United Domains

Type:	Public
Industry:	Domain Registrar
Founded:	2000
Founder(s):	Florian Huber Markus Eggensperger Alexander Helm
Headquarters:	Starnberg, Germany Cambridge USA
Products:	NewDomains.org Conference
Employees:	60
Website:	united-domains.de uniteddomains.com
Blog:	German Blog US Blog
Facebook:	German Facebook US Facebook
Twitter:	@uniteddomains
Key People
Florian Huber, CEO Markus Eggensperger, Legal Council Alexander Helm, CMO Sebastian Bruns, General Manager

united-domains is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar. united-domains has over ten years of expertise in domain name registration, offering over 170 top-level domains worldwide. united-domains support over 1.5 million domain names for more than 250,000 clients, including Fortune Global 500 companies such as Vodafone, Lufthansa, and Siemens.

united-domains was a silver sponsor at ICANN Silicon Valley and ICANN Singapore.

united-domains has also sponsored the .nxt conference on new gTLDs. It also hosted its own conference on new TLDs in September, 2011, the NewDomains.org conference. Afilias was the top sponsor of the event, which was held in Munich, Germany, and timed to coincide with that city's famous Oktoberfest celebrations. It seems they have intentions to hold another similar conference in 2013.

History

united-domains was founded in August 2000 by a young team of software developers, marketing and legal experts. Florian Huber, Markus Eggensperger and Alexander Helm are the founders of the company.

In 2008, united-domains was purchased by United Internet for 34 million Euros. The founders of the company, Florian Huber, Markus Eggensperger and Alexander Helm still hold 15% share in the company even after the sale.

Board

Board Members: Florian Huber (Chairman), Alexander Helm, Markus Eggensperger

Supervisory Board: Norbert Lang (Chairman), Dr. Oliver Mauss, Juergen Mayer

Business

united-domains Network includes:

• united-domains AG http://www.united-domains.de
• United Domains Inc http://www.uniteddomains.com
• namecheck.com http://www.namecheck.com/
• newdomains.org http://www.newdomains.org/
• domain-recht.de http://www.domain-recht.de/
• united-domains Reselling http://www.ud-reselling.com/

namecheck.com was launched officially in 2011.

Services

united-domains helps customers search and register domains. united-domains also maintains a Domain Trading Exchange which helps users trade the domains already taken. One can either buy, sell or lease through the Domain Trading Exchange.

united-domains also provides the feature of Domain Portfolio which enables administration and configuration of all domains belonging to a company or a private individual regardless of where the domains are registered. This is like a control center for the customer.

Controversy

Starting March, 2011, united-domains has also started the pre-registration of the new TLDs such as .sfo, .berlin, .nyc, .web, .eco, .shop, .gay, .med, .xxx, .hotel, .film, .music, which seem likely to be introduced by ICANN in 2012. This was generally received as misleading and unethical, given that no new TLDs had been applied for, accepted, or delegated yet. However, its "sale" of such domains is not complete, given that they are not charging or taking credit card information at this point. It seems it is a strategy mainly built around preparing and attracting customers, though some registrars in the industry see it as foul-play that confuses customers.

In January, 2012, an unknown perpetrator registered over 500 accounts with united-domains' domain registration system. The person used emails from representatives of registrars in direct competition with united-domains and also individuals active in ICANN's GAC. The prank was identified after each individual was sent a welcome message from the registrar's system.

External links

• united-domains AG
• United Domains Inc