Key-Systems

Type:	GmbH (limited liability - Germany)
Industry:	Internet, Domain Names
Founded:	1998
Founder(s):	Alexander Siffrin
Ownership:	KeyDrive SA
Headquarters:	Im Oberen Werk 1 66386 St. Ingbert
Country:	Germany
Products:	domaindiscount24 (dd24), RRPproxy, BrandShelter, SkyWay-DataCenter, KS Registry Services, DN Worker
Employees:	KS HQ 70+, KD/KS group 160+
Website:	Key-Systems.net
Facebook:	KeySystems
Twitter:	@Key_Systems
Key People
Alexander Siffrin, CEO Bonnie Wittenburg, EVP, US Jessica Pfeiffer, Marketing/Human Resources Volker Greimann, General Counsel Jochen Kieler, International Business Development Markus Müller, Business Development (Domainer) Andreas Soll, Product Manager (BrandShelter)

Key-Systems Group is a leading international internet service provider. Key-Systems was founded in 1998 by Alexander Siffrin and received it's accreditation from ICANN as an official registrar in October, 2000. The German company has subsidiaries in the USA and Mexico and provides services to its end-customers and resellers through its three domain portals: RRPproxy, BrandShelter, and domaindiscount24. Key-Systems holds shares in AZ.pl- the first ICANN accredited registrar in Poland.

As of Jan, 2012, Key-Systems has over 3,2 million gTLD & ccTLD domains under its management. There are another 1 million domain names registered by companies of the Key-Systems Group and more than 1,9 million domains on the platform of Moniker (part of the KeyDrive SA since January 2012). The group is currently ranked second among leading registrars for global TLDs in Europe. They currently offer the fully-automated registration of more than 300 top-level and second-level domains. The Registry Services of Key-Systems (offered since 2001) is now concentrated in the new company KSregistry GmbH. Apart of registry services for 4 ccTLDs KSregsitry provides registry services for 31 new TLD applicants.

Key-Systems Group is part of KeyDrive SA, which was formed through a merger between Key-Systems and NameDrive in June 2011. In Januuary, 2012, KeyDrive acquired former rivals Moniker and SnapNames from Oversee.net for an undisclosed amount. Following the acquisition, the KeyDrive registrars collectively ranked sixth in the list of the world's largest ICANN-accredited registrars for generic TLDs.

New gTLDs

Th company announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary KSregistry had been selected to provide back-end registry services for 31 gTLDs, including GeoTLDs such as .saarland and .zuerich, generic TLDs like .ski and .design, and brand TLDs for leading companies from the automotive, finance, tourism, media and health sectors.

History

• In 1998, Alexander Siffrin founded Key-Systems GbR (Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts), a civil law partnership company, in Friedrichsthal/Saarland, Germany.

• Key-Systems GbR was turned into a limited liability company Key-Systems GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) in 2000.

• In 2000, Key-Systems launched DomainDiscount24.com (DD24), the domain portal for end-customers. On November 10th, 2000, ICANN announced that Key-Systems GmbH d/b/a DomainDiscount24.com had qualified to be accredited as a domain name registrar for the .com, .net, and .org domains.

• In 2001, Key-Systems launched its reseller portal RRPproxy.net. That same year, Key-Systems joined DENIC, an association for the administration of the German ccTLD (.de). Key-Systems also participated in the first meetings addressing the implementation of a domain dotEU TLD for Europe.

• Key-Systems participated in Verisign's IDN testbed in 2002. At this point, Key-Systems provided more than 60 different domain name extensions.

• In 2004, the company was relocated from Bexbach to Zweibrücken. In 2010 Key-Systems' headquarters were relocated from Zweibrücken to St. Ingbert, in its own company building.

• In 2007, Key-Systems took over the former Verisign Namestore Business for leading ccTLDs, migrating the ccTLD domain portfolios to the RRPproxy platform.

• In October, 2008, Key-Systems invested in a software developer company Avarteq.

• In May, 2009, Key-Systems founded its US subsidiary in the Washington D.C. metro area, and Bonnie Wittenburg was announced as Executive Vice President for Key-Systems USA, Inc. In November, 2009, Key-Systems opened another subsidiary in Monterrey, Mexico to focus on the Latin American Market.

• In July 2009, Key-Systems invested in DevKey Domain Management Solutions, buying 49% of its share.

• In 2010, Key-Systems took over the majority of AZ.pl, a leading Polish domain registrar company, moved to its new corporate headquarter in St. Ingbert and built its own TIER III datacenter (SkyWay DataCenter).

• Since July 2011, Key-Systems continues on as a subsidiary of KeyDrive SA, which also is the owner of NameDrive.

• In January, 2012, Israeli registrar, Domain The Net, filed a lawsuit against Key-Systems over their respective brand management trademarks - Key-System's BrandShelter and Domain The Net's BrandShield. Key-Systems had previously filed an objection against the BrandShield trademark application, referring to the confusing similarity of the newer application in comparison to the existing trademark.

• In January 2012, Moniker and SnapNames were acquired from Oversee.net by KeyDrive SA.

• In February, 2012 Key-Systems outsourced its registry services division KSregistry into a new subsidiary, KSregistry GmbH.

Products and Services

Key-Systems provides services to its end-customer's resellers through its three domain portals.

• domaindiscount24 (dd24): domain registration portal, including web and mailspace offers available in five different languages, targeted at retail customers.

• RRPproxy: for domain-resellers of both gTLD and ccTLD domain names, RRPproxy provides registration of domains through a WebInterface, Direct-Socket-Access, Email-Template, or API.

• BrandShelter: helps to manage and monitor huge domain portfolios, and includes support in planning, executing and operating a TLD including registry services by KSregistry.

Awards

Key-Systems ranked 9th, 22rd, 23rd and 43rd in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award in 2008, 2009, 2010 amd 2011 respectively (combined growth rate 2003-2008 is 980%) .