Growing Demand Blog

There was excitement in the air in Singapore as we headed into the ICANN board’s historic vote to open up generic Top Level Domains on Monday morning. The industry has been talking about this idea and working on it for years, but was it ready for prime time? Indeed it was – because the ICANN board approved it by a 13-1 margin, with two people abstaining.

(Photo credit: www.icann.org)

What’s the big deal?

Top Level Domains are one of the primary ways that the Internet is structured for people to navigate the internet. Historically, TLDs have been limited to a small number of generic names (.com, .net, .org, etc.) and country specific names (.cn, .jp, .uk, etc.). ICANN’s new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) program allows for the creation of many new generic and brand specific TLDs. For example, a blogger could register a blog name at .blog; a South Florida business could market their services on a site located on .miami; or an online retailer like eBay could provide storefronts located at .ebay to partners.

Who wins?

New gTLDs will be great for consumers and great for businesses – that’s what makes this so exciting. What band wouldn’t want an address on .music? Is there a Red Sox fan who wouldn’t want to establish residency in .fenway? 

As ICANN’s communication process to educate the market begins to ramp up, I believe many new creative ideas will emerge.

Where does Demand Media fit in?

Demand Media, through our eNom subsidiary, is currently the world’s largest wholesale domain name registrar and second largest registrar overall. We already help generic domain name registries like Verisign (.com, .net) and Public Interest Registry (.org) bring their domains to market through more than 7,000 resellers that rely upon our technology platform to help them grow their business. With our experience, technology, distribution and track record, we believe Demand Media can be a go-to partner for organizations trying to navigate and reliably operate in this new world.

Michael Blend is Demand Media’s Executive Vice President of Special Projects and combines his entrepreneurial background with two decades of technology experience to help chart new territory for the company.