.EU

.EU will be soon opened up for registration, and EUrid is the registry manager. See official announcement from ICANN, also see my previous post regarding .EU~~

(Excerpt from .eu website) To register a .eu domain names you must be one of the following:

1. undertakings having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business within the European Community;
2. organisations established within the European Community without prejudice to the application of national law;
3. natural persons resident within the European Community.
4. Cost: € 10 (registry price, retail price TBD by various registrars)

I will definitely ask my european colleagues to buy www.chiao.eu for me.

2005 will be a HOT year for domain registry business, not only for the new TLDs like .eu, .jobs, .travel entering the market, but the BRICs concept in place: .br (Brazil), .ru (Russia), .in (India), and .cn (China). The last three even provide the second level registration as well, so registrant can buy names like "samba.br" or "kungfu.cn".

As for .tw, which I am affiliated with, is planning for second level registration as well and targetting at Q3~4 this year. It seems that no one even noticed such news...

(zh-tw) TWNIC也即將於年底開放第二層網址申請, 請大家不時注意一下, 我也會做第一手報導.

Comments

[Tina Dam]

...cannot help but point out that it is kind of funny to see this posting on 1 April...aprils fools day.....considering the long time it has taken the EC to get the .eu ready :-)

(sorry about the late note....just made it back after the ICANN Argentina meeting)

[chiao]

Yes, .asia

I heard from Edmon that he is relocating to HK. That's good news ;-) If u guys need someone to answer the phone or make coffee...you know...

[Che-Hoo]

And, hopefully, there will be .ASIA too. :)

Yeah, .TW should do 2nd level. I'm sure it will be welcomed by the customers.