Almost a year ago, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) allowed generic Top-Level Domain names to be made available. For example now we could have domain name ending with a .Google, .Apple, .Book, etc.
This move was criticized as tipping balance in favour of the rich, as bidding for a generic top-level Domains would be extremely expensive.
Yesterday, ICANN released the list of applications for the new gTLDs.
Large companies have all applied for gTLDs, usually starting with their company name. For example some companies like Apple have applied for .Apple. Large internet companies on the other hand have applied for many different gTLDs.
Generic Top Level Domains like .APP has received 12 companies possibly bidding for it, .BOOK has upto 8 possible bidders.
Google even though officially is opposed to such generic TLDs has bid for 101 names. It is followed by Amazon with 76 bids.
Here is a table of the four major internet companies who have bid for gTLDs.
| Prominent Bidders | No of TLDS Applied for | Prominent TLD Names |
| 101 | .Google, .App, .Docs, .Android, .Chrome, .Hangout, .Cloud, .Blog and more | |
| Amazon | 76 | .Amazon, .App, .Author, .Book, .BUY and more |
| Microsoft | 11 | Azure, .Bing, .Docs, .Live, .Hotmail and more |
| Yahoo | 2 | .Yahoo and .Flickr |
Interestingly I did not find the name of Facebook on it and no application for .Facebook either. Chances are it has bid for some gTLDs through another registration name.
Indian Companies on the List
There were quite a few companies based in India that have applied for gTLD names. Prominently Reliance Industries Ltd, has bid for .Indians. While most others have bid for their trademark names which they are known by like .Tata, .Airtel, .Infy etc.
Do you think gTLD names will become a headache for internet companies, who will have to keep paying up large sums of money to protect their brand names? Do drop in your comments.
Link: ICANN’s gTLD List
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