Taking on an industry titan is never easy. So it was with a small upstart domain extension hoping to challenge the dominance of dot-com. Its success has now become the role model for a new generation of extensions that will forever change the way we see and use the Internet...

From the moment the Internet entered popular culture, it has been synonymous with the three-letter ending of many addresses on the global network: dot-com.

Despite literally hundreds of other Internet endings, all of which do the same basic job of providing a tangible location on an intangible computer network, the dominance of dot-com means that even now there are seven times as many Internet addresses with the "com" ending than the next most popular (dot-de, the German Internet extension).

“From 2013 onwards, the naming system for the global network of the Internet will start to reflect the diversity of its millions of users — and hence your customers.But those days are rapidly coming to a close through plans to create thousands of new extensions over the next 12 months. Starting later this year, Internet users will start to see all sorts of new names on the network. Whether it is the city where you live (dot-london, dot-paris, dot-nyc), your favourite retailer (dot-brands), even your favourite pastimes (dot-ski, dot-golf), there will soon be an Internet extension for it.

From 2013 onwards, the naming system for this global network will start to reflect the diversity of its millions of users — and hence your customers. If you want to sell your new green brand of products, you may find your target audience spends much more of its time on websites ending in dot-eco or dot-green. And your marketing team may try desperately to explain why you should rebrand an underperforming service on a new dot-earth web address.

As consumer behavior changes online, smart companies will follow — or even lead.

And lead is exactly what one company that has opened the door for these thousands of new extensions did.

.CO Internet is the company that manages the new dot-CO domain extension, which means it is able to define how, by whom, and for how much domain names ending in ".CO" are allocated. The ".CO" Internet extension is in fact assigned to the country of Colombia through an international country-naming standard (there are 255 other "ccTLDs" or country-code top-level domains on the Internet such as dot-cn for China, dot-uk for the United Kingdom and dot-de for Germany, as mentioned earlier).

Since many of these particular extensions are run or at least overseen by governments, they have been typically under-used (although there are a few notable exceptions). And that has left the "generic" top-level domains such as dot-com, dot-org, dot-info to dominate the Internet naming system.

“The magic sauce that enabled .CO Internet to succeed is the company's culture of innovation. The first thing .CO Internet did was to ignore accepted wisdom about the Internet's naming infrastructure and decided it would make domains 'sexy'.The Colombian government back in 2006 realized that its dot-CO extension had the potential for global use due to it being used to mean "company", "corporation" and even "commerce" across the world. At the time there were only a few thousand dot-CO domains in total. And so the government put the extension out for tender and chose what it felt was the most go-getting and innovative company that applied to manage the domain.

In 2010, .CO Internet was awarded the rights to manage the .CO extension and just two years later, they have gone from a few thousand dot-CO domains to well over one million, with customers from over 200 countries.

What's more, dot-CO has found the support of global brands from IBM to Starbucks, from Google to Twitter. The most valuable domains — those with just a single letter, such as "g.co" — have reportedly been sold for seven figure sums. Amazon bought three: a.co for itself, z.co for Zappos, and k.co for Kindle.

What makes the success of the .CO domain all the more remarkable is that it came after ten years of failed attempts by a range of other companies to break open the market for web addresses. Although it remains dominated by the 800 pound dot-com gorilla, with over 100-million registrations under its belt, dot-CO is being used as a template for the hundreds of new extensions who collectively threaten to turn the market for web addresses on its head.

Making domain names sexy

There has been a limited expansion of the Internet's name space in the past. In 2000, seven new "generic" extensions were approved: aero, biz, coop, info, museum, name and pro. And in 2004, a further six were approved: asia, cat, jobs, mobi, tel and travel (and seven years later, xxx). It is telling that a decade later, the average consumer is unlikely to have even heard of them.

So, what was the magic sauce that enabled .CO Internet to succeed where others had tried and failed? The company is quite open about it: innovation.

The first thing .CO Internet did was to ignore accepted wisdom. Even now, many of those comfortable with the status quo claim that new extensions are "not needed". They include well-known Internet figures such as Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. According to this logic, the Internet's naming infrastructure is no more interesting than the phone system or the road network. It does a useful job providing a foundation for other activities. As a result, previous efforts at breaking dot-com domination have been suitably low-key.

From day one, .CO Internet decided that it didn't agree with this engineer-like perspective and decided it would make domains "sexy". Dot-CO domains would appeal to those likely to find excitement in having a particular space online: namely other innovators and creative thinkers.

