Tag Archives: dotBERLIN

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

New gTLD Registrations Soar Past Half Million As .GURU Passes 50,000

The total number of domain names registered across all new gTLDs roared past 500,000 on 15 April, jumping 46,349 registrations in one day according nTLDstats.com. The number of domains registered across all of the new gTLDs stood at 558,051 as of 21 April.And .guru has become the first of the new gTLDs to pass the 50,000 registrations mark, reaching 51,390 with a market share of 9.21 percent, and widening the gap in recent weeks to .berlin which now has 46,405 registrations, and a 8.32 percent market share. In third place is still .photography that now has 32,832 registrations.The number of registrations has grown consistently, with registrations being in part driven by the progressive General Availability of new gTLDs, and the more successful driving bumps in total figures. One bump coming soon will be the launch of .london. Anyone with an interest in a .london domain can apply from 29 April. Preferences are given to applicants as follows:

  • those with trademarks verified with ICANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse database
  • Londoners (those with a physical address in the City of London or its 32 boroughs) with rights to a name (such as proof of business or trading name)
  • Londoners (those with a physical address in the City of London or its 32 boroughs)
  • non-Londoners.

During August 2014, Dot London will allocate names according to priority ranking and where there is more than one applicant in the same priority ranking for the same domain name, an auction will decide who will get the name.On the registrar front, GoDaddy still reigns supreme with three times as many registrations as the registrar with the second most registrations, eNom. GoDaddy now has 149,578 domains under management and a market share of 26.80 percent. This has been progressively declining and a few weeks ago was around 30 percent.

New gTLDs

10×10: Ten gTLDs and Ten Registrars Pass 10,000 Mark For New gTLDs

ICANN new generic Top Level Domains logoTen new gTLDs and ten registrars have now passed the 10,000 registrations mark. The gTLD with the most registrations continues to be .guru with 47,944 as of 4 April, while .berlin is closing the gap with 44,386 according to nTLDstats.com.

In the period 22 March to 4 April there were 2,186 .guru registrations, while from 22 March to 3 April there were 4,226 .berlin registrations.

However total numbers vary from the nTLDstats.com home page to the page for individual gTLDs. But it is clear that .berlin is closing the gap on .guru.

For registrars, GoDaddy continues to dominate with 130,344 registrations and three in ten (30.01%) registrations.

Meanwhile, the top ten gTLDs are with registrations and market share are:
1.     .guru     47,944     11.04%
2.     .berlin     44,386     10.22%
3.     .photography     31,138     7.17%
4.     .tips     18,379     4.23%
5.     .today     18,340     4.22%
6.     .email     18,328     4.22%
7.     .company     13,141     3.03%
8.     .technology     12,681     2.92%
9.     .directory     11,582     2.67%
10.     .center     10,424     2.40%.

And on the registrar side of things, the top ten gTLDs with registrations and market share are:
1.     Godaddy LLC     130,344     30.01%
2.     1&1 Internet AG     43,973     10.12%
3.     Enom, Inc.     41,092     9.46%
4.     united-domains AG     39,077     9.00%
5.     Cronon AG     17,144     3.95%
6.     Name.com, Inc.     14,685     3.38%
7.     Tucows Domains Inc.     13,386     3.08%
8.     Mesh Digital Limited     13,221     3.04%
9.     PSI-USA, Inc. dba Domain Robot     13,217     3.04%
10.     Key-Systems, LLC     11,564     2.66%

Domain Name Registry, ICANN and Governance, New gTLDs

.KIWI And .BERLIN Commence Registrations On 18 March

dotKiwi logoIf you live in Berlin or New Zealand you have a choice of a .berlin or .kiwi domain as of 18 March.

For Berliners, the General Availability commenced for .berlin through leading registrars, while a Landrush phase for .kiwi domains commenced allowing New Zealanders to register their very own.

The .berlin gTLD is likely to be one of the more successful of the city TLDs, in part due to there being well over 15 million .de (Germany) domain names, making it a relatively crowded domain name space.

In New Zealand, approximately one thousand domains were sold during the pre-registration period for trademark holders and through early reservation programmes. These domain names are starting to go live and include brands such as www.lotto.kiwi, through to sports celebrities like Bevan Docherty’s www.docherty.kiwi.DotBERLIN banner image

Dot Kiwi research indicates there is significant demand and excitement about the .kiwi domain name. To date Dot Kiwi has received registrations of interest for 3,000 domains, not including the number of pre-registrations domain name resellers around the globe have received.

To ensure that all New Zealanders have a fair opportunity to purchase the domain name they want, Dot Kiwi is not operating on a first-come, first-served basis for its initial public launch phase.

