Potential Impact of Top Level Domain name Liberalization on ccTLD

The domain name is an identity which has grown in a number of dimensions along with the exponential growth of Internet. Though early days of Internet saw only a few popular Top Level Domain (TLD) names such as .com and .org, the subsequent demand caused by the commercial and marketing aspects had prompted an explosion of domain name registrations, including country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) domain names. To complicate the matter are the plans by ICANN that controls the administration of top level domain names to relax the Internet addresses naming rules, at top level as well as 2nd level. After analyzing the domain pricing data collected from a number of domain registrars from 12 countries, this paper examines the dynamics of domain pricing and how such pricing can get affected by new ICANN rules, especially at ccTLD level.