In order to get this message out, the company ignored another piece of conventional wisdom: leave the marketing in the hands of web domain retailers, like GoDaddy and Network Solutions. The logic was that it is in the interests of these companies to sell more domains. Plus they have long years of experience in what works and what doesn't in the domain name market.

Except to these companies domains really are more of a utility — they sell as many as possible and make a small margin on each (some sell at or under wholesale price and make their profit from tying in a more profitable service like website hosting). To this day, domain retailers like selling dot-com domains because their systems are set up to deal with them, they provide a solid income, and, crucially, they have a very high renewal rate.

The renewal rate is one factor that has enabled dot-com to stay in control for so long: with domains typically around the $10 per domain per year mark, huge numbers are bought each year and then dropped when their registration period ends. Dot-com domains have a famously high renewal rate compared to other extensions, which makes the retailers happy as customers simply renew their business every year.

Those economics are at the point of breaking however. It is increasingly difficult for individuals and businesses world wide to actually find a dot-com web address that they want. Given the scarcity of names, a booming market in the resale of dot-coms now sees companies regularly paying tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for the addresses they want. But with a flood of new, more highly focused extensions about to hit the market, this model has started looking increasingly stale. And expensive.

Market the hell out of it

.CO Internet decided long before it launched that it would work the system the other way around — by bringing modern marketing skills to a stagnant market and creating a demand for its domains.

It took out billboards in New York's Times Square and in San Francisco and started sponsoring events outside the small Internet infrastructure market, such as the hip South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. It ran a "Create Your Opportunity" campaign with a $50,000 prize for the company with the best business plan built around a dot-CO domain.

But at the same time as working outside the existing model, it also sought out ways to make it work differently for them. Fresh thinking led to probably the company's big coup — a Superbowl ad in 2011 in partnership with the world's biggest domain retailer, that specifically highlighted dot-CO domains.

GoDaddy has run ads during the biggest TV event of the year in the United States for a number of years, each time featuring scantily clad women in a variety of entirely unrelated activities. The ads are pointless, frivolous, hugely expensive and of course massively successful. But even with low-cut tops, the company had a hard time making the act of registering an address on the Internet sexy. What dot-CO provided was something new, and so something to sell.

The commercial reached 110 million viewers and registered dot-CO domains jumped several hundred thousand as a result. It was so successful that both companies repeated the experiment in 2012.

Getting to know — and love — your customers

The other innovation that .CO Internet brought to the market was the idea of identifying a specific community and building relationships with them around their domain names.

“Dot-CO has the advantage of being immediately recognizable and suitably generic. And .CO Internet took a decision to focus on a community that reflected its own values of innovation: Internet entrepreneurs.Previous new Internet extensions had often had specific communities as a focus for its products but were restricted by their name's precision — such as dot-aero or dot-mobi. Some extensions were under strict rules only to sell to certain pre-identified groups — such as dot-pro and dot-jobs. More general domains, such as dot-info had never targeted a particular group and so seem doomed to act as an also-ran for dot-coms.

Dot-CO has the advantage of being immediately recognizable and suitably generic. And the company made a decision to focus on a community that reflected its own values of innovation: Internet entrepreneurs.

As a result, the .CO Internet team regularly visits hubs of Internet innovation to meet up with their customers, discussing ways in which they can help support and promote them. It's a win-win for both sides, and the company features many of those it has conversations with on its own "go.co" site, with its tagline: "Where big ideas belong on the web".

The company also reached out to thought leaders and leading organizations around the community — investors and startup groups. One of the first high profile dot-CO domains was Angel.co, run by Angel List, a hugely successful platform for connecting startups with investors around the world. Others groups included 500 Startups — who shifted their web presence from "500startups.com" to the shorter and instantly more recognizable "500.co". Well-known technology startup writer Om Malik moved his personal blog to "om.co".

Juan Diego Calle – CEO, .CO InternetThe result has been to spread awareness about .CO domain names within a community of frequent domain purchasers as well as to provide somewhat of a buzz around the idea that they are a little different. The hope from .CO Internet's perspective is that one of these Internet startups will go on to become the next Google or Twitter and with it, pull its domain into the spotlight.

Smart targeting

Even with mainstream marketing and community building, a significant challenge remained however: Main Street acceptance.

