ICANN announces conclusion of new gTLD initial evaluations

LOS ANGELES, USA: ICANN's Generic Domains Division announced the conclusion of the Initial Evaluation (IE) phase of the new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) program. More than 1,700 applications have now moved to the next steps in the program.

"This is an extraordinary landmark which demonstrates the progress in this program," said Akram Atallah, president of ICANN's Generic Domains Division. "We are looking forward to the innovations that these new introductions will enable on the Internet."

Out of the 1,930 new gTLD applications submitted, a total of 1,745 applications passed Initial Evaluation, 32 have gone into Extended Evaluation, and 121 were withdrawn from the program.

"It would be an understatement to say we are excited to reach this point," said Christine Willett, VP of gTLD Operations. "Applicants worked hard on their applications and the evaluations were complex and rigorous. We are pleased that 90 percent of the original applications passed Initial Evaluation - this is a clear and distinct success."

Applications that passed IE will proceed through the program based on their complexity. Some may move straight to the Transition to Delegation phase, while others may have to go through additional steps, such as dispute resolution and string contention.

As another indicator of the progression of the New gTLD Program, 12 additional registry agreements have just been signed, 11 of which are the first English character TLDs. The contracts govern the registry and administration of a dozen new gTLD's.

ICANN's new gTLD program is the result of eight years of study, 47 public comment periods, which produced over 2,400 comments, 55 explanatory memoranda and 7 versions of the new gTLD Applicant guidebook.