New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), a primer
What are Generic Top-Level Domains?
Top-level domains (TLD) are the letters to the right of the .dot in an Internet address, such as .com, .org, or .edu. They can be generic (.com or .org) or they can represent a country (such as .ca for Canada or .co.uk for the United Kingdom). Until 2012, there were only 22 gTLDs available in a limited character-set[1]. However, in 2012 ICANN opened applications to create an unlimited number of New gTLDs in both ASCII and international scripts. gTLDs with characters outside the ASCII character-set are referred to as Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).
Although it is technically possible to create unlimited numbers of TLDs, ICANN historically adopted a conservative approach to creating new domain space. After 6 years of consultation with the multi-stakeholder ICANN community, ICANN approved the new gTLD program which enabled any organization to apply to operate a new gTLD.
ICANN began accepting applications for new gTLDs in 2012, receiving nearly 2000 proposals ranging from .xyz, .top, .win and .loan. Similarly, new IDN applications include proposals for strings such as .公益 (Chinese for “charity”) and .みんな (Japanese for “everyone”). Today there are over 1000 new gTLDs with more than 25 million domain names registered in new gTLDs. This may sound like a large number, but the combined number of new gTLD registrations currently comprise less than 10% of all domain name registrations.
Policy Issues Arising from the Introduction of New gTLDs
The objectives of the new gTLD program were to improve choice, competition and innovation in the domain name industry, and to support cultural and linguistic diversity by extending the character sets allowed for gTLDs.
New gTLDs also gave rise to complex policy issues. Concerns range from intellectual property rights enforcement, to cybercrime, hate speech, or moral issues pertaining to adult content online. The following section summarizes these policy issues:
- Business Competition and Free Markets: High barriers to entry – both financial and technical – created potential for market distortions. Every applicant was required to pay ICANN’s application fee of US$185,000, plus the cost of professional advice and/or third party registry and registrar operators. While ICANN created a support program including financial assistance, critics viewed this as insufficient to create a geographically inclusive gTLD namespace: more than 80% of applications came from North America and Europe, while less than 1% came from the entire continent of Africa.
- Intellectual Property Disputes: Conflicts between domain names and trademarks have been part of the landscape since the rise of the commercial internet. Dispute Resolution mechanisms such as ICANN’s UDRP (first introduced in 1999) proved effective in curbing so-called ‘cybersquatting’[2]. Brand owners and businesses feared that the introduction of an unlimited number of new gTLDs would create a field-day for cybersquatting. This led to the creation of several new brand protection mechanisms, such as the trademark clearinghouse, mandatory sunrise periods, and a low-cost dispute mechanism, the URS. A review of new gTLD rights protection mechanisms in late 2015 showed low user awareness and little use. For example, only 300 URS disputes had been filed – significantly lower than 1 dispute per new gTLD launched.
- Internationalized Domain Names. New gTLD program were intended to support cultural and linguistic diversity online by expanding the variety of language scripts supported in the domain name space. Despite these intentions, only 100 new gTLD applications were for IDNs, and 90% of the new gTLD strings are in English or understandable in the English language. Support for IDNs in browsers, emails and user accounts remains low, depressing demand.
- Preventing Cybercrime: The introduction of new gTLDs increases the potential for criminals to conduct phishing attacks or commit fraudulent crimes. ICANN’s report on gTLD abuse notes that most of crime resulting from the expansion of gTLDs is spam, which accounts for 99% of reported abuses. The ICANN reviewers also note that threats such as phishing, malware and botnet command-and-control rates are relatively low, but the expansion of gTLDs could provide different locations and vectors to launch attacks.
- Hate Speech and Morality: The domain name space is also a speech space, and as a result the introduction of new gTLDs have been at the centre of debates surrounding free speech and morality. New gTLDs such as .gay were criticized as offensive to some societies and cultures. Other new gTLDs such as .sucks or .wtf have opened up new opportunities for hate speech or trademark infringements.
The Legitimate Positions of Different Stakeholders
Stakeholder | Position For: | Position Against: |
Small Business |
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Intellectual Property Rights Holders |
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Governments |
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Average User |
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The Future of new gTLDs
Sections of the ICANN community are calling for the launch of the next wave of new gTLDs.
Before that can happen, ICANN is undertaking a series of program reviews to evaluate the success of the new gTLD program. The purpose of these reviews is to ensure that new gTLD program continues to promote competition, choice, trust and diversity in the Internet addressing space. In addition to examining some of the more technical concerns surrounding new gTLDs, a number of current program reviews are seeking input on several of the policy issues raised above, including cybercrime and phishing and issues relating to trademarks. It is possible for anyone to share their views and provide comments on ICANN’s Public Comment Forum.
[1] ASCII a-z, 0-9 and the hyphen were the only allowable characters in gTLD endings until the launch of new gTLDs.
[2] Domain name disputes are outside the scope of this note.
