80000 XXX Bookings
By Techgirl

After much opposition from some Governments and religious groups, ICANN gave the green signal for the setting up of the XXX sponsored top level domains earlier this year. Separate XXX domains were set up for porn and adult content.

The XXX domains will be managed by the US Headquartered ICM Registry.  There was such a rush by some companies to book or block out their names from the XXX domain, that ICM Registry was forced to extend its Sunrise Phase by two days to Oct 31, 2011.

The ICM Registry has just sent out the following press release to all media

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ICM Registry, the company behind the .XXX top-level domain (TLD) officially closed its Sunrise A and Sunrise B periods at Noon EST yesterday with more than 80,000 applications for domain names, it was announced by Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry.

The Sunrise Period, which was extended by three days to accommodate overwhelming demand, was designed to allow trademark and brand holders ample opportunity to apply for their corresponding .XXX domain names. During this time, 78,938 trademarked/pre-owned names were submitted, while 1,524 other names were allocated as part of The Founders Program.

“We couldn’t be happier about the success of the Sunrise period,” said Lawley. “There is always a risk with a new TLD that you may build it and nobody will come. We are thrilled that over 80,000 applications came! In fact, the .XXX Sunrise period results far exceeds those of any other new sTLD, including .mobi, .asia and even that of .co that re-launched last year with a significant marketing campaign. We look forward with great anticipation to Landrush, opening next week and General Availability on December 6, which is when the fun really starts.”
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Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog techgirltalk.blogspot.com.  Techgirl has been ejected from Twitter for satirizing an Indian Minister.  Her satire blog has links to her Times of India interview detailing her being kicked out of Twitter, and then being invited back.