet, the registry for the .uk country code top-level
domain (ccTLD), notes the latest suicide rates in the UK rose for the first
time in five years and revealed, in particular, in recent years the rate of
suicide in young people has increased.
Samaritansâ webchat pilots have already demonstrated clear
evidence of the need for this service, with the charity receiving many
first-time contacts from young people in states of severe distress. The aim is to make the online environment
safer for young people by offering them more ways to contact Samaritans,
ensuring the charityâs vital services are accessible to everyone and in ways
that work best for the user.
âNominet is already supporting us to build essential new
digital products that will enable Samaritans to improve our services and reach
more people who need them,â said Francis Bacon, Assistant Director of Digital
Services and Change, Samaritans. âWeâre very grateful that they have chosen to
support us even further with this festive fundraising initiative via .UK domain
registrations. The additional contribution will accelerate our ability to bring
our webchat pilot to launch, which will be a milestone achievement for the
charity as we endeavour to always be there for everyone.â
Nominet is a Samaritans Digital Transformation partner.
Earlier this year, Nominet announced it is providing £175,000, in addition to
lending their expertise as one of the countryâs leading technology companies,
to support the development of the two new digital products. These are a self-help
tool for coping with distress and suicidal thoughts, and a new system which
will allow volunteers to respond to significant volumes of additional contacts.
Overall, with a guaranteed minimum contribution from the .UK registration
campaign of £140k, Nominetâs total contribution to Samaritans will be over
£300k.
In 2018, Nominet supported Children in Need with a similar
domain registrations initiative. The funds raised went towards the charityâs
projects that use digital or new technology to support disadvantaged children
and young people across the UK.
Today [Monday] InternetNZ is launching our #ShopSafeNZ campaign hoping to raise awareness about safer online shopping experiences for Kiwis. We’ll be campaigning in the lead up to the holiday season and retail sales from 25 November – 1 January 2020.
Today [Monday] InternetNZ is launching our #ShopSafeNZ campaign hoping to raise awareness about safer online shopping experiences for Kiwis. We’ll be campaigning in the lead up to the holiday season and retail sales from 25 November – 1 January 2020.
