Freenom Raises $3m To Expand Free Domains Model

Freenom, registry operator for .tk (Tokelau), .ga (Gabon), .cf (Central African Republic) and .ml (Mali), most of whose domains are provided for free with some having reputations of being some of the spammiest TLDs, has announced it has been successful in raising $3 million to expand its AnyCast cloud network and to develop commercial initiatives combining ccTLDs with local communities.

“Our current partners are very committed to the free domain name idea and industry,” said Joost Zuurbier, CEO & Founder of Freenom. “We are pleased to work with KIMA and the other members of this investment group to accelerate our growth and to expand our technology and presence online.”

Combined the ccTLDs have over 20 million registrations, with .tk leading the way to be the world’s largest ccTLD. Free domain names are, according to Freenom, not required to run advertisements on their websites, and can be renewed at no cost.

China and Brazil are amongst the largest user groups of free domains. But also in the local partner countries, like Gabon and Mali, free domains have become very popular.

“The free domain name model radically changes the w ay a top level domain registry operates. We help partner countries to transform paid domain systems and processes into a new platform where domains are free and can be registered by everyone, locally and abroad.” Zuurbier continues. “We try to build truly win – win relationships with our partner countries. As a result we’ve seen a huge increase of local website building and technology usage locally, while providing the countries an additional income stream and promotional exposure. KIMA’s investment allows us to rapidly expand this platform, to reach out to additional countries and to invest in new partner relationships.”

Revenue is generated by monetising the expired domain names. Domains that are no longer used by the registrant or are expired are taken back by Freenom and the residual traffic is sold to advertisement networks. Next to this primary source of income, additional revenue will be generated by offering digital white labelled services, such as hosting packages, SSL certificates and others, to free domain name users. These new services will be available from January 2014 onwards.

SnapNames BuyDomains.com Auction Ends Thursday! 15 Domain Names Received Bids So Far

SnapNames is hosting these days the BuyDomains Fall 2013 Partner auction. The auction features 117 domain names and closes on December 19,2013 at 3:15 pm ET.

15 domain names already received bids:

Manr.com Current Bid $650

Allure.net Current Bid $325

Stronger.org Current Bid $711

Hikers.com Current Bid $11,000

Complimentary.com Current Bid $5,001

Descendent.com Current Bid $2,501

Manf.com Current Bid $775

CamCorder.net Current Bid $750

Lvig.com Current Bid $750

Stylish.org Current Bid $750

Stronger.org Current Bid $711

PhoneCard.net Current Bid $501

GetTickets.net Current Bid $500

Innovations.org Current Bid $300

Conecption.org Current Bid $300

Other interesting domain names included in the auction are:

Poster.com

Actors.com

Directos.com

Hikers.com

Galas.com

Employable.com

You can see the entire inventory and place your bids here.

ICANN : The At-Large Community Seeks Expressions of Interest for Candidates for Post of ICANN Board Seat

A call for Expressions of Interest (EoIs) is now open through December 26, 2013. This Call for EoIs is part of the process through which the user community within ICANN will appoint one voting member of the ICANN Board.

While acting in a personal capacity as a member of the ICANN Board, this member must be able to reflect the users’ point of view and interests in the debate and decision making undertaken within the ICANN framework.

In seeking candidates for this post, ICANN’s At-Large Community is looking for an individual with a broad international perspective and a background in Internet users’ interests, consumer policy and/or civil society worldwide.

Information about the At-Large Community:

“At-Large” is the name of the community of individual Internet users involved in ICANN’s policy development process. It currently consists of over 160 active At-Large organizations (called “At-Large Structures” or “ALSes”), representing the opinions of the global community of Internet users. At-Large provides a means through which individual end users of the Internet worldwide can participate in the matters on which ICANN works, such as:

Guidance on how to run Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs);

How to introduce new gTLDs (such as .eco, .green and IDN TLDs); and

How to implement a stable and fair transition from IPv4 to the next Internet addresses generation, IPv6.

The At-Large Board Candidate Evaluation Committee (BCEC) now calls for Expressions of Interest (EoIs).

For more information regarding the BCEC, including member details, please see the At-Large Board Candidate Evaluation Committee Web page (https://community.icann.org/display/ABMS/Board+Candidate+Evaluation+Committee+%28BCEC%29+2014).

How to apply for consideration:

To apply, please complete and submit the Expression of Interest (EoI) available at https://www.bigpulse.com/p26527/register. The form can be submitted online or printed and either:

Posted to At-Large Director Applications, ICANN, c/o Heidi Ullrich, 12025 Waterfront Dr. Ste 300, California 90094, USA; or

Faxed to +1 310 823 8649.

To be considered, EoIs must be received by 26 December 2013 at 23:59 UTC.

This announcement was sourced from:

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-16dec13-en.htm

ICANN : New gTLD Auction Rules

To gather community input regarding the detailed rules and processes for Auctions to resolve string contention sets in the New gTLD Program.

The preliminary auction rules were originally published 1 Nov 2013, they have since been updated based on feedback and will be finalized based on the input of the community from this comment period.

Public Comment Box Link:http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/new-gtld-auction-rules-17dec13-en.htm

Comment Period Opens onDate:17 December 2013

This announcement was sourced from:

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-17dec13-en.htm

DNS.BE Closing in on Another Milestone : 1.5 Million .BE Domain Names

DNS.BE,the company responsible for the administrations of .BE extension,is approaching 1,5 million domain name registrations under .BE.

DNS.be revealed continued growth in the .BE domain name registrations in the last couple of years .According to the statistics,Belgium has one registered domain name for 10 people.

DNE.BE hit the one million milestone in February,2010 .This means that in about three years,500,000 .BE domain names were added .This is the results of the excellent reputation the .BE domain name has built up over the years .

Up to date there are 1,435,157 .BE domain names .According to the statistics on DNS.BE website,24,410 .BE domain names were registered in the lat 30 days .

To register your .BE domain name check out EuroDNS here .