Global domain name overseer ICANN started accepting applications on January 12 from companies and individuals who want to manage a new Internet domain extension registry.
So far, outside of country-specific domain extensions, there are only 22 potential domain extensions for websites. The most popular of those are .com, .net, and .org. The most recent one is .xxx, which is for porn sites.
ICANN will accept 500 applications for new extensions and then decide, case by case, whether the domain extension is appropriate and whether the applicant is capable of overseeing all sales of domains that end with that extension. All applicants must pay a US$185,000 processing fee.
One of B.C.’s domain name-selling pioneers, however, is not interested in managing a registry of web domains such as .music or .sport.
Webnames.ca president and co-founder Cybele Negris told Business in Vancouver January 12 that she has no immediate plans to apply to run a registry, but might apply for one if ICANN has a second round of applications.
Negris’ company is a spinoff from the Internet pioneers who founded the .ca country code in 1987.
“There’s talk that there will be applications for a .gay or a .wine and the manager of that domain extension would focus on niche groups or verticals,” Negris said.
“Then there are going to be domains that are geographically located. I believe there will be an application for a .berlin or a .paris.”
If ICANN grants an applicant the right to manage sales for a domain extension, that applicant would then act as a wholesaler.
Companies such as Webnames.ca would then buy individual web addresses from that wholesaler and retail that address to a customer.
“This is going to change the landscape of the Internet fundamentally,” Negris said.
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom