.كوم
| Status: | Delegated |
| Language: | Arabic |
| Translates to: | transliteration of "COM" |
| Manager: | Verisign |
| Registry Provider: | Verisign |
| Type: | IDN |
| Category: | Commerce |
| Priority #: | 101 |
كوم.is one of 9 transliteration of .com that Verisign has applied for via ICANN's New gTLD Program. The company also applied for 3 transliterations of .net.[1] Verisign manages this TLD and is its Registry. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 28 July, 2015.[2]
This particular application was criticized during the comment period of the new gTLD program given that no such "COM" word exists in Arabic and so Verisign is essentially inventing an Arabic word. The objection states that Verisign should not be given the TLD without approval of the Arabic Language Academy.[3]
IDN Transliterations of .com & .net
Verisign's Pat Kane noted in January 2012 that the company was planning on applying for "about 12" new gTLDs, and noted that most of these were going to be IDN transliterations of .com.[4] Expected languages included Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Hebrew.[5][6]
During its first quarter earnings report, on April 26, 2012, it was confirmed that Verisign would be applying for 14 new gTLDs, 12 of which are foreign language transliterations of .com and .net.
In the end, the languages chosen for transliterations are: Thai, Deva, Korean (Hang), Chinese (Hant/Traditional & Hans/Simplified), Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, Japanese. The two non-IDN applications by the company are for .comsec and .verisign.
In July 2013, Verisign's Pat Kane outlined in an article[7] the company's plans for allowing existing registrants of second-level IDN domain names to secure the matching domain under Verisign's new IDN gTLDs. For example, if you're the registrant of the Hebrew word for "website" that is registered as a second-level domain under .com, you will have the rights to that second-level name under the gTLD "קוֹם." but you will not have the rights under the Hebrew transliteration of ".net" if it existed.[8]
Application
Excerpted from applicant response to question #18 in TLD application:
"As of this writing, more than 800,000 internationalized second-level domain names are registered in .com, including more than 40,000 in Arabic. The ARABIC_TRANSLITERATION_OF_.COM gTLD, along with the other proposed IDN transliterations of .com, provide an immediate benefit to registrants of those names by giving them the opportunity to register IDN second-level domain names as “IDN.IDN” domain names. That is, registrants can use their preferred script in both the second-level domain name and the
gTLD name. Doing so improves these domain names’ functionality and accessibility to speakers of non-Latin-based languages."
[..]
The initial target audience for ARABIC_TRANSLITERATION_OF_.COM is the registrants of the more than 40,000 Arabic IDN second-level addresses in .com. These registrants will have the opportunity to register their IDN.com addresses as IDN. ARABIC_TRANSLITERATION_OF_.COM addresses. "[9]
References
- ↑ Com Transliterated 8 languages
- ↑ Delegated String, ICANN.org Retrieved 30 Jul 2015
- ↑ CommentDetails, gTLDComment.ICANN.org
- ↑ 2011 Results Earnings Call Transcript, SeekingAlpha.com. Published 26 January 2012.
- ↑ Verisign Plans to Apply for About 12 New Top Level Domain Names, DomainNameWire.com. Published 26 January 2012.
- ↑ Verisign to Apply for a Dozen New gTLDs, DomainIncite.com. Published 27 January 2012.
- ↑ Update on Versigns IDNs Versigininc.com Retrieved 4 Oct 2013
- ↑ Verisign lays out buy once IDN gTLD plans, Domain Incite Retrieved 4 Oct 2013
- ↑ Application Download, gTLDresult.ICANN.orgRetrieved 17 Jan 2013