
The .shop new gTLD announced in mid-July it passed the one million registrations mark, one of only six new gTLD’s that has surpassed the milestone. Aimed at online businesses/ecommerce, it launched in late September 2016 and took 15 months to reach the half million milestone and just over 3.5 years to reach the million.
GMO Registry, which operates .shop, applied for the operating rights of .shop and were successful in an ICANN auction between applicants in January 2016, with a winning bid of $41.5 million dollars.

And on new gTLDs, gTLD Club announced three more .brand applicants have terminated their applications. The three are .swiftcover (Swiftcover Insurance Services Limited, a UK provider of insurance services), .rmit (the Australian university Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and .dabur (Dabur India Limited – an Indian multinational consumer goods company).

The Russian ccTLD .ru and its IDN transliteration .РФ will have new versions of their terms and conditions come into effect on 26 August 2021.
Approved on 16 July, the amendments and additions concern actions with regard to domain names whose registrants have ceased to exist (e.g. a legal entity has been liquidated or an individual has passed). They allow the coordinator to pursue certain actions to maintain the stability of the domain registration system if the registrar fails to act.
The Terms and Conditions of Domain Name Registration in .RU and .РФ now also include an extended list of information supplied by the WHOIS service for checking registration data. The Regulations of the Commission on Accreditation Disputes have been updated and extended.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), the registry operator for Canada’s country code top-level domain .ca, announced $1.25 million in grants to support communities across the country where the need is greatest. For 2021, CIRA’s Community Investment Program grants initiative placed a special emphasis on grants for internet-related projects in Indigenous and rural communities, along with initiatives that benefit students.
From improving connectivity in Ermineskin Cree Nation in Alberta, to providing laptops and cybersecurity courses in Toronto’s Regent Park, the Community Investment Program funds a broad variety of projects that will help support new broadband infrastructure, digital literacy, civic engagement, and cybersecurity skills for students and Indigenous, rural, and remote communities across the country. These community-led projects funded by CIRA will help provide Canadians with faster internet access, as well as the skills they need to stay safe and secure online. You can find the full list of projects here.
There was a record number of applications for infrastructure projects this year, which CIRA says was no surprise given Canada’s growing reliance on the internet during the pandemic. And there was a groundswell of interest from Indigenous communities.
“It’s inspiring to see communities across the country taking internet access into their own hands,” said Byron Holland, CIRA president and CEO. “More than ever, it is an essential service and CIRA is committed to help improve access for all. This year’s recipients all have great ideas to help their communities and we’re proud to support them.”
“We appreciate the opportunity to create a new internet infrastructure project with help from CIRA,” said Derrick Houle, executive director of the Mamawapowin Technology Society. “For years we have had a dream and a desire to improve our nation’s connectivity. We look forward to presenting them with new opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have been available.”
CIRA also announced their nomination committee selected seven candidates from over 100 applications from across Canada with a broad mix of experience and qualifications necessary for the management of the .CA domain. For details on those selected, click here.

In a Q&A on the DNS Belgium website, Kristof Tuyteleers, cybersecurity officer at the Belgian ccTLD registry explains why DNS Belgium partnered with the Cybersecurity Coalition.
“We became a member of the Cyber Security Coalition (CSC) at the end of 2018 ,” explained Tuyteleers. “The organisation has been around for about six years. At its inception, it focused on bringing together the most important (and therefore the largest) parties from the public, private and academic sectors. As the Cyber Security Coalition began to grow, it opened up space and attention for smaller players: our opportunity to participate in this national initiative.”
The full Q&A is available on the DNS Belgium’s website here.