IDN Whois

2011 IDN Sales Summary: Sales Chart

Jan 16, 2012 1 Comment by

As a recap of the biggest sales year for IDNs yet, below we review the top reported IDN sales in 2011. A snapshot of some of the largest confirmed sales, courtesy of IDNTools Sales Charts, are as follows:



Notable, is that even in this emerging IDN market, these top 10 public sales grossed over $100,000.

Worth noting with an asterisk, are the auctioned .РФ (“.RF” in English) domains, as the new Russian ccTLD hit the IDN scene with a splash. .РФ names were originally auctioned off by NIC.ru in late November 2010, but a series of procedural delays led many of the final sales to have closed in early 2011.

The following sums are a sampling of bids on .РФ names, as recorded by an auction participant, **however, NIC.ru did not provide confirmation of payment**:

билеты.рф/$200,020 / “Tickets”
цветы.рф/$110,050 / “Flowers”
рестораны.рф / $110,001 / “Restaurants”
отель.рф / $100,005 / “Hotel”

Without verified .рф sales totals, the auction bids above are food for thought as to what this year’s IDN Sales Chart might really look like.

A sweet spot remains $xxx sales, of which there were many, such as: 灯具.com (“lighting.com” in Chinese) for $855, and ايميل.com (“Email.com” in Arabic) for $755.

As 2011 was initially seen as a “wait and see” year for IDNs until the gTLD program gets off the ground along with a form of .com-in-IDN aliasing, the above tallies are quite promising. A more complete list of IDN sales can be found here: http://idntools.com/idnsales.php

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

Exclusive Q&A with Tina Dam

Dec 04, 2011 5 Comments by


Q: You are currently a co-founder of myTLD.com, a consulting and management firm for new TLDs. What services do you offer and what types of clients do you work with?


A: At MyTLD we provide a wide range of services, from general domain advice; gTLD application writing, strategy, processing, and launch to companies, organizations, or individuals that need assistance with their TLDs; to IDN training; ccTLD support, and much more. So our clients are all very different. What they have in common though is one of our core requirements, that is a sincere intent to do something good for the Internet and its users.

The company was originally formed because I got a lot of inquiries, after having left ICANN, to assist companies with their new gTLD plans, and Constantine got the same inquiries relating to his success with .MUSIC.


Q: You are also currently the Chief Operating Officer at .MUSIC. What is your vision for the future use of .music?

A: The goal of .MUSIC is to create a strong value to the music community that goes beyond a top-level domain names. Not only will .MUSIC serve as a unique identifier for music-related content, it will also offer a safe haven for legal music consumption and a trusted badge that represents music entities. Our primary objective is to introduce new innovations and opportunities to the music community that will be focused on creating a difference that truly matters to them on a global scale by connecting two unrelated Industries together: the Music Industry and the Domain Industry.


Q: Formerly, as a director at ICANN, you were largely responsible for the IDN ccTLD fast-track process. How do you feel about the current state of IDN ccTLDs especially in light of the successful .Рф launch?


A: Overall I am happy with it and find that the Fast Track is going very well, and as intended. This does not mean that we cannot improve on it and I see that the ccNSO is discussing that subject. However, based on the initial inquiry we had submitted to ccTLD registry managers and governments, over 95% of those that said they were interested in and would pursue an IDN ccTLD have been provided such. For me that means success.


The .рф launch was very successful due to the large number of registrations. But I don’t measure the success in registration volume alone. For many the introduction of internationalized top-level domains is about having the choice. It was great to be able to make that choice available for so many people around the world.


Q: Many wish that there had been a fast-track IDN gTLD process as well. Why did this not happen?

A: I know people keep asking that question. In my mind and understanding there simply was no faster way forward with new gTLDs than what we have seen. The issues that had to be dealt with or solved with the non-IDN gTLDs were the same as the issues for the IDN gTLDs, and as such splitting the process up would not have made a difference.

Q: What were the most rewarding and difficult parts of your role at ICANN?

A: So many parts of working at ICANN was rewarding that it is really impossible to select one part as the most. Certainly launching internationalized top-levels was fantastic and the last accomplishments for me as ICANN staff, but prior to that I worked on a great number of really positive consensus policies for and with the gTLD registries. I will say that simply being allowed to serve the Internet community for 8 years overall is the most rewarding, and I am honored to have been provided that opportunity.

