ICANN Decides on New gTLD Application Processing Methodology

ICANN is considering how to process applications for new top-level domains. To this end, the organization has asked interested companies to submit their ideas for application selection principles.

As a reminder, ICANN previously planned to use a "digital archery" method. Using this method, ICANN planned to review 500 applications at a time, dividing applicants into groups. The reason for abandoning the "digital archery" method was the unexpected results this system yielded. Therefore, the corporation later abandoned this selection method, partly due to negative reactions from market participants.

ICANN is committed to introducing no more than 1,000 new top-level domains per year. As a reminder, the number of applications for new domains has reached 1,900. Of these, 1,400 domains are being claimed by more than one applicant.

ICANN invites you to submit your proposals regarding the application selection system to newgtld-input@icann.org by August 19, 2012.

ICANN plans to publish the first results of the application evaluation in June-July 2013.