Team Internet Group
 | |
| Type: | Privately Held |
| Industry: | Registrar and 3rd level registry |
| Founded: | London, England, 1995 |
| Founder(s): | Robert Pooke, Steve Dyer |
| Headquarters: | 35-39 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AR England |
| Country: | UK |
| Businesses: | DotBrand Solutions, TLDs for Associations |
| Employees: | 25 [1] |
| Website: | centralnic.com dotbrandsolutions.com |
| Facebook: | CentralNic Facebook |
| Twitter: |  @CentralNic
|
| Key People | |
| Robert Pooke, Founder & Executive Ben Crawford, CEO Joe Alagna, GM of NA markets Gavin Brown, CTO Mar Perez, Head of Business Development Joe Chui, TLD Account Director Lexi Lavranos, Marketing Director Jenny White, Domain Operations Manager Amy Repp, Strategy and Investment Executive | |
CentralNic is the longest-running global domain registry in the world [2], currently managing 27 niche domain extensions including us.com, uk.com, com.de and .la - the ccTLD for the country of Laos which also represents the city of Los Angeles. CentralNic is the only registry to have launched three new domain extensions in the past 12 months, and in 2010 completed the largest deployment of DNSSEC of any registry to date. Their global headquarters are located in London, Great Britain.
CentralNic's portoflio of short (2 letter) second-level domain names, against which it sells third level names through a worldwide network of over 1500 registrars, [3] makes it an unusually innovative registry.
In November, 2011 it was announced that CentralNic had become an ICANN accredited registrar. This was some of the first news of its kind following an earlier vote by the ICANN Board, to end vertical separation of registry and registrar functions.[4]
History edit
CentralNic was founded in 1995 under the initial name of NomiNation by Steve Dyer and Robert Pooke. The name of the company was changed from NomiNation to CentralNic in 2000. The idea to offer domains like .com.uk to compete with the existent .co.uk style domains was suggested by Jon Postel.[5]
Application for New gTLDs edit
In June 11, 2012, CentralNic CEO Ben Crawford announced that the company applied for 60 domain name strings with ICANN's New gTLD Program for its clients and on its behalf. Some of the string applied for include .gay, .group and .college. Crawford also said that the new gTLD program promotes competition and introduces alternatives to consumers for them to be able to create a website name based on their ideas. He cited that there are already more than 100 million registered domain names under the .com space. Obviously, it is hard for registrants to find a great name for their websites. He said a registrant can a buy a great domain name from a current owner it would could cost around $10,000. [6]
Services offered by CentralNic edit
Their main area of activity is domain registry services offered for a total of 26 sub-domain (second level TLDs), such as:
- yourname.gb.net Great Britain
- yourname.us.com United States
- yourname.uk.net United Kingdom
- yourname.jpn.com Japan
- yourname.br.com Brazil
- yourname.cn.com China
and many others.
These domains are simultaneously global (through the use of popular extensions like .com and .org), and regional (through the use of regional extensions like .us and .uk). In addition to providing relief from unavailable .com domains, they offer an alternative to those not wishing to brand themselves with a ccTLD.[7]
Partnerships edit
CentralNic recently launched DotBrand Solutions, a service aimed at empowering brands and their advisors to acquire, launch and manage their .brand TLDs.
In 2009, CentralNIC and Network Solutions announced a joint venture - Central Registry Solutions. It is a consultancy service offering help to those dealing with registries and the registration process. It is specifically poised to help those interested in taking advantage of the new gTLD process.[8]
They have noted their dedication to protecting and reserving the copyrights and Intellectual Property of international non-profit entities such as the Olympics.[9]
CentralNic has partnered with AfterNic to bring their domains to the secondary market since 2006.[10] They have also partnered with Sedo.[11]