I loved my job as ICANN Staff, and so the most difficult part was deciding to leave ICANN.

Q: In your travels at ICANN, what regions seemed most excited about IDNs?

A: That must be between Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Russia.

Q: In your CNN interview (http://idnblog.com/2010/05/03/internet-shake-up-cnn-segment/) you stated that “just as we’re used to seeing .com today and .info . . . those can become internationalized as well, so that will be one of the next steps.” How and when do you think this will happen?

A: As you know I was referring to the new gTLD Program, which had not been approved at that time. So this is really a question for the gTLD Registries. Some have announced that they will go for several transliterations or translations for their existing TLD. Hopefully processing of their applications will go fast (maybe ICANN can “fast track” or give priority to IDN gTLDs if they need to batch applications) and the launches will follow immediately thereafter. I believe best guesses today is that we will see the first new gTLDs in the root-zone in around Q1 2013.

Q: In the interim, while owners of (IDNs).com wait for an unlocked or aliased version of their (IDN).com-in-IDN, to what extent do you think that an IDN new gTLD or an IDN ccTLD can instead become the dominant extension in a region?

A: I think there are certain regions where it can become very dominant. We already see new products and services related to the IDNS that makes it easier for users to take advantage of them. Historically people have adopted new things with the Internet very quickly and with the right new product that will happen with IDNs as well. That said, let’s not forget that IDNs are limited to being the address only.

Also please also keep in mind that there is no rule that says that if you have “IDN.gTLD”, that you will automatically get “IDN.IDN-version-of-gTLD”. Some Registries have announced this level of grandfathering, which I think is great, but it is not a requirement for them to do so.

Q: Who at ICANN is tasked with overseeing the new gTLD program, and in turn, the IDN gTLD process?


A: It depends on what level you mean. It is between Kurt Pritz (for implementation) and Akram Atallah (for operations), or if you mean on a more practical level it would be Michael Salazar.

Q: For proactive IDN community members, what steps can be taken to submit comments to ICANN and expedite the introduction of IDN gTLDs (i.e. .com-in-IDN)?

A: I really do doubt there is much that can be done to make things go faster, but here is a few thoughts. The one suggestion that came to mind was to propose to ICANN to (if the volume of applications is so high that there is a need to do batches) let the internationalized gTLD applications go in an early batch. I don’t think ICANN decided yet on the method of batching. The other thought is of fees. I am a firm believer that if the fees for internationalized gTLDs go down, to ease market adoption, then we will many more of them. But whatever is provided ICANN of formal comments please be careful that it is matching the existing model and support the existing work because otherwise we risk program delays.

Q: Do you have any general advice for domain investors/developers regarding the value of registering both IDNs and new gTLDs?

A: I don’t think I can say much about this that the investors/developers do not already know. After all, when it comes to value this is their area of expertise and not mine. So I am happy to take advice from them instead J

Q: Is there anything that I didn’t ask that you would like to add?

A: I can’t think of anything specific, but I am happy to take any follow-up questions from readers.

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

Exclusive Q&A with Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines

Nov 21, 2011 4 Comments by


Q: You are CEO of Top Level Domain Holdings, CEO and founder of Minds + Machines, CEO of dotNYC, and Principal of Names@Work. Are there any other companies or organizations that you are currently a part of, which I failed to mention?

A: That’s about it, although I also act as an advisor to DomainsBot, which is a very cool domain technology company that I’ve been involved with since its early days. Names@Work is not really operative any more, since I don’t do independent consulting. I leave it up there because some of the commentary I made about new gTLDs is still pertinent. Minds + Machines is wholly owned by Top Level Domain Holdings, so they’re just different parts of the same company. DotNYC LLC is an aspirant for the City of New York’s approval to go after .NYC, which is still pending. So really my work is all connected — it’s not as if I have four jobs.

Q: In your abovementioned roles, you clearly have your finger on the pulse of the new gTLD program. When do you expect the first new gTLDs to be approved? When would you expect .NYC domains to be available for public registration?