Before launching, .CO Internet took another innovative route within the industry: rather than taking a wait-and-see approach, it actively reached out and targeted big businesses to persuade them to register dot-CO domains.

An unexpected opportunity suddenly opened up when it realized companies had started looking for extremely short domains. This trend is epitomized by Twitter, which limits messages to 140 characters, so every character counts. It is no coincidence that Twitter wanted and won "t.co" — which is now one of the most used domains on the entire Internet (ranked 27th according to Alexa).

Other big names followed suit quickly. Google has "g.co" and uses it for official Google shortcuts to other areas of the Internet; Starbucks has sbux.co; Cisco uses cs.co. With these domains comes a new world of analytics and advertising opportunities that companies have only just started realizing.

But where now?

Of course, as with all businesses, the path of dot-CO was far from straight, nor without its mishaps and mistakes, but by keeping a focus on innovating in what had become a stagnant market, as well as recognizing that its own innovative culture is what marked the company out from its much larger competition, .CO Internet has turned into a successful business with a clear path to future growth.

Its approach is likely to be emulated by many of the companies that are now investing millions in their own extensions. Those companies are likely to aggressively target and market particular groups of people: the days of the catch-all dot-com are over.

"Within a few years, we may find that alongside age, income, interests and other indicators for identifying who your customers are, will be the Internet extensions they are most likely to associate themselves with."

What that means for everyone else is equally as striking. With more and more of all our lives moving online, it is going to be crucial for companies to find where people are gathering on the Internet.

Within just a few short years, we may find that alongside age, income, interests and the hundreds of other indicators for identifying who your customers are, will be the Internet extensions they are most likely to associate themselves with.

It's a brave new world. And the dot-CO model may prove to be the template for much of it.

Written by Kieren McCarthy (CircleID), an acknowledged authority on the Internet and Internet governance. He has written extensively about both for a wide range of national and international newspapers and magazines. An engineer by training, he has spent more than 10 years as an IT journalist and has, at some point, interviewed just about everybody in the Internet industry. The official blogger for both the inaugural Internet Governance Forum and an OECD conference on the Participative Web, and author of the book Sex.com, he was also ICANN's General Manager of Public Participation, tasked with coordinating communication between the organization and Internet users. Kieren is CEO of .Nxt. Inc, and created both the company and the conference to provide a space for positive information-sharing about the future of the Internet's infrastructure.

Neustar's Chief Privacy Officer Becky Burr.

"Becky's industry savvy, combined with her vast experience in data-technology protection and privacy, will help us to ensure that privacy by design, consumer choice and transparency continue to be the cornerstones of everything we do," said Lisa Hook, president and CEO, Neustar. "Formalizing the role of Chief Privacy Officer is a further sign of Neustar's commitment to be at the vanguard of privacy protection. Hiring Becky Burr demonstrates how seriously we take these issues."

"There is nothing more important to Neustar than protecting customer data and consumer privacy. It is the base on which our entire business is built," said Scott Blake Harris. "As we expand our business providing real-time information and analysis to companies around the globe, it is critical that we bring on board a well-respected leader in the privacy community who truly understands both technology and policy, and Becky certainly does," Mr. Harris added.

Ms. Burr is currently a partner at Wilmer Hale, practicing in the Communications, Privacy and Internet Law Practice Group. She also is a veteran of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. At the FTC, Ms. Burr was responsible for competition and consumer protection policy in connection with information industry/electronic information infrastructure. She participated in developing the FTC's approach to competition, consumer protection, and privacy/data protection in the digital marketplace. Ms. Burr also was a founding member of the board of directors of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional. She was recognized as a nationwide leader in the Privacy and Data Security field in the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 editions of Chambers of USA: America's Leading Lawyers in Business.

In addition to her expertise in the privacy area, Ms. Burr is an internationally recognized expert on Internet governance issues. She has served as a member of ICANN's Government Advisory Committee, country-code Names Supporting Organization Council, and legal counsel to domain name registries, registrars, and business stakeholders. Ms. Burr also will play an important role for Neustar on Internet governance, ICANN and domain name registry issues.

Should the application be successful, Top Level Domain Holding's wholly owned registry services company, Minds + Machines, will provide the back-end registry services for the proposed new domain. The City of Budapest will receive a revenue share.

Budapest is the capital of Hungary and the European Union's seventh largest city. It is recognized as a major global tourist destination and the financial centre for Central Europe.

Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of TLDH, commented:

"We are delighted that the government of another major world city has elected to work with us. We fully understand our responsibility to the City of Budapest and to its residents and businesses, and we look forward to providing them with a first-class service. We view this as an important addition to our portfolio of geographical domains."

According to ICANN rules, an applicant for a geographical gTLD must have the support of the relevant governmental authority. Only one application can be made on behalf of a city. As such, geographic applications that have the support of the relevant municipality/authority, cannot be contested by another bidding group.

In addition to .BUDAPEST, the Company has been selected by the relevant governmental authorities of London, Miami, Bavaria, and North-Rhine Westphalia for their geographic top-level domains.

The Board expects that ICANN will publish all applications which it considers complete and ready for evaluation by ICANN prior to the ICANN meeting in Prague in late June 2012, following which the Directors will provide further information on those applications submitted by the Company on its own and its clients behalf which have been approved for evaluation.

About Top Level Domain Holdings Limited

Top Level Domain Holding is a publicly traded holding company listed on the London AIM market. The company is focused on the new top-level domain space. Top-level domains, such as .com, run by VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), and .biz, run by NeuStar (NYSE: NSR), are regulated by ICANN. ICANN has announced plans to expand the number of top-level domains. TLDH intends to make targeted investments in this space, focusing on both infrastructure technologies and specific top-level domains.

We would like your help in soliciting the best possible nominees for the open seats. We are seeking individuals with significant Internet leadership experience within the nonprofit, nongovernmental organization (NGO) and domain name arenas who represent the broad and geographically diverse spectrum of the global noncommercial community.

Interested individuals are encouraged to submit nominations, including self-nominations. A nomination statement of approximately 400 words should include details of the nominee's experience with the Internet, commitment to promoting the noncommercial use of the Internet, understanding of the technical or policy issues facing the .ORG registry, and perspectives regarding the needs of the .ORG community. A current biography and digital photograph also are requested.

Nominations must be submitted by 15 June, 2012. To submit your nominations or to learn more about the advisory council, please visit our website. New council members will be announced on 30 June, 2012.

ARI Registry Services was selected by the TRA in March 2011 to provide domain name registry software and supporting services to revitalise the .om ccTLD.

The project will also include the launch of عمان. (.oman), the Arabic script IDN ccTLD for Oman.

Mohammed Al Kindy, Senior Manager Technical Affairs for the Oman TRA, said the project was important to the ongoing development of the Internet in Oman.

"The relaunch of .om and launch of عمان. (.oman) will provide Internet users in Oman with a stable and reliable piece of infrastructure that is based on best practice domain name registry operation. This will provide an opportunity to expand the reach of the Internet in Oman and reinforce its importance as a national asset.

"We thank ARI Registry Services for their support on this project," Mr Al Kindy said.

Adrian Kinderis, CEO of ARI Registry Services, congratulated the TRA on the relaunch.

"This project represents a significant advancement of the Internet within Oman and reinforces the Government's commitment to provide the best possible Internet experience to its people. We congratulate the TRA for their foresight and dedication to developing the Internet in their region," Mr Kinderis said.

"The introduction of عمان. (.oman) will position Oman as one of only a few Arabic speaking countries with the capability to allow its citizens to navigate the web in their native language. This is something Oman should be proud of.

"This has been a tremendous project for the team at ARI to be involved in. We have completely customised our solution to address the needs of the TRA and assist them in the revitalisation of a national asset. Our work has included the development of customised registry software to handle the various policy and business requirements that are specific to the region, the purchase and configuration of hardware along with the deployment of staff to implement our licensed product and educate the TRA on its management," Mr Kinderis said.

With the new infrastructure the TRA has acquired, Oman will be open to more registrars and this will help further develop the .om and عمان. (.oman) namespaces.

FIBA confirmed its application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") for .BASKETBALL via a press statement on 25 April 2012.

Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of Top Level Domain Holdings, commented: "We are honoured to be partnering with FIBA and ROAR Domains LLC on this application. Basketball is a global sport embracing a community of more than 450 million people. We believe the .BASKETBALL domain can have an important role to play in promoting the sport and enhancing the community of federations, clubs, players and fans."

For the full text of FIBA's announcement on its .BASKETBALL gTLD application to ICANN, including the appointment of Minds+Machines, click here.

