CentralNic Group PLC, the internet registry service provider which derives revenues from the distribution and sale of internet domain names, successfully began trading its shares on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM Market on Monday. A leading innovator in the domain name industry, CentralNic has exclusive global contracts to supply retailers such as GoDaddy and Web.com with domains using 30 different endings (“extensions’’), including .la (such as intel.la),.uk.com (such as avon.uk.com) and .us.com (such as activia.us.com).
The Company raised £7m ($10.9m USD) from its IPO with leading institutional investors Schroders Investment Management and Unicorn Asset Management joining the shareholder register. The shares were placed at 55p and rose 19% to 65.5p by the end of the first day’s trading, valuing the company at £38.7m ($60.2m USD). The admission to AIM and strong trading performance was picked up by the UK business press including the Financial Times and The Times, which named CentralNic’s stock “Deal of the Day.”
While already profitable and growing rapidly, CentralNic expects to benefit from a major expansion in the number of generic Top-Level Domains (“TLDs”). The Company has been awarded the exclusive global registry service provision contracts for 60 new TLD applications, 25 of which are already confirmed to launch, including: .college, .bar, .wiki, .xyz, .rest, .contact, .feedback, .ink, and .PID.
CentralNic’s clients include leading media and entertainment businesses The Guardian and William Morris Endeavor, global 1000 companies Saudi Telecom, Etisalat, Qatar Telecom, and Kuwait Finance House, as well as entrepreneurs in the USA, Latin American, Europe and Asia. CentralNic’s clients are also contenders for additional TLDs including .app, .art, .blog, .design, .gay, .golf, hotel, .law, .llc, .love, .mail, .now, .school and .style, among many others.
Commenting on the Company’s admission to AIM, Ben Crawford, CEO of CentralNic, said:
“We are extremely pleased to have successfully completed the IPO process. The business is in a strong position to take advantage of additional opportunities to develop our global domain distribution business, and will benefit from having new quality shareholders to support our strategy.”
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
CentralNic begins trading its shares on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM Market
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
Monday, September 2, 2013
What are new gTLD Governance Councils?
I recently explained in French what Governance Councils (GCs) are. Here is another version in English.
A domain name extension is unique
Many generic, community and other geographic new domain name extensions (also called "gTLDs" or "generic Top Level Domains") will soon become a focal point for the industry or sector they represent.
These simple denominators which define a vertical sector, profession, geographic, ethnic or other delineated group on the Internet have not existed on the Internet until now.
Read the end of my article on CircleId.
A domain name extension is unique
Many generic, community and other geographic new domain name extensions (also called "gTLDs" or "generic Top Level Domains") will soon become a focal point for the industry or sector they represent.
These simple denominators which define a vertical sector, profession, geographic, ethnic or other delineated group on the Internet have not existed on the Internet until now.
Read the end of my article on CircleId.
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
The Long Island Wine Council to write to ICANN
The Long Island Wine Council recently sent this letter to ICANN regarding its support to Napa Valley Vintners, CIVC (French Champagne), CNAOC, EFOW (and others) initiative against cybersquatting. The letter says that its small business members "have neither the staff nor the financial resources to effectively police fraudulent or misleading domain registrations".
The Long Island Wine Council web site.
The Long Island Wine Council web site.
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
Friday, August 30, 2013
Political pressure on .WINE & .VIN applicants
This is a recent letter sent by the EFOW to the courteous attention of:
Object: « .vin » et « .wine », Bruxelles, 19th August 2013
Dear Sir, Madam,
As you may know we represent the producers of wines whith a geographical indication (GI) from France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
We are extremely worried with the proposed extension of first level domain names, notably those relating to wines, i.e. .vin and .wine. We have had the opportunity to state very clearly that we are not opposed to it but rather that we would welcome these developments as long as the protection of wines with a geographical indication would be guaranteed.
In that regard we were pleased with the decision of the GAC in Beijing to postpone decision to grant extensions on these domain names. We immediately took this opportunity to look for solutions that would allow for the protection of our GIs and the development of the Internet. Informal contacts were made with .vin and .wine applicants. Our lawyer also sent them on our behalf a first letter on the 11th July, a few days before the Durban meeting.
