ICANN Reveals A Lot About New TLD Applications

ICANN signage (Photo credit: blacknight)

ICANN’s latest update on the new TLD application system downtime contains a few interesting titbits of information that have all the domain bloggers speculating about how many new TLDs there will be.

According to the latest update ICANN has:

2091 pending new TLD applications
214 additional applications that haven’t been paid for yet
Pulled in $350 million in fees

I’ve no idea what kind of banking arrangements ICANN has made for all that cash, but if it’s earning interest .. ..

So 2091 pending applications is a LOT.

Who has applied and what kind of applications they’ve made is a guessing game at this stage. Some of the applicants have been very open about what they’re doing, while others have kept off the radar completely.

If you enjoy a bit of speculation you can read some of the posts from the various blogs:

While there may not be consensus among ICANN watchers it’s pretty clear that most people expect the bulk of applications to be for “.brand”.

How this will all play out is still very much up in the air. And we still have no idea when the “big reveal” will actually happen!