.vlaanderen is a

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of ev ...

for

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch language, Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Dutch language, Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, in ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

first introduced in 2014.

History

In mid-2011,

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...

, the umbrella organization for

domain names A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. A ...

, decided that organizations could apply for their own Top-Level Domain (TLD). In addition to the existing

country codes Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes (geocodes) developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The term ' ...

such as

.be .be is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Belgium. As of November 2022 there are 1,746,459 registered domains. History The domain became active in 1989 and was administrated by Pierre Verbaeten of the Katholieke Universiteit ...

and generic extensions such as

.com The domain name .com is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Added at the beginning of 1985, its name is derived from the word ''commercial'', indicating its original intended purpose for domains registere ...

, extensions such as .ibm,

.shop .shop is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) launched in September 2016. Nine companies including Google, Amazon and Famous Four Media filed applications for .shop in the 2012 ICANN new gTLD application round. GMO Registry became the registry oper ...

or .limburg were also possible. The first applications could be submitted to ICANN from January 12, 2012. This expansion is particularly interesting for brands, but also for geographical, ethnic and linguistic organizations and institutions. All newly created extensions belong to the group of gTLDs or 'generic Top Level Domains', as opposed to the country codes, which has consequences for their management. DNS.be was immediately one of the candidates to drive the geographical gTLDs. At the beginning of 2012, the

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; i ...

and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

governments respectively assigned the management of the gTLDs .vlaanderen and .brussels to DNS.be. DNS.be prepared and submitted the application file for ICANN. After approval, it is responsible for technical and commercial exploitation for 10 years. The formula chosen for the partnership is that of the service concession. In 2012, three applications were submitted to ICANN for generic top-level domains for Belgium. These places were raffled, putting .gent in the 1,021th place, .vlaanderen in the 1,416th place and .brussels in the 1,518th place. Because ICANN handles about 1000 applications per year, it was already bet on a commissioning in 2014. In 2013, after the extension was officially approved, criticism of the name came from the Flemish business community. A survey of 291 Flemish companies by BeCommerce revealed that 73% of companies were critical of a new top-level domain. On the other hand, a survey by the Flemish government in 2013 showed that 62% of the 258

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the g ...

are positive about the new extension. On 7 February 2014, DNS Belgium (now renamed) signed the contract with ICANN for the management of .vlaanderen and .brussels. ICANN reported on March 21 that year that the applications for .vlaanderen and .brussels have passed the technical tests. On June 18, 2014, ICANN announced that .vlaanderen and .brussels have been delegated, adding them to the

DNS root zone The DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in the hierarchical namespace of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Before October 1, 2016, the root zone had been overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ...

. As a result, the first URLs with these new extensions also exist: nic.vlaanderen and nic.brussels. On July 9, 2014, ICANN approved the startup information. That is the information about the different launch phases and their timing. This also means that all data of the different phases are officially recorded: * Brand owner phase: 01 Sep 2014 - 01 Oct 2014 * Phase for local authorities and organizations: 02 Oct 2014 - 03 Nov 2014 * Phase for individuals: 13 Nov 2014 - 15 Dec 2014 * Landrush 16 Dec 2014 - 15 Jan 2015 * Free registrations since 20 Jan 2015 At the end of January 2016, the number of registrations stood at approximately 7000. About 1000 were allocated to institutions of the Flemish government and related organizations. As a result, the number fell short of government expectations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bcn Sponsored top-level domains Internet in Belgium 2014 establishments in Belgium

History

See also

References