About Top Level Domain Holdings Limited

Top Level Domain Holding is a publicly traded holding company listed on the London AIM market. The company is focused on the new top-level domain space. Top-level domains, such as .com, run by VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), and .biz, run by NeuStar (NYSE: NSR), are regulated by ICANN. ICANN has announced plans to expand the number of top-level domains. TLDH intends to make targeted investments in this space, focusing on both infrastructure technologies and specific top-level domains.

Tom, a small business owner of Bike Works in Fredericksburg, Virginia gets a surprise visit form the .US crew.

The targeted businesses included Park Florist in Takoma Park, Maryland and Bike Works, a bicycle shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

New Balance of Marketing Power

Traditionally registries have marketed to the registrar channel, hoping that the marketing will eventually trickle down to the intended audience, said Architelos CEO Alexa Raad. This has led some TLDs to confuse their channel with their customers and forfeit control of their message and effectiveness. "With new TLDs ranging from brands and industry descriptors to city names and non-profit organizations, registries will need to take greater control of their marketing and move far beyond a simple channel promotion approach," Raad said. "Velocity will shift the balance of marketing power and enable direct, sustainable and higher value customer relationships."

The success of more descriptive and branded TLDs will not be judged by the quantity of domain names sold, but rather by the economic value delivered, regardless of domain name volumes. Architelos is introducing Velocity to help new and existing TLD registries retain greater marketing control and provide valued services to domain names they serve.

Velocity Returns Marketing Power to Registries

Velocity encompasses a range of marketing services based on the experiences of Architelos executives who have launched a TLD, managed a registry, developed new TLD business models, created sophisticated domain technologies and deployed and evaluated many TLD marketing programs, as well as the experience of Thom Kennon, executive vice president, digital brand strategies, and widely regarded as a leading "post-digital" strategist. He is directing the Velocity service.

Kennon said Velocity by Architelos is grounded on a set of proven behavioral marketing tools and methodologies fueled by innovative human research techniques. "Velocity will include 'listening-based marketing' that is invigorated by social media and 'big data marketing' that creates more accurate predictions and more valuable insights," Kennon said.

According to Kennon, the payoff for TLDs is potentially huge. "If you think about the actual value of a long-term customer relationship a registrant could have directly with a registry, it changes the business model. Instead of surrendering margin to the channel, the TLD realizes a customer life-time profitability unimaginable in the old marketing model."

Velocity Built by Digital Marketing Experts

Among the Architelos Velocity services, which are tailored to each TLD's specific marketing challenges, are:

• Brand identity development and brand rejuvenation
• Audience identification and profiling
• Positioning vis-à-vis the industry and competitors
• Digital and other non-traditional strategic marketing plans, benchmarks and activation
• Go-to-market support and continual optimization
• Message development

"There is a shortage of experienced domain name marketers," Kennon said. "Fortunately, Architelos executives have such first-hand experience."

"Velocity isn't about theory or models," he added. "It's about real programs put into action to attract and keep registrants in the increasingly chaotic world of domains."

African Undersea Cables – 2014 (Click to Enlarge)

This huge growth in fiber optic cables connecting Africa means that bandwidth costs can go further down but there are many questions for internet service providers, regulators and policy makers on how to ensure the new connectivity/bandwidth can lead to development of online services, ecommerce and other services that rely on good internet connectivity like eLearning and eHealth .

For instance, lower bandwidth costs have allowed internet users to grow from 14 million to 17 million in Kenya in the last quarter of 2011. This has been propelled by mobile internet subscribers but cost is an underlying factor. The same applies to other parts of Africa, in Senegal the number of Internet subscribers grew phenomenally in 2011. There is currently more than twice the number of Internet subscribers than a year ago, this growth was driven by factors like new 3G licenses, the release of cheaper internet services and low cost smartphones.

One of the more notable results of the lower connectivity costs has been the growth of Internet Exchange Points, which allowed more ISPs to exchange content locally without going through international transit providers. The ccTLD registries have also been able to connect directly at the exchange points, improving accessibility to their TLDs.

In a recent study titled "Assessment of the impact of Internet Exchange Points – Empirical study of Kenya and Nigeria" conducted by Analysys Mason and commissioned by the Internet Society, it was revealed that uses of the Internet Exchange Point "KIXP" helped in increase service delivery for .ke which resulted in domain name registration growth.

