After reaching a peak of around 14,100,000 domain name registrations for .CN (China), the number of .CN registrations dropped dramatically to 12,800,000 in May this year before rising again, reaching 12,963,685 registrations at the end of June according to statistics on the CNNIC website. … more

South Africa accounts for around 60 per cent of all domain name registrations on the African continent, while the remaining 50 or so countries account for the remaining 40 per cent, according to a Biz Community report. … more

The Initial Report of the community-wide working group reviewing ICANN’s Geographic Regions is now available for public comment. All members of the ICANN community are now invited to review that document (icann.org/en/topics/geographic-regions/initial-report-geo-regions-review-wg-31jul09-en.pdf

[PDF, 100K]) and share comments and observations with the community through 4 September 2009. … more

The future of internet governance, ands the influence of emerging countries such as China, is the focus of this opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. The article says there are now “more Internet users in China than in any other country, and the fastest growing group of new users online is from non-English- speaking developing countries. [But] this has led to a well-meaning plan to reorient the Web toward these users. But it could result in authoritarian governments insisting on more influence.” … more

[news release] Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services and registry for the .INFO domain, today announced that is has added a new service aggregating .INFO Authorized Registrar special offers and sales on .INFO domain names. … more

[news release] On 22 July 2008, AFNIC set up a procedure (commonly known as PREDEC) for obvious breaches of the stipulations of the  decree of 6 th February 2007. One year on and the results of the procedure are overwhelmingly positive : 92 claims were filed with the .fr registry, which delivered 64 rulings. The procedure has become standard practice in legal firms and intellectual property consultancies and has even taken hold as an integral part of the French legal scene in the same way as other ADR proceedings. Read on for details. … more

Instra Corporation is pleased to announce it has expanded the availability of its Geographic Telephone numbers to more than 60 Countries.
Instra’s Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Barton noted “Our team is constantly developing our PhNUM® portfolio to ensure it is the most comprehensive Global Telephone Number solution available. We are now offering our Customers telephone numbers in over 60 Countries. This equates to over 3,400 locations around the world! Our expanding telephone offering, coupled with PhNUM®’s unique technology and advanced call features, provides THE best telephone redirection service in the World.” … more

Two proposed accountability measures have been posted by direction of the Board for 60 days of public comments, from 23 July 2009 through 25 September 2009. This is the latest step in the Improving Institutional Confidence process. … more

The Board Governance Committee (”BGC”) has moved its August committee meeting to the third week of August during which it will consider the expressions of interest received for Nominating Committee Chair. Accordingly, the BGC has asked that the deadline for submitting expressions of interest to become the Nominating Committee Chair for 2010 be extended to 15 August 2009. This extension will help ensure that all those interested who have not already submitted statements of interest will have the opportunity to formally do so. … more

In an open letter to the domain name constituency, new ICANN CEO and President Rod Beckstrom has expressed his delight at commencing the new position but also saying it is “without doubt … the most complex organisation” he has ever come across. … more

AusRegistry International, the registry for .AU and .AE ccTLDs, is one of the contenders to significantly gain from the proposal by ICANN to introduce a potentially unlimited number of new generic Top Level Domains. … more

Today there are more than 4.5 millions of registered Domains Names across Latin America according to statistics from Latino Americann. To date in 2009 there has been a growth in domain registrations of ten per cent, and in June the growth was 1.64 per cent. … more

The Argentine government, in cooperation with the banking industry in the country, has agreed to create the second level domain “banco.ar” with the aim of hindering virtual fraud against users of home banking in Argentina. … more

The first SnapNames Showcase Auction – a new monthly feature from the company – ended yesterday with degreeprograms.com being the top seller, selling for $31,555. … more

The consultation sessions ICANN is holding around the world and the topics discussed are the subject of an article from Computerworld Hong Kong. … more