DotFree Group
 | |
| Type: | Privately held |
| Industry: | Information Technology |
| Founded: | 2009 |
| Headquarters: | Prazska 636, 25241 Dolni Brezany |
| Country: | Czech Republic |
| Email: | office[at]dotfreegroup.com |
| Website: | dotfree.com |
| Facebook: | dotFree |
| LinkedIn: | dotFree Group s.r.o. |
| Key People | |
| Dominique Alexander Piatti, CEO | |
DotFree Group is a start-up company based in Czech Republic and it is an applicant for the .free generic top level domain name gTLD. The company provides free domain names and it is engaged in offering domain name software, domain name registry and consultancy services. DotFree Group was established in 2009 and Dominique Alexander Piatti is the company's CEO. The company claims that there are more than 600,000 free domain names in its portfolio and it is processing more than DNS requests per day. [1]
In an e-mail interview conducted by Kevin Murphy of DomainIncite, Dominique Alexander Piatti, CEO of DotFree Group confirmed that the company will apply for the .free TLD with ICANN and an individual can register one domain name for free and if the registrant wants to register more domain names, he or she needs to upgrade his/her status to VIP to be able to register as much as 20 domain names. The registration fee for every domain name will be $5 per year. [2] [3]
Piatti also revealed that the company's .free project is supported by venture capitalist from Europe and was able to raise EUR 1.25 million funds in 2011. He also added that his company is also generating substantial revenue from is www.cz.cc and Domain Registrar Script projects. [3]
Furthermore, Piatti confirmed that DotFree Group plans to sell around 200,000 premiums domains which will cost $5 each. The company also plans to sell domain names directly and through ICANN accredited registrars.[3]
Pre-Registration[edit | edit source]
Dot Free Group launched its pre- registration for .free domain names on its website on November 2010. Kevin Murphy reported that any domain name ending in number 4 is not allowed and presumed to be considered premium. [4] At least 158,000 .free domain names has been pre-registered as of May 2012.[5]