The Landrush Period runs until the 30th of April, during this time Dot Kiwi will be taking applications for .kiwi domain names. Domain names with only one applicant will be immediately registered on the 1st of May. If there are multiple applications for the same domain name all parties will be invited to bid for the domain name in an online auction.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registry, ICANN and Governance, New gTLDs

Domain Pulse 2014: After Application Debacles, .BERLIN Ready To Rumble

Applicants for new gTLDs have faced a few hurdles to not just get their applications submitted, but also processed and implemented.First there was the “glitch” that halted for a few months the TLD Application System (TAS) for applications for new gTLDs, then the fiasco of the Digital Archery process to determine the order in which applications would be processed and most recently an expensive and then a complicated Trademark Clearinghouse for brand owners to protect their brands in new gTLD.These were the hurdles Dirk Krischenowski of dotBERLIN, applicant for .berlin, described that new gTLD applicants faced at the Domain Pulse conference in the Austrian city of Salzburg in front of over 300 attendees attending the annual two day conference, this year hosted by the Austrian (.at) registry nic.at. The conference rotates between Germany (.de), Switzerland (.ch) and Austria.But .berlin has overcome these hurdles and is ready to rumble with its General Availability due to commence on 18 March. It is also the world’s first cityTLD to accept registrations.Krischenowski also compared the launches of other TLDs to get an idea of how they evolved over their first year. Looking at .asia, .co, .tel and .xxx he found that at the end of the first month, all of them consistently had around 45 percent of their registrations they at the end of the first year of operation, and that growth rates as a proportion of their current registrations grew very consistently across the four TLDs in the first year.Having overcome their hurdles, .berlin and other applicants that also spoke on a new gTLD panel outlined how they are moving forward to implement their gTLDs with new opportunities for marketing and branding being important in their implementation.The European travel agency Tui said that while they were initially focussed on getting the gTLD instead of the New Zealand brewery of the same name, now they are looking at a vision for the brand under .tui.Alexander Bialas from TUI AG said strategic options for the future are being considered. He also gave examples of some of the ways in which Tui will use their TLD with plans to create destination domains to promote destinations with information on activities, events and eating, for example, as well as direct access to social media (facebook.tui and twitter.tui) so people don’t have to leave the Tui online world.Another with a view to increasing brand awareness was .tirol. Markus Kichl, CEO of .tirol said the Austrian region wanted to enhance tourism and make businesses easier to find in the region.Dirk Hamm, Founder and CEO of Valuetainment, the applicant for .voting spoke of how they plan to introduce .voting and use it as a mechanism to enable voter initiatives and online voting, with tools to be available to make voting on a registrant’s website easy to implement.And Ulrich Retzlaff from the Public Interest Registry, who has applied for .ngo and .ong spoke of how PIR is wanting to give the 10 million non-governmental organisations around the world an opportunity to market themselves, and provide better opportunities for fundraising.Earlier in the day, Sally Costerton, Senior Advisor to ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé, spoke of the importance of an open internet. Its importance was underlined by a recent Boston Consulting Group report that said in 2018, the global online economy will be worth $4.2 trillion, up from $2.3t in 2010.But implementing an internet that is free of walls and silos that stifle innovation and take advantage of the opportunities online, information must be accessible, Costerton said.Costerton also implored attendees to get involved. “Business can make a difference,” she told delegates, “as governments listen” and that the “influence business has on their national government is extremely disproportionate.” To help with influencing governement, Costerton said ICANN will help business to reach out to their governments.”We owe it to the next billion people to keep the internet open and free and frictionless,” she concluded.

Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, ICANN and Governance, New gTLDs

.BERLIN Makes It 83!

DotBerlin logoThe number of gTLDs to be delegated reached 83 on 8 January with .berlin being entered into the root, and becoming only the second city gTLD after .wien (Vienna).

Going to nic.berlin currently redirects to dotberlin.de and the delegation marks seven and a half years of hard work for the DotBerlin crew led by Dirk Krischenowski, Katrin Ohlmer and Johannes Lenz-Hawliczek since the project was founded on 21 June 2005.

But for .berlin and other gTLDs that are banking on public registrations, the going may be hard. It has been an issue for some time that many registrars, especially smaller ones are sceptical about devoting resources to gTLDs with little public interest, although they could act as resellers and be able to devote far fewer resources.

And Domain Incite has pointed out ICANN have released a list [pdf] of only 21 registrars that as of 6 January have a fully executed 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement and have been ‘certified’ by IBM on the Trademark Database (TMDB) platform.

The list includes the world’s largest registrar, and one of the largest applicants for gTLDs, GoDaddy. However as Domain Incite notes, these registrars certainly account for a large proportion of the market, accounting for 39.5 percent of the existing gTLD market.

New gTLDs

.BERLIN And .WIEN Domains Coming Soon

DotBerlin logoIt was a glimmer in the eye of Dirk Krischenowski and a few others back in 2004, but now it is almost reality with the proposed new gTLD to be entered into the root in about four weeks.

In a surprise at The Munich Conference on New Top Level Domains, contracts were signed for the .berlin and .wien (Vienna) new gTLDs with ICANN – the first two cities to have their contracts signed.

