Dot Kiwi

Founded:	2012
Country:	New Zealand
Twitter:	@dotKiwiTLD
Key People
Timothy Johnson, CEO Peter Dengate Thrush, Director

Dot Kiwi Ltd is the company behind the proposal for the .kiwi TLD within ICANN's New gTLD Program. Dot Kiwi Ltd. was founded in 2012 by a group of businessmen in New Zealand, and ex-pat New Zealanders based in Canada, whose aim is to create a unique national namespace while also giving back to the country by giving a percentage of revenue to the work of rebuilding the city of Christchurch, which was devastated by an earthquake in February, 2011. While .kiwi is technically a generic TLD, as it did not need the qualifications to require government support as GeoTLDs do, it is still a widely identified term for the people of New Zealand.

.kiwi will not have restrictions on citizenship or relation to New Zealand, which is one major differentiation between the ccTLD, .nz. It will be open to any registrant that wants to associate themselves with the kiwi identity.

According to Peter Dengate Thrush, former ICANN Chairman and one of the Directors of Dot Kiwi Ltd., the registry operation of the TLD will be outsourced to Minds + Machines. Thrush also serves as Executive Chairman of Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. (TLDH), the parent company of Minds + Machines. According to Thrush, dot kiwi domain names will be sold for $25 each per year.

InternetNZ president Frank March at one point said that there is a possibility that his company will also apply for the dot kiwi TLD. This did not end up happening.

Helping Christchurch

Dot Kiwi Ltd., aims to donate a percentage of the profit that will be generated from selling dot kiwi domain names to a trust fund that will help rebuild the homes and businesses of Christchurch. The trust will be led by former New Zealand High Court judge Sir John Hansen with the help of Michael E Dormer, Brad Doody and Andrew Nuttall who will serve as fellow trustees.

Top-Level Domain