A: Given the fully support that city TLDs have from governments, from ICANN, from just about everyone, and because it’s highly unlikely to see any contention or significant objections, I expect that .NYC will sail through the ICANN evaluation process. That said, I think setting up the Sunrise and Landrush periods, particularly the latter, will take some time. So I’m guessing we’ll start seeing .NYC domains in mid-2013. There may be some .brand TLDs that happen more quickly, but I doubt you’ll see any new gTLD second-level domains before the first quarter of 2013.

Q: What do you think the biggest obstacle is to the new gTLD program’s progress? What do you make of Bob Liodice’s recent statements opposing the new gTLD program in his role as President and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (“ANA”)?

A: I just wrote a long blog post about the ANA and its efforts to torpedo the new gTLD program (see http://www.mindsandmachines.com/2011/11/new-gtlds-and-the-1/). It’s not going to happen, for a lot of reasons that I explain. I think Mr. Liodice is the mouthpiece for an industry that’s really threatened by the new gTLD program because it will change how things work on the Internet. It will have a lot of consequences for navigation, search, and branding, and this means that advertising professionals will have to really get their heads around Internet naming, a field that they’re really ignored up until now. It’s threatening to how they do business today. To me, the opposition to the new gTLD program from entrenched industries is an excellent indication of how disruptive this change in the Internet will be.

I think the biggest obstacles are behind us. Going forward, I’m more worried about ICANN being on top of their game and handling the applications smoothly. I don’t expect it to be entirely clear sailing, it’s a brand new thing and all the processes are untested. I’m more worried that there is unfairness, or perceived unfairness, in the evaluation process — it’s pretty opaque, and there isn’t really any appeal of a bad decision. That’s something that ICANN will (I hope) repair as the evaluation process unfolds.

Q: How do you think new gTLDs will affect the value of .COM domains and ccTLDs? In particular, as there will be more options for registrants to choose from, will the resale value of .COM’s be diluted?

A: As soon as Americans lose the habit of attaching a .com to the end of any string to the left of the dot, that’s going to affect the resale value of .com — it will no longer be an unquestioned universal. That will happen as soon as one of the new gTLDs is a hit and people begin to wonder “what do I type on the end?” — which I think happen soon after the new gTLD hit the market. The .com TLD will be very dominant for a long time, but if you have to think about what extension a domain name falls under, you are less likely to just type in a name on a guess, and that means that typo traffic will lessen. A great .com name will still command a very good price, but typo names will be worth less. I don’t think you’re going to see a precipitous fall in values, but if I owned a bunch of second-rate .com names, I’d be trying to sell them now.

Q: Do you expect dotECO to be a commercial success? Who do you expect to buy names under this extension?

A: A new gTLD is a business, and like any business it has to be run well and imaginatively to succeed. There are two .eco efforts, one run by our client, the other by a group in Canada. We think we have a better concept, that ours will do more good for the environment, and that we’ll run it better, but we’ll have to see who wins in the end. Certainly there is a great deal of interest in saving our planet, and a lot of people want to associate themselves with that aspiration, as do businesses. We see many individuals wanting to fly the eco flag, and a lot of businesses wanting to highlight their environmental initiatives.

Q: What are some of the most commercially promising new gTLD applications that you are aware of?

A: I’ll start by noting that given a choice between .com and a copy of .com, people will choose .com every time. So I think that applicants who are lining up for “blockbuster” general-interest TLDs are going to be sorry if they pay any significant amount of money for it. There are a lot of new gTLDs though that are great because they offer a choice. First, regional and city TLDs will do well, especially in places like New York and Bavaria (Germany), where people are really proud of where they live and want to display it — and don’t forget that unlike .com, local residents will likely have a lot to say in how the TLD is run, which increases a sense of pride and ownership. Beyond that, clearly IDNs can have a great impact just because they’ll be a label in the local language, which means a lot to people. Any TLD that targets a fairly large audience with group feelings, or professional associations — dentists, CPAs, and so on — has an excellent chance of doing well, because marketing to them is not so hard, and they get a lot of value from announcing their credentials with every email they send. Finally there are going to be some surprises due to great marketing, or a bundled application that makes the most out of the TLD, or simply because someone is able to create a sense of scarcity and demand.

Q: Are you aware of any applications for any new gTLDs that are IDNs? If so, what are they?

A: I know of several but I’m not allowed to discuss them.

