ICANN approves .website as top level domain name

Radix wins the right to operate .website domain name

The English language Internet is all set to grow in multiples as Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers starts the process of approving new generic Top Level Domain names.

Radix, a group firm from Mumbai-based Directi that is a leading players in internet domain registry, announced that it has won the rights to operate the new top level domain, .website, after winning a private auction late last month against two other applicants.

With this win, Radix will now begin to execute the final process required to make .website available to Internet users. .website is expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2014.

“We are more than pleased to have secured our first major win in the form of .website. It has been one of our top picks for Radix’s flagship TLD and is an extension that exemplifies our strategy – to operate extensions that have the maximum global impact. It is also testimony to our successful entry in the registry business and will help us strengthen our foothold therein,” said Bhavin Turakhia, Indian entrepreneur and Founder, Radix.

According to global survey data spanning hundreds of individuals and business owners across over 25 professional categories, the .website extension ranks among the top three in the generic category. The .website TLD also featured in the top three choices of users who do not own a domain name and seek to buy one.

In addition to .website, Radix has also applied for the following strings - .web, .shop, .bank, .law, .music, .news, .blog, .movie, .baby, .store, .doctor, .hotel, .play, .home .site, .click, .online, .one, .ping, .world, .chat, .city, .deals, .insurance .loans, .app, and .hosting.

Meanwhile, globally ICANN has approved a few more TLDs from about 1,400 that are all set to go live in the coming months. The nine new TLDs are .camera, .clothing, .lighting, .singles, .guru, .holdings, .equipment, .voyage, and .ventures.

In June 2011, ICANN, the global body that oversees the operation and administration of the Internet domain name system, announced a program to expand the Internet’s addressing system. Until now, there have been fewer than 25 gTLDs, among them .com, .info and .org. The introduction of new gTLDs will see the internet now grow from 22 generic top level domains to more than 1400 possible new gTLDs.