ICANN has awarded discounts on applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to three applicant organizations. These discounts were granted under the Applicant Support Program (ASP), ranging from 75% to 85% off the standard application fee, which currently stands at $227,000.
The ASP is designed for nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations from regions where ICANN assesses internet presence as insufficient. To date, 45 applications have been submitted for the program: 7 from Africa, 14 from the Asia-Pacific region, 5 from Europe, 2 from Latin America, and 12 from North America. The locations of the remaining five applicants have not yet been disclosed.
As of July 23, only 5 of these applications had been formally approved by ICANN’s Board for program participation. It now appears that three of these have been cleared to receive discounts. According to Domain Incite, the identities of the organizations awarded discounts will not be revealed. The rationale for this confidentiality is clear: the names themselves could hint at the domains being sought, potentially incentivizing competitors to apply for the same strings. Only the regions are known – two applicants are from the Asia-Pacific region, and one is from Europe.
It is worth noting that a similar discount system existed during the initial round of the New gTLD Program in 2012. However, only three applications were submitted at that time, with just one approved – the applicant now operates the new gTLD .KIDS.
