A Domain Investor is Now the Head of the Registrar Committee at the Coordination Center for TLD .RU Robert Gledenov and especially his brother Denis became famous in Russian Internet in the 2000s as skilful domainers. A year ago, more than 100 000 domains were tied to the well-known in the narrow circles den.ru and gledenov.ru servers. Even now in some domains these addresses come up with an anonymous privateperson.ru. In this large list are – hewlettpackard.ru, mercury-avto.ru, hugo-boss.ru, pierrecardin.ru, upsa.ru, western-union.ru, remy-martin.ru, baldessarini.ru, mild-seven.ru, pentium.ru, philipmorris.ru. After the court decisions the Gledenovs had to give away such domains as google.ru (2004), mercedes.ru (2006), swatch.ru (2010). From the last deal it is worth mentioning the transition of the domain sk.ru. According to the information of The Marker Russian online newspaper back in November 2011 this domain was listed in the server den.ru. This winter the address went under control of the Skolkovo Foundation supervised by Viktor Vekselberg, Russian oligarch. The sum of the deal is not being hidden. Denis Gledenov denies the deal at all. Robert Gledenov became a lobbyist Chairman of the Registrar Committee of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU is elected annually. Before this position was occupied by the General Director of registrar Naunet SP LLC Andrey Kondakov. One of the market players says that Robert was elected independently and not because of his activities in the past. In a conversation with The Marker Gledenov said that first problems he was going to solve would be domain dispute procedures and secondary market. These working groups have already been formed by the Coordination Center. “I know domain name registration process from A to Z. There is a lot of work to do to stabilize, develop and promote the industry. And no one is doing it. But the industry has to keep up with the times. That’s why I was elected by the majority of the 26 registrars“, – explained Gledenov his election. Among his tasks he sees the prevention of scandals as in a case with the launch .РФ TLD. Speaking about domaining business that somebody still consider as cybersquatting, Gledenov said he had not been involved in the domain name deals for many years. Gledenov added that many registrars took part in such activities, registering domains to be released for themselves and organizing the auctions after that for these names. Gledenov, being the head of Salenames niche registrar, added it was a normal practice, because the domain name registration was a low-margin business, which was considered to be an annex of the hosting services. The market reaction The colleagues in the largest local registrar company, RU-CENTER, reacted positively to the election: “We welcome any choice of the Registrar Committee. New chairman is always a new vector of focus for the entire registrar community,“ – said Andrey Vorobyev, the head of PR and GR of RU-CENTER. – We hope that the new chairman will do more than his predecessor and will be able to reverse the existing tensions on the market today.“ “Robert moves the whole system to democratization, – says anonymously a representative of another registrar. – He has been demanding the resolve of the organizational issues in the Coordination Center for months. And now becoming a registrar, he nominated himself as a candidate for the election. The work results of Kondakov don’t satisfy him, as well as the recent actions of Andrey Kolesnikov (the director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU)“. There are people who are not agree with the election of Gledenov. According to the The Marker, one of the registrars considers the staff reshuffle doubtful because of the Gledenov’s activities in the “domain investments”. The expert fears the changing of the rules towards domainers‘ or even cybersquatters’interests. On the other hand, it is quite often when domainers become those people who decide important things on the Internet. A Russian version of this article originally appeared in The Marker magazine – marker.ru .