Q: What is your view on the value and potential of IDNs, and IDN.com’s in particular?

A: I like IDNs a lot, but I’m less bullish on IDN.com names because of the necessity to switch between scripts — and because they’re second-level names. Second-level names have a lot to recommend them as investments, as I’m sure your readers are aware, but personally I like the value of the top level. There’s just a lot more you can do with a top-level domain. With the explosion of the .RF (Cyrillic) TLD, it’s clear that there’s demand out there. In any situation where you’re selling to the public, the major factors of success are GDP and Internet penetration among your target audience, along with policies that make for easy registrations and clear rules of ownership. That’s the same whether it’s an IDN or a Latin-script name. What IDNs really have going for them is the expansion of the Internet itself, which continues at a fast pace, and the fact that most of this expansion is now taking place in areas where non-Latin scripts are predominant.

Q: Do you believe that a version of IDN.com aliasing (as discussed here: http://idnblog.com/2009/12/03/exclusive-qa-chuck-gomes-verisign/) is likely to be implemented soon via the new gTLD program?

A: No. It took them nearly 10 years to figure out IDNs generally, and aliasing presents a much harder if not completely intractable problem. There are some super-smart people at VeriSign, but I’ve had enough experience with translation difficulties to understand that aliasing between languages is a very very tough problem. I remember when .CN started doing IDNs, and all my corporate customers were going through conniptions trying to translate their brands into Chinese. It’s not a simple problem. Take Amazon.com for example. Do you want a phonetic transliteration, A-mah-zohn? Or do you want to use the Chinese name for the river? Or do you want something that evokes the same reaction that the name does in English: big, mighty, wide, long, flowing? I will be very interested to see how VeriSign handles these issues.

Q: What are the typical costs for applying for a new gTLD?

A: You’ve got $185K to ICANN as an application fee. You’ve got to pay someone to help you with your application, even if it’s only to supply you with the technical questions. You’ve definitely got to count some time, even if that cost is hidden. ICANN also wants you to guarantee that you’ll have enough money for core registry functions in case you fail and someone else needs to pick up the pieces — this isn’t money you have to spend, but you do have to have it available in case it’s needed. For a small-to-medium-sized TLD, I think you should set aside about $1M, although your actual costs will be more like $300 – $500K, depending on how complicated your application is. For some reason, our competitors keep their pricing hidden, but with Minds + Machines you can pay us as little as $10K for the application phase, and then when you get to operations we different plans to choose from, ranging from a flat fee with unlimited names to a cheaper per-name option that will cost you more if you register a lot of names.

Q: What are the typical yearly costs for running a new gTLD?

A: You need to pay ICANN at least $25K annually (more if you have over 100K names in your zone), and you’ll need also to pay your registry service provider. We charge as little as $25K / yr or $1.50 per name in volume.

Q: Do you have any general advice for entrepreneurs contemplating a new gTLD application?

A: Yes. Know your market and know how to market to them. If you think registrars are going to do your marketing for you, you’ll be in for a nasty shock.

Q: Do you have any general advice for domain investors/developers regarding the value of registering new gTLDs?

A: Well, that’s one of the reasons why we formed Top Level Domain Holdings, which is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (AIM: TLDH.L). Investing in any particular TLD is expensive, as I’ve outlined above. We will be applying for a basket of names, and we are working with a variety of clients with different business models as well. So we will have a pretty diverse set of TLDs that we’ll be generating revenue from. As far as I know, we’re the only publicly traded company with a singular focus on new gTLDs. So that’s certainly one way to invest, and maybe the only way if you don’t have the money to start one yourself. If you’re planning to start a new gTLD, the best thing you can do is find a registry service provider that you know and can trust, because they are going to be very important to the success of your business. Finally, as I said above, know your market. A lot of people call me up and say, “Hey, I’ve got this great idea for a TLD — you should invest and then we’ll split the profits, whaddya say?” And I ask them if they have more than a word, because guess what, I have a dictionary too. I’m really interested in talking to people who have privileged access — either from experience, or some other “in” — to a market that they understand very well. Otherwise, what value are they adding?

Q: Is there anything that I didn’t ask that you would like to add?

