As the ICANN meeting in Singapore continued today, the board of directors have reached a final decision and approved the New Top Level Domain name program in a dedicated session. The decision met with a round of applause from the room and only one person on the board actually opposed the decision. The final vote represents the conclusion of a six year negotiation process - with constant input from the community and Program revisions.

The news has made front page of the BBC website and has already been picked up by dozens of major news outlets. Twitter has also been buzzing with the news that the internet is about to get a whole lot busier!

The registries planning to launch their New TLDs are to start their marketing campaigns straight away following the approval, but formal applications will not be accepted until the 12th January 2012. The application period is then set to end on the 12th April 2012 with an evaluation period to follow, which will conclude in November 2012. With these tentative deadlines already made public, this means that the New TLDs could be up and running as soon as January 2013.

Making a New TLD application is not for the faint hearted however! With the cost just to apply currently sitting at $185,000 (about £115,000). In order to complete the application process each applicant is required to complete around 50 comprehensive questions about their proposed TLD. And it doesn’t end there, any organisation applying to “buy” their TLD will have to prove that they have a legitimate claim to the suffix and be able to demonstrate that they have a robust IT infrastructure in place in order to support the registry should it get off the ground.

The application fee is largely to be used to cover ICANN’s costs when they receive the application, as the process that follows will involve rigorously examining each application on an individual basis. With applications expected to run into the thousands, considerable man power will be needed! In addition to funding the evaluation process, a portion of each application fee is to be set aside for any legal disputes arising from disgruntled parties who are unsuccessful in obtaining their chosen New TLD.

Many industry experts have commented that this will still be a small price to pay for large companies with an already established brand who are wanting to protect their online presence, and Canon was one of the first companies to express their public interest in acquiring their brand TLD early last year.

There is no doubt that the internet has changed forever, and the times ahead are set to be extremely exciting. .XXX pre-order registration is already live on domainmonster.com, representing our commitment to staying up to date with all of the exciting new developments as more New TLDs are announced!

If you would like to read more about .XXX and the process to apply, you can do so here!

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