Skip to main content

Business > News

Wed, 14 May 2008 Apple files for .me domains

Apple has filed multiple domain name registrations for the .me domain offered by Montenegro.

Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World

  • Email to a friend
  • Print this article
  • Bookmark this page
  • RSS feed

Apple has filed multiple domain name registrations for the .me domain offered by Montenegro.

The .me registry says it has received thousands of domain name registrations in the first week of availability. Applicants include tech industry leaders such as Apple -which registered apple.me, ipod.me and itunes.me - as well as Microsoft, Skype and Digg. Other multinationals that have registered .me names include MTV and BMW.

Question of the day!

Mark Hattersley
Editor in Chief

Do you share your creations online?

Question of the day!

Do you share your creations online?

% of Macworld readers agree with you

Yes
TBC
No
TBC

What do you create and how do you share it?

124 characters remaining

Follow the conversation at @TabletChat

paintings & illustrations, mostly, which i upload to flickr.RT @fragmentedm

I draw manga/anime characters. I also do graphic design and photography.RT @spialelo

Yes. I usually put them up on my #deviantart account for feedback on how to improve.RT @spialelo

Trademark-holders have until 20 May to register their company and product names under the new .me domain, which is being marketed as a generic top-level domain by the country of Montenegro. Afilias, which handles back-end registrations for .me, predicts the domain will have widespread appeal.  

"The .me extension gives every company on the planet the opportunity to personalize their brands...and make them more relevant to today's Internet-savvy teens," says Roland LaPlante, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Afilias. "Companies should be registering .me names not just from an intellectual property protection standpoint, but because there is so much business opportunity to personalise products."

Predrag Lesic, CEO of the .me registry in Montenegro, says the new internet extension will appeal not only in English-speaking countries but also across the former Yugoslavia, Italy and Spanish-speaking countries, where the letters "me" have a similar meaning as in English.

"We think .me can offer a new business around domain names with verbs," Lesic says, such as drive.me or fly.me. "This is the start of a new opportunity on the internet."

The last time a country tried to market its country code extension as a generic domain name was the tiny island nation Tuvulu, which runs the .tv registry.  Although .tv names have been available for a decade and have been marketed by VeriSign for online video content, the .tv extension is not among the 10 most popular country code top-level domains.

"I think .tv is starting to get some traction," LaPlante says. "But .me's appeal is more immediate and a lot more obvious to people...It should sell well into the millions. And it has corporate appeal not just for TV stations, which are limited in number."

Companies will need to pay a sizeable sum for a .me name. The retail price for .me names range from 110 to 200 Euros per year for a minimum of five years. That equals $825 to $1,500 for the five-year registration.

In contrast, .com names cost around $10 per year, and .tv names cost around $18 per year.

Companies can reserve .me names from more than 60 domain name registrars.  Anyone can register a .me name from 6 June through 26 June. The .me registry is scheduled to go live on July 17.

Email A Friend

Email this article to a friend or colleague:



PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

<<prev article | back to news index | next article>>

Latest News


More news...