The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, has released the full list of the companies bidding on new personalisable top level domains, known as generic TLDs (gTLD). These take the place of the “.com” in a url, and allow companies to have websites at addresses like “video.youtube” or “gameofthrones.hbo”.
Any company bidding on a domain name has to pay a non-refundable $185,000, and if there are multiple bidders, ICANN will assess them on “technical merits” and may hold an auction. Winners are then also obliged to pay high annual fees to the corporation.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