Most of the African ccTLD has few thousands of domain name registrations and there are many other challenges facing African ccTLD uptake — like registration cost, restricted policies and lack of automation. But a good infrastructure, fair competition and increased Internet capacity means that more people can get online, buy domain names, set up websites and online business. Two of the Africa's shining examples are Kenya ccTLD .ke with about 22,000 domains and South Africa .ZA is leading Africa's name space with over 700,000 domains under .za.

dotAFRICA, Africa's new gTLD project will also benefit from the growth of Africa's infrastructure and internet users huge growth. Due to nature of Africa internet issues the project will contribute to the development of Africa's Internet ecosystem through the establishment of dot Africa Foundation, more efforts directed to ccTLDs, registrars and Internet content services development in Africa.

Resources:
1. Africa's current Sea Cables
2. ISOC's Assessment of the impact of Internet Exchange Points – empirical study of Kenya and Nigeria
3. Senegal's telecommunications regulator, ARTP, recently published an annual report for 2011.

Written by Mohamed EL Bashir, Internet Infrastructure Management and Governance Expert

With the coming new TLDs, marketplace dynamics are about to become significantly disrupted. In a world where brands are the TLDs and digital communities become their own registries, the traditional definition of a registry no longer applies. For the first time, TLDs will become branded entities and in some cases rich global community destination points. Will registries vie with each other for placement in an ever crowded shelf, thereby ceding more control to the registrars? Some certainly will, but not all. Many registries know already, or soon will realize, that the costs will be high and the ROI unpredictable,

More innovative TLDs will take over the job of targeting potential registrants and delivering a precise marketing and branding message to stimulate sales. In other words, they will employ a "pull" versus "push" marketing methodology. For TLDs whose target registrants are well defined, or who already have a relationship with their market as a business or a brand, this will be much easier. And it will be more cost effective than those who do not. I also suspect that vertically integrated TLDs won't be the only registries that will be assuming a central role in the direct marketing of their product. In any case, the role of the registrar as the control point for marketing to the registrants will most certainly diminish.

This represents a fundamental change to the ecosystem and business of the Internet. The implications for registries, registrars and registrants are potentially profound. Absent a viable crystal ball, none of us enjoys a clear understanding of how all of this will shape up and shake out. What seems clear however, as we await ICANN's publishing of the initial TLD applicant roll call, is that the marketing of all TLDs will soon be changing forever. The new TLDs will, of necessity, require a new and qualitatively different brand marketing communications machine. They come to the market fresh, without any historic inclination towards relying on the registrar channel for driving awareness, sales and retention for their TLD product. Some will spend considerable efforts to establish a direct go-to-market strategy for their products. For the first time — outside the occasional big-splash campaigns sponsored by the mega registrars — prospective registrants and end-users will be targeted with rich, direct marketing in order to drive targeted sales, encourage retention, create content and increase traffic.

I'm excited by the possibilities in this new world of re-intermediated TLDs. I also believe the new marketing rules ushered in with the new TLDs will also open the door for existing ccTLDs and other niche TLDs to finally begin taking their story directly to the registrant marketplace, where the getting and keeping of customers will be heating up soon.

Written by Thom Kennon, EVP Digital Brand Strategies at Architelos

The IRB informed the press yesterday, and TLDH followed this morning with its own press release. Rugby is a huge sport in the world (in some parts, the only sport), so we're very pleased at our selection.

The IRB is committed to letting only valid registrants use .RUGBY, but they take a wide view of who that entails. Robert Brophy, acting CEO of the IRB, said: "If we are successful in our application we propose to work in partnership with our national federations to make the .RUGBY domain name available to the global Rugby family at all levels, including, players, from amateur to professional, tournament owners, organisers and, of course, fans."

We're looking forward to serving those same stakeholders. Dot RUGBY, with the IRB behind it, is a marquee gTLD with a built-in fan base that has every potential of being recognized as the home of rugby on the Internet. We're happy to be a part of this effort.

How many LIRs that started up during the dotcom bubble have since closed?

If we define the dotcom bubble as the three years between 1999 and 2002, then 978 of dotcom LIRs have since closed. This accounts for 36% of all closed LIRs. The reason for closure could be anything from not paying invoices, stopping their business, renaming, merging or being taken over (see some more details on reasons for closure below). As you can see in the image below, around 50% of those LIRs were located in the UK, Germany, Russia, Italy and the Netherlands.

What are the reasons for closing an LIR?

