Key-Systems
 | |
| Type: | GmbH (limited liability - Germany) |
| Industry: | Internet, Domain Names |
| Founded: | 1998 |
| Founder(s): | Alexander Siffrin |
| Headquarters: | Im Oberen Werk 1 66386 St. Ingbert |
| Country: | Germany |
| Products: | domaindiscount24 (dd24), RRPproxy, BrandShelter,, SkyWay-DataCenter |
| Employees: | 54 (2010) |
| Revenue: | €22 million |
| Website: | Key-Systems.net |
| Facebook: | KeySystems |
| Twitter: |  @Key_Systems
|
| Key People | |
| Alexander Siffrin, CEO, CTO Thorsten Smeets, Dir. Registry Relations | |
Key-Systems is a domain names distributor and management company. It 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.net, BrandShelter.com, and DomainDiscount24.com. [1]
As of April, 2011, Key-Systems has over 3.1 million gTLD & ccTLD domains under its management.[2] The company is currently ranked second among leading registrars for global TLDs in Europe,[3] and is the 12th largest ICANN registrar worldwide.[4] They currently offer the fully-automated registration of more then 280 top-level and second-level TLDs.[5]
History
- In 1998, Alexander Siffrin founded Key-Systems GbR (Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts), a civil law partnership company, in Friedrichsthal, Germany.
- Key-Systems GbR was turned into a limited liability company Key-Systems GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) in 2000. [6]
- 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.[7]
- 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 .eu 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. Key-Systems' headquarters were later relocated from Zweibrücken to St. Ingbert, in its own company building (in 2010).
- In 2007, Key-Systems took over the former VeriSign Namestore System, migrating more than 200,000 domains to the RRPproxy platform.
- 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. [9] In November, 2009, Key-Systems opened another subsidiary in Monterrey, Mexico to focus on the Latin American Market.[10]
- In July 2009, Key-Systems invested in DevKey Domain Management Solutions, buying 49% of its share.[11]
- 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).[12]
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 supports in planning, executing and operating a TLD.
Awards
Deloitte Technology placed Key-Systems 23rd in the “Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Award” for the year 2010. [13]
Key-Systems was ranked 411 in the "2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA Ranking and CEO Survey."[14] It was also ranked 22nd of the fastest-growing technology companies in Germany by Deloitte.
Key-Systems was ranked 8th in “Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Award” in 2008.