A: New gTLDs are going to create a lot of value and will transform how we think about getting around on the Internet. They will create a lot of opportunity for those who take the trouble to understand the rather complicated regulatory/policy framework they inhabit, and for people who think they’ll just buy a word and be the next .com — well, they’ll get eaten alive. The good news is that there are quite a few competent people out there — ourselves and some of our competitors — who really do know what it takes to manage and operate a gTLD. If you can bring a complementary expertise to the table, there’s a good chance you can profit from this, and help the Internet and the people who use it while you’re at it.

Q: Thank you for your time.

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

Foreigners Are Now Allowed to Register Russian IDN.РФ Domain Names

Nov 15, 2011 No Comments by



The .РФ ccTLD has quickly become a juggernaut with over 900,000 domains registered during its first year. Now .РФ is officially open to non-Russian registrants. Below please find the official press release issued today, which also includes some interesting stats:


Starting on November 11 foreigners are allowed to register domain names in the Cyrillic .РФ zone. New Terms and Conditions of domain names registration under domain .РФ and .RU, that came into force on that date, remove the restrictions that were set for registration by the foreign citizens and organizations for the first year of open registration in the .RF (.РФ) zone.

Russia became the first country in the world to receive the right to create a domain zone in the national language. The launch of the new domain zone proved to be more than successful – the results are unique for the World Wide Web history. Within the first week of the open registration in domain .РФ, that began on 11th November 2010, 500 000 domain names were registered. At the moment more than 900,000 Cyrillic domains are registered, 68 % of registered domains have been delegated and 25 % of sites are already working. 70 % of registered domains belong to individuals and 30 % to juristic person. The most popular domain names are common words, brands and trademarks, key search engine request, personal and proper names. Today Cyrillic domain zone is 15th in TOP-20 of the leading national domain zones of Europe.



Experts don’t expect a significant decline of interest during the second year of general registration in the .РФ zone. According to Alexey Korolyuk, member of Cyrillic ccTLD Implementation working group, chief executive of REG.RU Registrar, the number of renewals of domain names registered in the first year of open registration in the .РФ will be about 75–80 %. Internet-users are expected to renew nearly 90% of domain names, market professionals – 65-70%.

The poll, conducted by REG.RU among its clients, shows that the Internet-users find it much easier to work with the domain zone that ‘speak’ their native language. The majority (62 %) recognizes advantages of Cyrillic domains over latin: domain names are euphonic, easy to remember and spell. Many users note that Cyrillic domains automatically remove the confusion between several possible transliteration spelling of the same word and make it much easier to find the necessary web-site. 23% of respondents need Cyrillic domains. РФ for personal use, 21% – for business. 20% have bought Cyrillic domains for the future and don’t use them at the moment. 10% registered the domain names to protect their brand from cybersquatters, 12% – for resale. For a small percentage of respondents Cyrillic domain is a fashion trend or a good gift.
The clients who register domains for business note important advantage: there is no need to fight for a short name, they can take a longer name that describe precisely the company’s business since the Cyrillic name is easy to remember. Also the business-owners state their high efficiency in advertising and marketing campaign. Today the Cyrillic domains. .РФ can be often seen on banners, billboards, ads in newspapers, business cards and so on.

The market experts expect significant demand for Cyrillic domains from foreign citizens and organizations in the nearest future. Cyrillic domain name increases business potential of companies who operate on the Russian market due to the fact that most people take in the information in their native language better than in the foreign language. Many well-known foreign brands that have a representative office in Russia, have taken the opportunity to launch their sites in the National domain zone, for example, тошиба.рф (Toshiba), макдоналдс.рф (McDonald’s), адидас.рф (Adidas), самсунг.рф (Samsung), бмв.рф (BMW) and so on.

For countries with high Internet activity domain zone in the national language is an important step: it makes the Internet accessible to different audiences and the everyday use of the Internet easy and comfortable. More than 37 countries followed the example, including China, Iran, India, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, etc. Cyrillic top-level domains are introduced in Serbia (.СРБ ), Ukraine (. УКР) and Kazakhstan (. ҚAЗ).

In January 2010 the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the delegation of Cyrillic domain .RF (.РФ) to Russia.

In May 2010 web-sites in the .RF (.РФ) domain zone started to operate. Governmental sites президент.RF (.РФ) and правительство.RF (.РФ) were the first to open in the Cyrillic zone, the commercial organizations have followed the example.

