CentralNic, also a registry partner to the .africa applicant DotConnectAfrica Kicks-out ARI Registry Services as back-end for four new Radix gTLDs

CentralNic Group PLC has exclusively signed a Registry Service Provision contract with Radix Registry (“Radix”), for its four uncontested new gTLD’s; .website, .press, .host or .space.

ARI  Registry had the contract for these four string before this announcement.  ARI Registry is also the technical provider for ZACR registry, the other .africa applicant.  DotConnectAfrica Trust and ZACR are currently in a legal dispute over the .africa gTLD.

The .website is a true alternative to the .com TLD; it is open and available to all for the full range of possible uses, .press TLD will provide its users with a platform to share opinions and disseminate information. The primary target market will comprise of journalists, bloggers, media professionals, news providers and book publishers, .host is aimed to be the extension of choice for web hosts, Approved Scanning Vendors (“ASVs”), Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”), cloud service providers and other such entities, .space will serve to provide both individuals and organisations across the globe with a blank canvas to create their own online space

The first of the Radix TLDs is expected to launch through CentralNic in Q2 2014.

Domain name retailers around the world will obtain .website, .host, .space and .press domain names via the CentralNic platform to sell to end users.

Commenting on the exclusive agreement with Radix, CentralNic CEO, Ben Crawford said:

“Radix is one of the most experienced and best resourced companies in the new generic Top-Level Domain (“gTLD”) space, as well as having a deep understanding of the domain industry.  In fact, Radix’s gTLD applications include every one of the top 7 “most valuable new gTLDs,” as rated by domain valuation experts Sedo1.  CentralNic is excited to be able to continue to realise its objective of increasing the number of domain extensions on our global distribution platform by adding these fantastic TLDs to the portfolio that we offer to retailers (“registrars”) globally.”

Bhavin Turakhia, Founder and CEO of Radix said:

“Radix decided to award these contracts to CentralNic following our excellent experience partnering with them on the .pw and .in.net domain extensions.  They have proved to us the value of their integrated global registrar network, their technical strength, their deep expertise in selling domains, and their ability to work with our people as a united team.”

The first of the Radix TLDs is expected to launch through CentralNic in Q2 2014.  Domain name retailers around the world will obtain .website, .host, .space and .press domain names via the CentralNic platform to sell to end users.

The news of the switch come a month after announcement last month that CentralNic became a preferred back-end for portfolio applicant Famous Four Media, alongside ARI and Neustar.

See the announcement here

Also covered on DI Blog