[news release] German TLD .de operator DENIC and the Swedish-based Internet infrastructure organisation Netnod have entered into a strategic partnership to further strengthen the .de Name Service. By making use of Netnod’s extensive infrastructure to complement DENIC’s own worldwide DNS network, DENIC’s operation of the domain name system for .de, in its role as a crucial resource of the Internet, will be additionally secured. Effective 19 April 2012, the new second foothold will further minimise potential risks for the .de zone by integrating Netnod’s additional 35+ locations worldwide, this way allowing for rapid response in the case of a malicious intent. As a surplus benefit, Netnod’s services will provide a significant capacity upgrade. “We have chosen Netnod for their outstanding technical expertise and fully trust their competence to meet the high level demands associated with the operation of our supplementary name service for .de, which is by far the biggest ccTLD worldwide. Also, both Netnod and DENIC are not-for-profit, neutral, and independent basic infrastructure-providing organisations and share similar strategic positions and views. Therefore, this partnership ideally matches with DENIC’s commitment to provide services of utmost reliability, on a self-regulatory basis,” said Dr. Jörg Schweiger, Member of the Board and CTO of DENIC. “Netnod is happy to assist DENIC in enlarging their footprint by offering them the shared use of our widespread multi-site anycast infrastructure for full backup support of .de, and thus for the common good of all Internet users. Of course, we are very proud that after having supported a large variety of European ccTLDs for quite some time now, .de as the No. 1 ccTLD has chosen us to be their strategic DNS partner,” said Kurt Erik Lindqvist, CEO of Netnod. About DENIC DENIC is responsible for managing .de, Germany’s top-level Internet domain and the world’s second largest Internet registry with 15,000,000+ domain names. Next to running a 17-site worldwide name server network, DENIC provides all domain database and registration system resources for .de and also operates the German ENUM domain (.9.4.e164.arpa), along with all .de and ENUM related whois lookup services. Since its inception in 1996, as a private, not-for-profit cooperative, DENIC’s mission is to fulfil a public purpose by supporting a fast, secure and reliable access to German Internet pages and e-mail addresses, through the excellence of its extensive name server infrastructure and services, on a 24/7 basis. Today, 280+ registrars from the IT and telecommunications industry in Germany and abroad offer .de registration services and support the independent, self-regulatory approach of the cooperative as active members. DENIC is also committed to be a leading force in shaping the continued development of the open, decentralized and secure Internet, in a close collaborative effort with international Internet bodies including ICANN, RIPE, IETF, and CENTR. Based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, DENIC employs 120 staff and has an annual turnover of EUR15m. About Netnod Netnod is a not-for-profit, neutral and independent Internet infrastructure organisation, based in Sweden and owned by the TU foundation. Netnod provides DNS anycast and unicast slave services to TLDs worldwide through its highly respected and robust DNSNODE product. Netnod is also the proud operator of i.root-servers.net, one of the thirteen logical DNS root name servers in the world – a critical part of the Internet underlying infrastructure. This service is provided as a public service to the Internet community at-large, as part of Netnod’s goal to work for the “Good of the Internet”. Finally, Netnod operates six exchanges in five different cities in Sweden where Internet operators exchange traffic. The Netnod IX has among the highest amount of traffic per peer in Europe and is fully IPv6 enabled. This DENIC news release was republished with permission. To register your .DE domain name, check out Europe Registry here .

auDA and InternetNZ have launched the Australia and New Zealand Internet Awards (the ANZIAs) for 2012. Now in its fourth year, the ANZIAs are an annual event organised by the policy and regulatory bodies for .AU and .NZ and celebrate the achievements of organisations, businesses and individuals that have made significant contributions to the development and use of the Internet in Australia and New Zealand. ANZIA winners receive recognition as industry leaders, for setting new standards in making the Internet a more inclusive, accessible and safe place. The Awards also offer winners public and industry exposure, positive media coverage, networking opportunities, recognition of hard work for staff and volunteers and an $AUD2500 cash prize for eligible entrants. Entries are invited in six categories: Security and privacy Internet access & digital skills Innovation Information Diversity IPv6. InternetNZ Chief Executive Vikram Kumar says the ANZIAs are a great opportunity for New Zealand and Australian businesses and individuals to have their online endeavours celebrated. “The six ANZIA categories cover all facets of the global Internet, from the highly-technical to the cultural, humanistic and innovative. We know there are a number of wonderful Internet-related projects happening in the Trans-Tasman region and we encourage all those involved to register their interest now for their chance to get recognised.” auDA Chris Disspain echoed Mr. Kumar, saying “the ANZIA awards distinguish the premier businesses, individuals and organizations in Australia and New Zealand that use the internet to enrich the lives of others and advance the cause of using the internet in positive and inventive ways.” Among the ANZIA winners in 2011 were Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, The Australian Lions Drug Awareness Foundation, and DTS NZ. ANZIA has in recent years celebrated the achievements of CanTeen, The National Library of New Zealand, Hector’s World Limited and Darwin City Council’s GRIND Youth Initiative. Registrations of interest are now open. Interested parties can register to receive instructions on how to enter. Applications will open on 1st June and close on 31st July, with all winners announced at a gala dinner in Canberra on 8 October. For more information see internetawards.org.au .

