Reveal Day For Almost 2000 gTLD Applications

On 13 June 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, (ICANN) published the long-awaited list of the 1930 applications it received for new generic Top-Level Domains, (gTLDs). The publication of the list heralds the beginning of a new era for the internet.

As expected the applications fall into a number of categories including geographic designations (.africa, .barcelona, .wales), company or brand names (.garnier, .landrover, .youtube) , industry categories (.beauty, .insurance, .law) and "community" gTLDs (.music, .radio, .kids).  As the application fee and the associated costs of running a domain name registry are high, it is surprising that only 20% of the applications came from major brand holders, and it is interesting to note that many of the brand giants expected to make applications such as Coca Cola, Facebook and Disney, abstained from the application process.