The signing follows the passing of technical tests of the backbone operator, TLD Box, a subsidiary of nic.at, the registry for the .at (Austria) country code.

“We are glad that our work over the last eight years we have achieved our goal,” Krischenowski, founder and general manager of DotBerlin told Golem.de, who also said the signing was unexpected.

Krischenowski hopes that .berlin domain names will be available in the first quarter of 2014 for somewhere between €29 and €49 while Ronald Schwärzler, Operations Manager for punkt.wien. expects .wien domains to be available in March 2014.

Note: a previous version of this article noted .berlin domains would launch in the final quarter of 2013.

Cybersecurity

Austrian Registry Grows Wings Over German New gTLDs

nic.at logoThe Austrian registry nic.at appears to have been drinking plenty of Red Bull and grown wings to cover the German-language new gTLD market. It seems every announcement of a proposed new gTLD in the German-speaking countries is using registry services from nic.at.

Last week nic.at announced they have signed up .VERSICHERUNG (insurance) and .REISE (travel), two of the most lucrative search keywords in German and likely to be quite successful gTLDs.

“We are delighted that nic.at’s wave of successes keeps on rolling with the contract awards for .versicherung and .reise,” said Richard Wein, CEO of nic.at. “This is yet another demonstration that our expertise is valued and well-known among prospective applicants.”

The announcement follows hot on the heels of announcements in recent weeks that nic.at has signed up to provide registry services for .BERLIN and .HAMBURG using their Registry In A Box service that provides a scalable solution for registry services. And prior to this, in early May nic.at signed an agreement to provide registry services for the Bahraini ccTLD .BH.

ICANN approved its Applicant Guidebook and set an application window for three months commencing 12 January only two weeks ago at the commencement of their Singapore meeting. Following the board approval the corridors were full of wheeling and dealing with potential gTLD applicants and registries seeking to form partnerships in the days after the Applicant Guidebook approval.

“In our industry trust, expertise and professionalism are particularly important – and all three are criteria and attributes that nic.at matches,” said Alexander Schwiersch, CEO of dotversicherung und dotreise GmbH commenting on why they chose nic.at to provide registry services.

Cybersecurity

Nic.at Expands Registry Services – First Hamburg, Then Berlin

nic.at logoThe Austrian registry nic.at is making forays into Germany signing agreements to provide registry services first with the operators of the proposed .HAMBURG gTLD and this week announcing they will also provide the same for .BERLIN.

The decision of dotBERLIN to select nic.at to supply registry services is quite an achievement given dotBERLIN is one of the earliest and most experienced of the likely applicants for a new gTLD.

It is also to be expected there will be a flurry of announcements and deals being made with ICANN’s announcement Monday to approve the generic Top Level Domain programme and begin taking a first round of applications in January 2012 with the intention that those approved will be operational in early 2013 according to a new revised timetable released by ICANN when they approved the new gTLD programme.

“We are proud to have won over dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG – our highest-profile city TLD initiative so far – and can’t wait to start contributing our expertise to this international flagship project,” said Richard Wein, CEO of nic.at.

In selecting nic.at, dotBERLIN considered several potential providers of registry services, evaluating suitability according to technical, organisational and financial criteria as well as the requirements laid out in the ICANN Applicants Guidebook.

“Nic.at is trusted and held in extremely high regard throughout the industry,” said Dirk Krischenowski, CEO of dotBERLIN.

“The Austrian registry has extensive experience in the secure and glitch-free operation of more than one million .AT domains. We are certain the nic.at is the right partner to support the .BERLIN’s ICANN application procedure.”

ICANN and Governance

DotBERLIN Seeks Special Status as New gTLD Pioneer

Following on from .MUSIC’s suggestion it get special status for its likely gTLD application when ICANN begins taking new gTLD applications in the near future, Domain Name Wire has a report that suggests those behind the .BERLIN initiative are after similar status.

Domain Name Wire notes dotBERLIN GmbH “has submitted a comment  to ICANN asking that companies that have been involved in the new top level domain name process for a long time be given an extra point on their application:
Many of the recently emerged new gTLD applicants may take advantage of the immense delay the new gTLD program has been facing since its start in 2005. The tentative timeline published with the Board’s approval of the new gTLD program in June 2008 stated an application window for March 2009. We think that applicants which were planning with this timeline already had a ripe application, while a number of new applicants who came in during the last 18 month sometimes seem to rather copy existing concepts and projects or have questionable business models.

For this reason we claim:
…One extra point in the Community Priority Evaluation should be given if organization of an applicant was already established before the approval of the new gTLDs program by the ICANN Board on 26 June 2008 or before the first communicated application window in March 2009.

To read this Domain Name Wire report in full, see:
domainnamewire.com/2010/07/15/dotberlin-wants-special-status-with-new-gtlds-because-of-its-early-involvement/