The .UK registry, Nominet, announced they have passed the 10 million active domain names milestone this week with Steven John Northam, founder of SN Technologies Ltd, a Hampshire-based investment firm, registering the ten millionth domain – swarvemagazine.co.uk. “.UK is a prestigious address that people admire, respect and trust all over the world, and individuals and organisations of all shapes and sizes have recognised this,” said Lesley Cowley OBE, CEO of Nominet. “The cumulative impact of the domains in the registry on the broader economy is huge, acting as the hub for most e-commerce activity in the UK. .UK is a great place to be and the registration of the 10 millionth domain is a fantastic achievement.” The .UK country code Top Level Domain is the second-largest, following .DE who is rapidly approaching the 15 millionth registration, a milestone that is likely to be reached this year. And .UK is the fourth largest TLD, following .COM, who recently passed the 100 million registrations milestone, .DE and .NET, with around 14.5 million registrations. Following .UK in total numbers of active registrations is .ORG (9.9 million registrations), .INFO (8m), .TK, .NL (4.9m), .RU (Russian Federation – 3.7m) and .EU (European Union – 3.6m). Nominet is marking this occasion by announcing a major investment in the .UK brand – a particularly important step given the backdrop of a changing landscape of domain names. This work is focused on growing the market and driving growth in .uk by delivering and building a compelling .UK brand story for businesses and consumers. A marketing campaign, set to roll out from May this year, will build on the solid foundations of trust, status and reliability that registrants associate with .UK domains. To register your .UK domain name, check out Europe Registry here .

The total number of registered domain names grew by almost six million to more than 225 million worldwide across all domains, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign. The increase of 5.9 million domain names equates to a growth rate of 2.7 per cent over the third quarter of 2011, and marks the fourth straight quarter with greater than 2 per cent growth. Registrations have grown by more than 20.4 million, or 10 per cent, since the fourth quarter of 2010. The .COM and .NET Top Level Domains (TLDs) experienced aggregate growth in the fourth quarter, reaching a combined total of 113.8 million names. This represents approximately a 2 per cent increase in the base over the third quarter of 2011 and an 8 per cent increase over the same quarter in 2010. Verisign does not break down .COM and .NET registrations individually, but using statistics provided by Registrar Stats, just under 100 million of these would be for .COM domains and just over 14 million for .NET. New .COM and .NET registrations totalled 7.9 million during the quarter. This is a 4 per cent increase year-over-year in new registrations. The .COM/.NET renewal rate for the fourth quarter was 73.5 per cent, up from 73.3 per cent for the third quarter. For ccTLDs, total registrations were approximately 90.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 with the addition of 3.7 million domain names, or a 4.2 per cent increase compared to the third quarter. This is an increase of approximately 10.6 million domain names, or 13.2 per cent from a year ago. Among the 20 largest ccTLDs, Poland, Sweden, Tokelau and the Russian Federation each exceeded four per cent quarter over quarter growth. Last quarter, four of the top 20 exceeded the same threshold. There are more than 290 ccTLD extensions globally (including Internationalized Domain Names), with the top ten ccTLDs comprising 60 per cent of all registrations. The ten largest ccTLDs at the end of 2011 were: .DE (Germany) .UK (United Kingdom) .TK (Tokelau) .NL (Netherlands) .RU (Russian Federation) .EU (European Union) .CN (China) .BR (Brazil) .AR (Argentina) .IT (Italy). The report also looked at renewal rates. Whether a domain name resolves to a website is a key factor in the renewal rates since domain names that resolve to websites are more likely to be renewed. Verisign estimates that 88 per cent of .COM and .NET domain names resolve to a website, meaning that an end-user visiting that domain name would find a website. These websites can be further described as those having multiple pages or as one-page websites. One-page websites include under construction, brochure-ware and parked pages in addition to online advertising revenue generating parked pages. Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load during the quarter was 64 billion, with a peak of 117 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 8 per cent and the peak grew 51 per cent. The latest Verisgn Domain Name Industry Brief is available to download from: www.verisigninc.com/en_US/why-verisign/research-trends/domain-name-industry-brief/index.xhtml