Since November 25, 2009 till 16 September, 2010 priority (sunrise) registration took place, Cyrillic domains were registered by governmental authorities, mass-media, trademark or service mark holders and non-governmental organization.

On November 11, 2010 the open registration in the Russian national Cyrillic domain zone .RF (.РФ) started. More than 900,000 Cyrillic domains were registered at the moment.

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

The Biggest Threat to IDN.IDN gTLDs

Nov 14, 2011 2 Comments by



I first learned about it by reading a Forbes article making the rounds (here) at the end of September. Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (“ANA”) authored the article, which is entitled “How to (Unnecessarily) Encumber The Internet And The Economy” and argued that the new gTLD program will be costly, will make it “easier for online felons to cloak themselves in the names of trusted brands” and has not received the necessary consensus to move forward.

This past week, ANA and Bob Liodice continued their efforts to halt the new gTLD program, but this time they named 87 companies and trade groups that supported their efforts, and which united to form the Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight (“CRIDO“), a lobby group set up to stop the new gTLD program in its tracks. Notably, CRIDO is headlined by members such as American Express, Burger King Corporation and the Coca-Cola Company. CRIDO’s efforts have been covered by domain blogs (The Domains and DomainIncite), political (The Hill) and marketing publications (AdWeek).

As it relates to IDNs, CRIDO’s objective of killing the new gTLD program would place a roadblock before IDN owners hoping to get aliased IDN.com-in-IDN domains via the new gTLD program. However, CRIDO’s powerful PR campaign may have come too a bit late.

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

IDNBlog’s 3rd Year: Here Are Our Traffic Stats

Oct 31, 2011 2 Comments by



As IDNBlog has recently entered into its 3rd year, we’ve had our share of breaking news and great interviews (Schwartz, Schilling, Wrixon, Dam and Gomes), auctions, newsletters, and events, but I am proudest of our diverse reader-base. Below, is a snapshot of where our traffic comes from in order. Though I can’t give traffic numbers, I found this list helpful in locating IDN buyers and in figuring out which languages to invest in. Most interesting is the huge number of users from India, despite the frequently espoused myth that there is not yet a market for Hindi names. See below:

1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. India
5. Germany
6. Israel
7. Japan
8. Australia
9. Russia
10. China
11. France
12. South Korea
13. (not traceable)
14. Poland
15. Ukraine
16. Netherlands
17. Hong Kong
18. Pakistan
19. Greece
20. Spain
21. Turkey
22. Italy
23. Saudi Arabia
24. Bulgaria
25. Sweden
26. Indonesia
27. Philippines
28. Malaysia
29. Morocco
30. United Arab Emirates
31. Egypt
32. Thailand
33. Singapore
34. Serbia
35. Norway
36. Belgium
37. Switzerland
38. Portugal
39. New Zealand
40. Brazil
41. Denmark
42. Jordan
43. Romania
44. Colombia
45. Vietnam
46. Hungary
47. Mexico
48. Finland
49. Ireland
50. Taiwan
51. South Africa
52. Belarus
53. Argentina
54. Kazakhstan
55. Tunisia
56. Bosnia and Herzegovina
57. Algeria
58. Czech Republic
59. Macedonia [FYROM]
60. Latvia
61. Cyprus
62. Lithuania
63. Iran
64. Cook Islands
65. Austria
66. Slovenia
67. Yemen
68. Estonia
69. Moldova
70. Bangladesh
71. Sri Lanka
72. Georgia
73. Luxembourg
74. Armenia
75. Croatia
76. Kuwait
77. Qatar
78. Slovakia
79. Uruguay
80. Senegal
81. Iraq
82. Sudan
83. Malta
84. Montenegro
85. Lebanon
86. Isle of Man
87. Nigeria
88. Oman
89. Azerbaijan
90. Uzbekistan
91. Macau
92. Syria
93. Chile
94. Palestinian Territories
95. Puerto Rico
96. Albania
97. Mauritius
98. Mongolia
99. Costa Rica
100. Kenya
101. Nepal
102. Trinidad and Tobago
103. Venezuela
104. Panama
105. Cambodia
106. Libya
107. Ghana
108. Dominican Republic
109. Guatemala
110. Peru
111. Jersey
112. Paraguay
113. Nicaragua
114. Bahrain
115. Laos
116. Ecuador
117. Iceland
118. Zambia
119. Uganda
120. Myanmar [Burma]
121. Maldives
122. Barbados
123. Kyrgyzstan
124. Ethiopia
125. Tanzania
126. El Salvador
127. Mauritania
128. Afghanistan
129. Bahamas
130. French Polynesia
131. Niger
132. Cayman Islands

