eBay Wants .ebay Domain

by Ina Steiner & Danielle Nordine

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers, the main oversight agency for top level
domains (TLDs) and regulator of the Internet, will
begin offering endless variations on domain
addresses.

The proposal would allow companies to purchase new
generic top-level domains ending in almost anything
they wished.

Rather than have a domain that ends .com or .co.uk,
an individual or company could have a domain that
ended .itpro or .ebay.

eBay is a current contender to use its name,
according to ITpro, angling to purchase the
domain .ebay. Cities such as New York and Berlin
have been campaigning for their own domains as well.

“We are in the process of opening up new real
estate, new land, and people will go out and claim
parts of that land and use it for various reasons
they have,” Dr Paul Twomey, chief executive of
ICANN, said. "It's a massive increase in the
geography of the real estate of the internet."

ICANN estimated last year that only 17 per cent
of the original four billion network addresses
remained available, and that addresses are expected
to run out within the next five years.

If the proposal is passed, as expected, new domains
would be open to companies by the beginning of
next year.

The application fee for a domain name under the
proposed system has not been determined, but
estimates say the price could range from €25,000
to €250,000, placing such domain extensions out of
the reach of most consumers, as well as most
potential cyber squatters.