In advance of the Costa Rica meeting, ICANN and the Registrar Negotiation Team have prepared a summary of the negotiations [PDF, 117 KB] on the Registrar Accreditation Agreement ( RAA ). After the Board directed ICANN and the Registrars to proceed into negotiations regarding recommendations by law enforcement [PDF, 111 KB] and recommendations from the GNSO , negotiations proceeded at a brisk pace, with 13 negotiation sessions held to date. There are many topics where ICANN and the Registrar Negotiation Team are close to agreement on language, and even more topics where there is agreement in principle. Because of the comprehensive nature of the amendments, it is expected that all negotiated language will be posted as a unified document after further negotiation. The summary chart [PDF, 117 KB] released today provides information on nearly all of the items that have been raised in the negotiations, and the current status of agreement on those issues. This ICANN announcement was sourced from: www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-01mar12-en.htm

In an attempt to make .PT domain names more accessible, the Foundation for National Scientific Computing, has announced changes to registration policies to take place on 1 March. The changes mean anyone can register a domain for the Portuguese ccTLD and registrants will no longer have to be associated with a brand or company. “This is a goal for which the Foundation has been working long and we finally have the approval of the proposed liberalisation from the General Council. We hope that this liberalisation will result in an increase in the number of people who choose to have a .PT address instead of registering foreign and generic top domains,” said Pedro Veiga, president of the Foundation. There will also be a “Sunrise” period from 1 March for 60 days to allow public companies, companies, brand names, establishment, logos, copyright and professional names, literary or artistic to register their .PT domain and defend their established rights. For the .PT registration, the domain only will have to be delegated in the .PT area and be technically associated with a primary name server, correctly installed and configured. To register your .PT domain name, check out Europe Registry here .

The Domain Pulse evening event at Hamburg’s Fish Auction Hall that brought to a close the first day of the conference meant there were quite a few stragglers at day two’s commencement. But by the afternoon everyone had arrived in time to hear an update on this year’s Registrar Atlas Survey, presented by Thomas Rickert. The Registrar Atlas surveys registrars and resellers in Germany, and in 2012 takes in Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands, and has some surprising preliminary findings relating to DNSSEC adoption and new generic Top Level Domains. The final results for the survey will be presented at the World Hosting Day in Germany in March. One of the worrying findings to date is a surprising reluctance for the registrars and resellers to offer Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC). In Germany, 17 per cent of respondents offered DNSSEC in 2011 and 44 per cent said they expected to offer it within the next 12 months while 28 per cent were not planning to. But in 2012, unexpectedly these numbers had declined. Of those that have responded, the number offering DNSSEC had declined to 12 per cent, 25 per cent said they expected to offer it in the next 12 months while 25 per cent have not planned to. The trend, Rickert explained, is significant. And if the results are confirmed in the final results it would show momentum to adopt DNSSEC has stalled, and is even going backwards. So a question has to be asked is can momentum be created to start moving forward. While the German results are of concern, worryingly 41 per cent of respondents in Austria do not even plan to implement DNSSEC. DNSSEC is critical, giving internet users, both providers of services and end-users, much more secure transactions and interactions online. And it allows users to be certain that data has not been modified in transit. Part of the failure Rickert believes is that the industry, particularly registrars and registries, have not created a demand for DNSSEC. And while many internet users are concerned about the security of their data online, they are unaware of DNSSEC and its role. But DNSSEC is not the only area where registrars are showing a lack of interest in promoting new services. Preliminary results for the Registrar Atlas also show that registrars are going to be reluctant to promote new gTLDs. Of the respondents replying to the survey, just over one in five (22%) of German registrars and resellers planned to offer registration services promoting new gTLDs when they come online, with the first gTLDs probably offering registrations in 2013. Figures for Austria and Switzerland are too small to be significant to date, with no figures available for The Netherlands, but the figures indicate less than one in five registrars and resellers in those countries are preparing to offer registrations in new gTLDs. For new gTLD registries, it appears it could be challenging to get shelf space in registrars and it cannot be expected that registrars will be proactive in seeking out new gTLDs to sell their domain names. However as noted, the Registrar Atlas is far from complete and registrars and resellers, not just in Germany, but also Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands are encouraged to complete the wide-ranging survey that covers much more than DNSSEC and new gTLDs. The survey is conducted by the German internet association eco in conjunction with nic.at (Austria), SWITCH (Switzerland) and SIDN (Netherlands). To complete the survey, registrars and resellers should go to eco-umfrage.de and click on the appropriate link. This article was updated to reflect that the current survey is not only the first survey in which registrars and resellers in The Netherlands has participated in, but also Austria and Switzerland.

