Many observers thought that the ICANN 50 meeting, which is underway in London, would not only discuss Internet development, but that the host would use the occasion to promote the British capital’s new domain, .london. However, .london was not mentioned even once at the opening ceremony of the meeting yesterday.
It is all the more surprising that the new .wales and .cymru domains (Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales), which were delegated almost simultaneously with .london, were in the spotlight at the ceremony.
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones went on stage to announce that the Welsh government planned to abandon .gov.uk in favor of the two new Welsh gTLDs. Later, a famous Welsh male voice choir sang a couple of songs and announced that they, too, were planning to use .wales and .cymru for their websites.
And lastly, Rennie Fritchie, the chair of Nominet, which is one of the leading Internet registry companies, sang praises to the upcoming launches of .wales and .cymru.
There could be a simple explanation for all of the above: The host ccTLD and meeting sponsor, Nominet, which is the registry for .wales and .cymru, has lost the .london contract to the rival company Minds + Machines, a major registrar for .london and many other new top-level domains.
