Dotlocal takes care of all the administrative, technical and operational work, and even the finances for city or region extensions. Nevertheless, it might be useful to understand the process of applying for your own domain name extension.
The path to your own domain extension starts with mapping the potential. This extends beyond your own organisation: it can be useful to involve different stakeholders. These include the local government, city marketing and local business collectives, not to mention marketing and media partners.
Dotlocal helps to connect these parties and provides everyone with the insights needed to make a balanced decision.
If you apply for an generic extension or an extension for your brand, the stakeholders are different but the process is similar.
Dotlocal helps to develop a business case in which we ensure the value of the extension. Based on the research, we estimate the number of domain registrations and the development in the first few years. This gives an indication of the resources available to get the extension on the map locally. It also gives an indication of the amount that can flow back to the community or the applicant.
Now we can start counting down to the final regulation and the final date for the application window to open. Both will be announced by regulator ICANN. According to the latest planning, the rules will be published in May 2025 and we can submit the application in April 2026.
Dotlocal checks that all the required data is available and that there are no significant changes to our previous assumptions.
This is the moment to formalise our agreement, compile all the necessary documents, submit them to ICANN and pay the application fee.
After closing the application window, the regulator will announce which domain extensions have been applied for and the order in which they will be processed. Each application is reviewed in detail.
Dotlocal stays in contact with ICANN during this period, answering any additional questions and finally signing the contracts to operate the extension.
After signing the contract, we will know when we can roll out the extension. This will happen in two phases: first, certain groups will have priority, such as trademark holders, local businesses and residents. After that, anyone can register domain names under the new extension.
Dotlocal will take care of all technical and operational matters, such as managing the extension, connecting sales partners, formal announcements and actual domain registrations.
From the moment of assignment, marketing can be planned and executed: make the target audience aware of the extension, its added value and the priority period that they can benefit from.
Dotlocal supports you with ten years of knowledge and experience from the existing extensions. Wherever possible, we will share insights from other campaigns.