We had taken good note of the GAC decision to give an additional month to the wine sector and to the candidates to find an agreement among them. Even if we considered this delay as being exteremely short, we remained optimistic that we would be able to find a solution with candidates. As we did not get any reply to our first letter, we sent another letter to the three candidates on the 31th July to reiterate our willingness to establish a constructive dialogue and to find a mutually acceptable agreement.
As of today, 19 August 2013, we have received two formal answers by letter and an informal one by email. We are pleased with the open-mindedness of certain candidates which seem to be willing to engage with us in the future. Nevertheless, we must note that the three candidates hide behind the GAC discussions and none is willing, at this present moment, to interact with us in order to find a solution. Moreover, we have also been informed of the fact that political pressure has been exerted on the candidates to discourage them to engage in any discussions with us (during the one month deadline given us by the GAC).
We deplore this situation and can only regret that our attempts to engage with the candidates, in order to find a concrete solution, has failed for the time being. The lack of agreement between the wine sector and the candidate companies seems to be the way sought by some. Unlike them, we are more than willing to find a suitable solution.
Taking into account this situation, we would like to ask for another reasonable delay to be granted in order to find an agreement. We also kindly request ICANN to invite the three candidates to talk to us. If not, the three projects might not come into effect.
We would be happy to provide you with all the letters and e-mails sent to the three companies in the last few months.
We have put our respective governments as well as the European Commission in copy of this letter. We will also informed the press that has been regularly asking us for the outcome of our discussion with the three candidates.
Finally, we would like to end this letter reiterating our conviction that a suitable and satisfactory solution is within reach. Only such a decision would offer the required credibility to the decision to extend first level domain names.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
- Dr Steve Crocker, Chair of the ICANN Board;
- Mr Cherine Chalaby, Chair of the new gTLD Program Committee Board;
- Mr Fadi Chehadé, CEO of ICANN;
- Mr Akram Atallah, COO of ICANN.
Object: « .vin » et « .wine », Bruxelles, 19th August 2013
Dear Sir, Madam,
As you may know we represent the producers of wines whith a geographical indication (GI) from France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
We are extremely worried with the proposed extension of first level domain names, notably those relating to wines, i.e. .vin and .wine. We have had the opportunity to state very clearly that we are not opposed to it but rather that we would welcome these developments as long as the protection of wines with a geographical indication would be guaranteed.
In that regard we were pleased with the decision of the GAC in Beijing to postpone decision to grant extensions on these domain names. We immediately took this opportunity to look for solutions that would allow for the protection of our GIs and the development of the Internet. Informal contacts were made with .vin and .wine applicants. Our lawyer also sent them on our behalf a first letter on the 11th July, a few days before the Durban meeting.
We had taken good note of the GAC decision to give an additional month to the wine sector and to the candidates to find an agreement among them. Even if we considered this delay as being exteremely short, we remained optimistic that we would be able to find a solution with candidates. As we did not get any reply to our first letter, we sent another letter to the three candidates on the 31th July to reiterate our willingness to establish a constructive dialogue and to find a mutually acceptable agreement.
As of today, 19 August 2013, we have received two formal answers by letter and an informal one by email. We are pleased with the open-mindedness of certain candidates which seem to be willing to engage with us in the future. Nevertheless, we must note that the three candidates hide behind the GAC discussions and none is willing, at this present moment, to interact with us in order to find a solution. Moreover, we have also been informed of the fact that political pressure has been exerted on the candidates to discourage them to engage in any discussions with us (during the one month deadline given us by the GAC).
We deplore this situation and can only regret that our attempts to engage with the candidates, in order to find a concrete solution, has failed for the time being. The lack of agreement between the wine sector and the candidate companies seems to be the way sought by some. Unlike them, we are more than willing to find a suitable solution.
Taking into account this situation, we would like to ask for another reasonable delay to be granted in order to find an agreement. We also kindly request ICANN to invite the three candidates to talk to us. If not, the three projects might not come into effect.
