Monday, June 11, 2012

Demand Media Eyes Top Level Domain Expansion

Santa Monica-based Demand Media announced this morning that it will be pursuing 26, new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), as the ICANN opens up expansion of the Internet domain name space. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, handles the allocation of domain names and management of domain name registrars. The group has decided to open up new gTLDs, beyond the common .com and .net and other extensions, to practically dot-anything. Demand Media said it has applied for 26 names on a stand-alone basis, and has entered into a strategic arrangement with new startup Donuts Inc., to acquire rights to certain gTLDs after they are awarded to Donuts by ICANN. Donuts Inc. is backed by $100M and was started by a number of ex-Demand Media executives.

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