Team Internet Group

Type:	private limited company
Industry:	Registry and Registrar, DataCenter, Brand Protection
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
Website:	centralnic.com dotbrandsolutions.com [1]
Facebook:	CentralNic Facebook
Twitter:	@CentralNic
Key People
Robert Pooke, Founder & Executive Ben Crawford, CEO Alex Siffrin, COO Joe Alagna, GM of NA markets Gavin Brown, CTO Mar Perez, Head of Business Development 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 , 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, 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.

History

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.

In July 2018 CentralNic doubled its business by a merger with KeyDrive Group [2]

Initial Public Offering

CentralNic made its IPO on the London Alternative Investment Market on September 2nd 2013, and reported to raise USD$10 million. The registry back-end provider has stated that the company will use the funds raised during the IPO to "acquire interests in new gTLDs." In March 2018 CentralNic informed about contacts with KeyDrive SA for a merger in a reverse takeover.

Application for New gTLDs

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 acquire a domain name that fulfilled their intentions.

Services offered by CentralNic

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.

Partnerships

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.

They have noted their dedication to protecting and reserving the copyrights and Intellectual Property of international non-profit entities such as the Olympics.

CentralNic has partnered with AfterNic to bring their domains to the secondary market since 2006. They have also partnered with Sedo.

In early 2014 CentralNic, through its Registrar business TLD Registrar Solutions Ltd, has created several retail stores dedicated to specific TLDs for the registration of domains including:

• .menu
• .build
• .luxury, and
• .london