We would be happy to provide you with all the letters and e-mails sent to the three companies in the last few months.
We have put our respective governments as well as the European Commission in copy of this letter. We will also informed the press that has been regularly asking us for the outcome of our discussion with the three candidates.
Finally, we would like to end this letter reiterating our conviction that a suitable and satisfactory solution is within reach. Only such a decision would offer the required credibility to the decision to extend first level domain names.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
Thursday, August 29, 2013
.WINE & .VIN : an answer by the French Ministry of Agriculture
The question was asked (in French) to the French Ministry of Agriculture on June 6th 2013 and answered on August 22nd.
Question:
Question:
M. Daniel Laurent attire l'attention de M. le ministre de l'agriculture, de l'agroalimentaire et de la forêt sur le développement du commerce sur internet qui ouvre de nouvelles perspectives économiques pour la filière viticole. Cependant, il doit faire l'objet d'une vigilance accrue afin d'apporter des garanties en termes de protection des appellations d'origine. L'organisme privé américain qui gère le système des noms de domaine a décidé d'ouvrir les noms de domaine de premier niveau générique (.vin, .wine) au risque de voir une utilisation non contrôlée des AOC et une spéculation autour de la vente de noms de domaine. Les professionnels du secteur estiment que les demandes liées au secteur viticole pourraient avoir des conséquences dans la protection des indications géographiques vitinicoles (usurpation ou contrefaçons des appellations), des droits de propriété intellectuelle, et de protection des consommateurs. En conséquence, il lui demande quels moyens la France compte mettre en œuvre au niveau européen pour définir des règles et des procédures précises de protection des indications géographiques.
L'internet corporation for assigned names and numbers (ICANN), organisation privée américaine en charge de la gestion des domaines internet et des adresses internet au niveau mondial, a lancé, en mars 2012, un programme visant à créer de nouvelles extensions génériques pour les noms de domaine internet comme par exemple, « . paris », « . music ». 1 900 candidatures ont été déposées dans ce cadre. Parmi elles, les projets « . vin » et « . wine » sont préoccupants pour la filière viti-vinicole. Les candidats souhaitant créer ces nouveaux domaines internet ne prévoient aucune protection pour les indications géographiques. À la suite des premiers commentaires de l'organisation internationale de la vigne et du vin (OIV) qui relevaient les risques que faisait peser sur le marché du vin ce défaut de protection, le Gouvernement a, dès octobre 2012, proposé l'intervention de la France pour demander la mise en place d'une procédure visant la protection des indications géographiques. Cette position a été défendue lors des réunions de l'OIV et du comité de gestion de l'organisation commune de marché vitivinicole, dans l'objectif de sensibiliser les grands États producteurs sur cette question. Le Gouvernement français est intervenu lors des dernières réunions du comité consultatif des Gouvernements de l'ICANN (GAC) de Pékin et Durban (avril et juillet 2013) et a, avec l'appui de l'Espagne et de la Commission européenne, obtenu du GAC, dans son communiqué adopté à Pékin, qu'il invite l'ICANN à ne pas procéder pour l'instant à la délégation de ces domaines internet. La réunion de Durban s'étant révélée non conclusive sur ce point, le GAC s'est donné 30 jours supplémentaires, à compter du 18 juillet, pour trancher sur ces sujets. Les indications géographiques représentent une valeur ajoutée très importante pour la filière vitivinicole et occupent une place prépondérante en valeur à l'export. La reconnaissance et la protection des indications géographiques sont donc une priorité pour la France. Le Gouvernement, en liaison avec la Commission européenne et les opérateurs, s'attachera à ce que les discussions à l'ICANN prennent en compte au mieux les intérêts de la filière vitivinicole et la nécessaire protection des indications géographiques.Answer from "M. le ministre de l'agriculture, de l'agroalimentaire et de la forêt ":
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Nouveaux gTLDs : que sont donc les Conseils de Gouvernance ?
