.pw The Professional Web
 | |
| ICANNWiki Silver Sponsor | |
| Industry: | Registry |
| Founded: | 2004 |
| Ownership: | Directi |
| Website: | Registry.pw |
| Key People | |
| Bhavin Turakhia, CEO Directi Group Sandeep Ramchandani, Director of Strategic Parnterships, Directi | |
.pw - The Professional Web is the re-launched registry for the Open ccTLD for Palau, .pw. The Professional Web is a subsidiary of Directi, which operates prominent registrars, hosting, and development companies, and is also an applicant for 30 new gTLDs. Despite these applications, the launching of the now-open ccTLD represents the Directi group's first active registry operation. The official launch of the TLD is ICANN 45 in Toronto.
Major selling points for the extension will be the relatively low-price, and the vast amount of quality domain names available. Further uncertainty over the timeline of ICANN's new gTLD program gives the company an opportunity to target entities feeling constricted by the lack of quality domain names in other, saturated TLDs. Directi CEO, Bhavin Turakhia, said in the .pw re-launch press release: "The top generics are running in a depleted state. In over 70% of the cases, consumers are unable to obtain a name of first choice, and must settle for longer, less memorable names. Moreover, for these unattractive names, they will pay more and more each year as incumbent gTLDs continue to raise prices. .pw aims to meet the global demand for shorter, first choice names at a reasonable price."[1]
Background
The .pw ccTLD was delegated to the Pacific island nation of Palau in 1997.[2] It has been redelegated a number of times, and Directi obtained exclusive rights over the .pw - The Professional Web in 2004 from EnCirca, the registrar that originally launched the eponymous acronym. Prior plans for the ccTLD were to create a bundled social media and messaging product, though that project did not come to fruition, and so the ccTLD has seen little registration and is consequently now open for wide growth.
Relaunch
The new operations under Directi of .pw The Professional Web entails relaunching the ccTLD as and ccTLD. An open ccTLD is one that is available for registration outside of the nation that it designates, in this case Palau. The official relaunch of .pw as an open ccTLD is ICANN 45 in Toronto, which runs the week of October 13, 2012. This will then be followed by a gTLD style launch, which includes a 68 day Sunrise Period in early December 2012, and a month long Landrush Period in February, 2013.
Technical registry functions will be handled by CentralNic, which will support DNSSEC, IPv6, multiple IDNs, and operate with a gTLDesque lifecycle.
While the Directi group includes its own registrars, such as LogicBoxes and ResellerClub, it is also looking for other registrars to sell .pw.[3]