Infibeam to offer ‘.ooo’ for ‘.com-savvy’ netizens

Netizens will soon get an alternate to ‘.com’ after the rollout of ‘.ooo’ (Dot-Tripple O) by Ahmedabad-based IT firm Infibeam.com. The e-commerce player today announced that the company has been granted licence by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for launch of ‘.ooo’ domain.

The new Generic Top Level Domain (GTLD) ‘.ooo’ is aimed at providing alternate domain registration solutions to those who have failed to locate their brand name or business names on .com domain. Also, ‘.ooo’ is seen as a mobile-friendly domain as it reduces usage of multiple keys on phones.

“This domain will be used by small enterprises as well as large corporate. We expect many to migrate from .com to .ooo as there is higher possibility of name availability here,” said Vishal Mehta, Founder, Infibeam.com.

The company is targeting 35,000-40,000 trademark registered companies along with several SMEs. “The new GTLD is the first of a kind initiative by any e-commerce company. Over the next 6-12 months we expect to get about 1-2 million domain registrations under .ooo,” Mehta told BusinessLine.

The domain will be made available for corporation and general public worldwide through credible and experienced global channel partners with whom it has signed Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA's).

The sunrise phase opened September 22, 2014 (12 UTC-5.30 am IST) for trademark holders to safeguard relevant registrations. They are given time till October 23, when it will open for general availability.

Adding further, Mehta informed that India expected to be one of the largest domain name markets by 2017. There are a number of tremendous market opportunities for various stakeholders to get in early and leverage new domain names.

Introducing domains under a new extension is a multi-step process that's designed to include protections for trademark holders and give average users a fair shake at getting the digital identity they want.