Dubai
The Middle East’s domain name industry is now entering a significant phase with the two Arabic Top-Level Domains - .shabaka (in Arabic means .web) and .mawque (in Arabic means .site).
Top-Level Domains are letters after the final dot of a domain name like .com, .ae and .net.
To put this into context, there are around 160 million active websites, and 111 million of them are dot coms.
All this is about to change with more than 1,300 new domains going through the final stages of launch.
This project is being overseen by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an organisation that manages domain names and IP addresses, who have been working for eight years to make this a reality.
.Shabaka was approved by ICANN as the new Top-Level Domain (TLD) in March to expand the web address system.
As the internet is now essential to the way users connect with friends and family, the way they do business and the way they learn about new cultures, this new system, called the new generic Top-Level Domain programme (gTLD) will likely affect everyone who uses the internet in some way.
“The new gTLD programme has been a success so far, it has addressed almost every issues the internet community have brought, the IP issues of trademark members and the security issues,” said Akram Atallah, president of global domain’s division at Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
He said the programme will enhance competition, innovation and choice in the domain name space. It will allow new companies to enter the market.
In 2013, ICANN rolled out domains in Arabic, Chinese, German, Russian and Cyrillic scripts, and now the rollout of domains in Latin alphabet has begun.
The new domains in the Latin alphabet include .bike, .clothing, .singles, and .plumbing.
Atallah said the best way to protect your brand is not to chase every gTLD out there; it is also to provide “brand awareness” so that anyone looking for the brand knows where to find you. Therefore, nobody will be looking for you at the wrong places. That is the “most effective way to provide brand identity and protect it, and this is what the community has done to the programme,” he said.
The internet landscape is about to be transformed by the “innovation that these new domain names” will usher in.
The challenges the new gTLD programme will address are the Internet of Things, IPv6, personalization and localization.
Despite the growth in Arabic content online, Yasmin Omer, General Manager of dotShabaka Registry, said that people need to use Google search in English to get into the Arabic website. With the introduction of .shabaka, users need to type in Arabic to get into the Arabic content.
DotShabaka Registry is a Dubai-based internet technology company behind the network.
Omar said that both its own homepage (asma.shabaka) and that of the telecoms provider etisalat (etisalat.sabaka) have started using the new suffix.
“The native language of the internet is English. It is the responsibility of the domain name industry to evolve and to ensure that the next one billion internet users use it in an effective way. However, there are challenges,” Omer said.
“We have seen a lot of interest from across the globe, not only from companies but also from individuals. Arabic is no longer a second-class language. They are in equal footing with English language. The next 90 million Arabic Internet users will be able to navigate the internet in truly Arabic,” she said.
Arabic domain names will “close the gap between the Arabic content and the Arabic user.”
There are 2.7 billion internet users now. The next one billion users will be non-English speakers.
Even though there are 12.5 million internet users in the Middle East, the online content in Arabic is still less than two per cent of the total, said Mohammed Al Bashir, board member of Internet Society (ISOC) Qatar.
“The advancements in domain names will support the next generation of internet users. We are creating more space for growth in online,” Atallah said.
Omer said the domain name industry plays a crucial role in ensuring that everyone has access to what internet has to offer.
“My organisation still continues to face challenges despite having invested millions in dotShabaka Registry. Despite issues and barriers, we want to build more robust Arabic domain name market,” she said.
ICANN charges $185,000 for an organisation to apply for running a gTLD. The registrars are expected to charge $20 per year for a domain name.