It is difficult to reliably determine the reasons why LIRs stop doing business. To get an idea, we looked at a sample of all LIRs that opened in the UK during the dotcom bubble and that have since closed. This might not be a representative sample, but it adds up to 15% of all closed LIRs that opened during the dotcom bubble years. It at least gives an indication of the various reasons why LIRs closed.

In the image below you can see that almost 50% of all closures were caused by non-payment. Nearly one-third of the LIRs that closed, merged with or were taken over by other LIRs. Around 20% of the LIRs closed for other reasons, often because they decided to stop their business.

How long were closed LIRs operational?

We also looked at the time LIRs were operational before they closed. In the image below, you can see that the majority of LIRs were open for less than five years. But there are also a number of LIRs that were in operation for over 15 years. Some of them were probably taken over or merged into other organisations and might still be around in some form. The average time that a now-closed LIR was a member of the RIPE NCC is 4.3 years.

We also looked at those LIRs that opened during the dotcom bubble. Their average life-span was very similar: 4.6 years. That means that the dotcom generation does not behave that different from others; we just saw many more signing up during those days.

For more information and statistics, please refer to the background article on RIPE Labs: Why Do LIRs Close?

Written by Mirjam Kuehne

The Contract, won by Minds and Machines Limited through a competitive tender process, is for a seven year period (the "Term"), with a three year renewal period which is subject to certain conditions.

Gordon Innes, CEO at London & Partners, said:

"We are delighted to be working with Minds and Machines on the dot London Application and are confident that the initiative will bring important additional revenue and jobs to the capital. The dot London domain provides a tremendous opportunity to extend the global presence of London across the Internet, and likewise position it as a centre of digital innovation. We believe we are now excellently placed to benefit from the unprecedented opportunities provided by the de-regulation of the Internet naming system."

ICANN's application window for domain registrants closes on 12 April 2012. It is expected that ICANN will take up to 7 months to review applications with the first new gTLDs anticipated to come online in late 2012.

Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of TLDH, commented:

"We are proud to be partnering with one of the greatest cities in the world. We are committed to working with London & Partners and DLDL to ensure that dot London becomes a central part of the city's promotion and a resource that is of real value to the people, businesses and communities of London. We are honored to have won this contract in the Olympic year which places London at the centre of a global audience."

The Board expects that ICANN will publish those applications which ICANN considers complete and ready for evaluation by ICANN on or around 30 April, following which the Board will provide further information on those applications submitted by the Company on its own and clients' behalf which have been approved for evaluation.

LHL consists of a number of leading music industry figures including artists, managers, music producers and lawyers. TLDH's wholly owned registry services business, Minds + Machines, will provide back-end registry services and TLDH will co-invest alongside LHL in the joint venture.

Antony Van Couvering, CEO of TLDH, said:

"We're thrilled to be working with leading music artists and professionals. This partnership brings financial weight and industry expertise to the table and confirms the value which we see in .music."

On the 21 February 2012, the Company announced that it had already applied for 40 gTLD Application Slots on behalf of itself and its clients. The Company will be applying for a further batch of Application Slots before the Application Window closes on 12 April 2012.

On 7 March 2012, the Commissioners of the City of Miami voted 4-0 to accept the proposal from Minds + Machines and requested Minds + Machines to begin work on the application for .MIAMI immediately. The Minds + Machines' proposal was chosen following a competitive bid process. Minds + Machines is wholly-owned by TLDH.

Miami is a major tourist destination attracting over 38 million visitors annually who collectively spend on average US$17.1 billion each year. Miami is also a major business hub acting as a gateway between Latin America and the United States. Both Spanish and English are recognized languages in the city and the greater Miami area is the largest urban centre in the southeastern U.S. with a population of 5.5 million.

Antony Van Couvering, CEO of TLDH, commented: "We are delighted to have secured the support of the City of Miami for .MIAMI. Miami is a key hub, a vibrant multi-cultural city recognized as a major fashion, retail, arts and commercial centre. Having its own top-level domain will enhance the standing of Miami globally and further enhance the City's prominence in the field of technology and with the ever increasing importance of the Internet. We are well aware of the serious responsibilities given to us by the Commissioners, and we look forward to providing a modern, responsive and reliable .MIAMI registry."

Top Level Domain Holdings has now announced that it has secured registry service contracts with clients for geographic and generic gTLDs in the US, Germany, India, Africa (.zulu), and New Zealand (.kiwi).