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

Chinese Buyers Prefer Numbers to English Domains, Why That Is and Why IDNs are Next

Oct 29, 2011 No Comments by



Chinese buyers bought a series of high-priced numeric domains in the last few months including 55.com for $2.3 million, 33.com for $358,000 and 11.com for $525,000. A nice recap of these sales and of the central brokering role played by 4.cn can be found here at DomainShane.

Chinese businesses have historically been pushed to go online using numbers or phoneticized pinyin versions of Chinese characters as it is hard to brand around English domains that are difficult for native Chinese speaking Internet users to remember. These big ticket numeric domain sales bode well for future IDN sales, as most Chinese business owners are not yet aware that they can have the real deal, a native language Chinese domain, rather than a numeric domain, which is a stopgap.

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

ICANN 42 in Dakar: IDNs and Timing of New gTLDs in Play

Oct 28, 2011 No Comments by



ICANN President and CEO, Rod Beckstom, launched the ICANN 42 meeting in Dakar, Sengal, with a rousing address that included ICANN’s hope that IDNs will expand the base of users on the Internet. Beckstrom stated:

“We can also bring more voices and more people to the Internet through Internationalized Domain Names. IDNs make it possible to access the Internet in scripts other than Latin-based characters, and their adoption has been one of the community’s great collaborative efforts.

Maybe you speak only Arabic or Chinese or Hindi. IDNs will make it easier to join the conversation and to tell your story.”

Next, a big topic of conversation was that of batching. Given that thousands of new gTLD applications are expected, they will likely be processed separately in a series of batches. It is being considered how to sort the batches and whether they will be sorted randomly rather than first-come first-served. If so, Verisign could be one of the first to apply for new gTLDs (in the form of aliases of .COM, as expected) and they could still be processed in a delayed second or third batch due to random selection — which would be frustrating for IDNers.

Also, Paul McGrady of the law firm Greenberg Traurig mentioned that due to lawsuits the launch of new gTLDs could easily be pushed back a few years past the initially anticipated January 2012 launch.

As a result, advocates of IDN aliasing and the new gTLD program should be readying themselves for further delays.

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

What is the Real Purpose of New gTLDs? Allowing For Fully Internationalized Domains

Oct 09, 2011 5 Comments by



Will the majority of the estimated 4,000 new gTLD applications even be in English?

The Gulf News and other leading international news outlets have issued breathless reports about the potential of IDN gTLDs. In a recent interview Rod Beckstrom, outgoing ICANN CEO, stated that he was “surprised to hear that ICANN may see as many as 100 gLTD applications filed from India alone.”

Beckstrom emphasized that the purpose of the gTLD applications is to serve unique communities and “[i]f you have a community based application, you will get a higher priority” during the application process.

Current holders of IDN.com expect Verisign to obtain aliased IDN gTLD versions of .COM during the gTLD application period. However, IDN developers and investors would be shortsighted to underestimate the significance and worth of thousands of other multilingual gTLDs that will be applied for and given to communities starved to build sites on domains in their own languages.

Ultimately, the number of international applications that will request IDN gTLDs will not be known until the end of April.

IDN Read more
IDN Whois

Multilingual Startup Lands $5.25 Million

Oct 05, 2011 No Comments by



Given the surge in multilingual website development, it is no surprise that an online service that connects freelance translators to customers is growing rapidly. myGengo, billed as an oDesk for those in need of translation, has been featured on TechCrunch and GigaOm this past week.

Atomico, a London-based venture capital firm and existing investor 500 Startups recently stood behind their belief in myGengo by leading a $5.25 investment round in the startup. The concept has been pitched as a mid-market option for those who want greater reliability than Google Translate and cheaper prices than most human translation services.

Personally, I am already thinking of ways to use myGengo to create unique content for a number of my IDNs.

IDN Read more
IDN Whois