Les Conseils de Gouvernance réunissent les intéressés qui souhaitent participer au développement de nouveaux Registres. Ils représentent un avantage certain pour les utilisateurs, mais pas seulement...
Dès 2014, de nombreux Registres seront lancés et quantité de nouveaux noms de domaine commenceront à apparaître dans les moteurs de recherche et les navigateurs Internet, sur les cartes de visites et les “quatre par trois” dans le métro, à la télévision…
Dès 2014, de nombreux Registres seront lancés et quantité de nouveaux noms de domaine commenceront à apparaître dans les moteurs de recherche et les navigateurs Internet, sur les cartes de visites et les “quatre par trois” dans le métro, à la télévision…
Si la nouveauté sera bien présente dans un univers Internet parfois confus, il est une question que les Registres vont rapidement devoir se poser: comment rendre l’achat de ces noms de domaine “simple” ? Comment faciliter l’accès à ces nouvelles identités - souvent très techniques - aux consommateurs ?
La suite sur le Journal Du Net.
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
Momentum’s Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress – UK Edition is quickly approaching
Reserve your space now to meet and benchmark with senior executives responsible for digital marketing, brand management, internet strategy, communications and trademark protection as you gain innovative and forward thinking strategies for ensuring your brand is best positioned to remain competitive in a post-gTLD environment.
Below is just a sample of those companies who will be in attendance at Momentum's Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress in London on September 26-27 - don’t miss out on this unparalleled learning and networking experience.
Look Who’s Attending: http://momentumevents.co/gtldattending
Regardless of whether your organisation has applied for a TLD (top level domain) or not, Brands must understand and plan for the impact that the introduction of a thousand new gTLDs will have on your global digital marketing and brand management strategy.
Learn how to preserve and maximize the value of your brand as you engage with fellow industry leaders during interactive sessions covering:
Benefit from special case study sessions featuring insights from industry leaders entrenched in the gTLD landscape including:
Download the brochure and register now to reserve your space at this industry leading event. For more information, visit us online at www.gtldworldcongress.com or call +1 (646) 807-8555.
Below is just a sample of those companies who will be in attendance at Momentum's Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress in London on September 26-27 - don’t miss out on this unparalleled learning and networking experience.
Look Who’s Attending: http://momentumevents.co/gtldattending
Regardless of whether your organisation has applied for a TLD (top level domain) or not, Brands must understand and plan for the impact that the introduction of a thousand new gTLDs will have on your global digital marketing and brand management strategy.
Learn how to preserve and maximize the value of your brand as you engage with fellow industry leaders during interactive sessions covering:
- How to Ensure Your New TLD Becomes Your Company’s Smartest Marketing Investment
- New Capability Opportunities for Your Registry to Use Your .BRAND to Your Digital Advantage
- Practical Strategies for Ensuring Seamless User Navigation to Your New TLD
- Strategies for New gTLD Integration Across Multiple Media Platforms
- Search and String Logic – Ensuring Visibility & Driving Traffic to Your New TLD
- Peter LaMantia, CEO, Authentic Web Inc.
- Rich Merdinger, Vice President of Domains, GoDaddy.com
- Tony Kirsch, Senior Manager, International Business Development, ARI Registry Services
- Charlie Abrahams, VP & GM EMEA, MarkMonitor
- Roland LaPlante, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Afilias
- Jennie-Marie Larsen, CEO, Domain Diction
- Kathy Nielsen, Head of Business Development, New gTLDs, Sedo
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Lawsuit against Domain Venture Partners dismissed
Domain Venture Partners can report that a lawsuit brought against it by Mr David E Ways in 2012 was dismissed on 16th August 2013.
“Domain Venture Partners is pleased that this claim has been dismissed” said Iain Roache, chairman of Domain Venture Partners.
“Domain Venture Partners is pleased that this claim has been dismissed” said Iain Roache, chairman of Domain Venture Partners.
- Read the official announcement here;
- Download the official dismissal here;
- Article about the story published in Domain Name Wire : "Man claims he and friends were duped for $123,000 in new top level domain scheme".
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
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