One Third of New gTLDs Pass ICANN Initial Approvals To Date

ICANN new generic Top Level Domains logoICANN is around the one third of the way through its initial evaluations of new gTLD applications, with 628 being approved as of last Friday

ICANN new generic Top Level Domains logo

ICANN new generic Top Level Domains logoICANN is around the one third of the way through its initial evaluations of new gTLD applications, with 628 being approved as of last Friday.

To date there have been 74 withdrawals out of 1930 applications including for big names such as .transformers (Hasbro), .home and .casa (Go Daddy), catalonia, .heinz, several from the UK’s Guardian News and Media in what appears to be a deal with Guardian Life, .olympus, .cadillac (General Motors), .swiss (Swiss International Airlines) and kiehls and .loreal.

Last week’s round of approvals was the largest of any week to date.