Amazon's request to claim .Amazon as the company website domain is likely to be rejected by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) after the organization's Governmental Advisory Committee rejected it.
Amazon.com, world's largest online retailer, is having a tough time claiming ".Amazon" as its domain name after an advisory committee of a non-profit organization recommended rejecting the Seattle-based company's request, Tuesday. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is scheduled to meet in Durban, South Africa, this week, to oversee and approve the requests of generic top-level domains (gTLD).
Amazon.com filed its request with ICANN to approve the ".Amazon" domain, which will serve as "a unique and dedicated platform for Amazon," and "a further platform for innovation" and, to "support the business goals of Amazon," according to Wall Street Journal.
The request, however, was rejected by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee after objections from various countries along the Amazon River, Nao Matsukata, chief executive of domain-name advisory firm FairWinds Partners, told WSJ. "They said it would not be fair for Amazon to have control," said Matsukata. "It's a shame that this couldn't be a more open process and less arbitrary.
But ICANN has signed the first hour Registry Agreements with new gTLD applicants on its first day of meeting. The approval of the new gTLDs will take the top-level domain list including ".com," ".net", ".org", ".gov" and ".edu" to a new level of expansion. The gLTDs signed by ICANN include domains in native language, marking "the first time that people will be able to access and type in a website address for generic Top-Level Domains in their native language," according to the press release.
The rejection of the ".Amazon" domain by the Governmental Advisory Committee may be subjected to a final cast from the ICANN, but it is unlikely that the organization will take a decision otherwise given its history to follow the committee's advice.
Amazon.com has also filed request for 80 other top-line domains including ".kindle," ".wow" and ".shop." The retailer has also requested domains in Chinese and Japanese.
