Google and Amazon that filed applications for the same new TLDs seem to have agreed on the division of spheres of interest. Anyway, this is a conclusion you reach when you consider their recent actions. Amazon withdrew its applications for .dev, .drive and .play domains, which automatically makes Google the only applicant. Especially important among Google’s victories is probably .play domain, considering the fact that Google Play is it’s flagman app store.
For its part, Google withdrew its applications for .talk and .you domains, leaving them to Amazon (there are no other competing applications for these domains). Also Google is no longer fighting for .book domain, which could be considered one of the key domains for Amazon, but there are five more applications for this domain, so it’s too early to talk about victory yet.
Marina Nikerova, senior deputy director at Technical Center of Internet, reminded that ICANN Corporation has just recently announced that it has completed processing all applications for the new top-level domains. The majority of them has moved to the next stage or has been withdrawn; only the ones that have been claimed by two or more applicants are awaiting their fate.
“This is perhaps the most difficult stage, because each of the applicants has made a lot of effort to substantiate and prove it’s right for the domain. The largest global companies, city administrations, world-famous public organizations are among them. The best option here it seems is when applicants make deals between themselves as it happened in case of Google and Amazon, however, it is not always possible and we are likely going to witness some sensational cases”, she said.