Almost one in eight (12.3%) of .EU registrations in the second quarter of 1011 were now for multiyear registrations following the registry’s implementation of this option, EURid announced in their quarterly report. On the fifth birthday for .EU in April 2011, registrants were given the option for registering domain names for up to ten years. To promote multiyear registrations, EURid introduced a promotional offer (that was valid until 31 May) where registrars received a 50 per cent discount on all new .EU registrations of two, five and ten years. “It is one of our duties as the .EU registry to continually add value to the services we offer registrars. Extending the length of time .EU domain names can be registered for is one such service and I am encouraged by how well .EU multiyear registrations were received during the second quarter,” said Marc Van Wesemael, EURid’s General Manager. During the quarter, registrations for .EU domains decreased by 1.2 per cent to 3.35 million, making .EU the fifth largest ccTLD. The number one ccTLD in terms of active registrations is .DE (Germany), currently with 14.577 million registrations followed by .UK (United Kingdom – 9.559m), .NL (Netherlands – 4.641m) and .RU (Russia – 3.410m). The decrease in registrations came about due to every April a large number of registrations are not renewed, coinciding with the anniversary of .EU’s launch. In addition, two countries, Cyprus and Luxembourg, reported reduced volumes as some registrars did not renew large sections of their .EU portfolios. However year-on-year there was a 4.2 per cent increase in registration numbers. EURid’s full report for Q2 2011 is available for download at: link.eurid.eu/reports . To register your .EU domain name, check out Europe Registry here .

Vietnamese internet users in rural areas have taken to the Vietnamese language internationalised domain name, making up a large proportion of the 320,000 Vietnamese language domains that have been registered since 28 April. “Internet users in rural areas were especially fond of using Vietnamese-language domain names since they used Vietnamese almost exclusively on the internet. The meaning of Vietnamese domain names was also clearer and more understandable to Vietnamese users,” said Tran Minh Tan, deputy director of the VNNIC, part of the Ministry of Information and Communications. “The Vietnamese IDNs represent a concerted effort on the part of VNNIC and Dot VN to reach the whole of the Vietnamese population and not just those that reside in major cities. While many online services have focused almost exclusively on urban users in major cities, those users represent but a small fraction of the over 89 million people that make up the population of Vietnam.” said Dot VN President Lee Johnson. “We hope to be a leader in the development of services for the as yet underserved majority of existing and potential internet users. The Vietnamese IDN resonates with the whole of Vietnamese Society in a fundamental way and engages Vietnamese users in their native speech in a way that is far superior to standard Vietnamese domain names. We believe that it is this connection that will allow us to reach countless millions of new Vietnamese users with a depth and scope not yet achieved through the power of their native language. As VNNIC’s partner in the IDN project we will continue to dedicate ourselves to reaching all corners of Vietnam from the cities to the fields with the very best products and services.” Up until early this year, there were strict limitations on the allocation of .VN domain names. But on 10 January the regulations changed. To assist on their uptake, .VN domains are allocated to Vietnamese and foreign organisations and individuals on a first-come, first-served basis according to VNS report. The allocation of free .VN domains commenced on 28 April. To register your .VN domain name, check out Europe Registry here , although more information on .VN domains is available from dotVN here .