Doesn’t See Competition for .XXX — Stuart Lawley

ICM Registry CEO doesn’t expect adult TLDs to be introduced in Fresh TLD round.

Will the fresh top level domains round that opens next year mean competition for the .xxx top level domain name?

Stuart Lawley doesn’t think so.

Lawley, CEO of .xxx registry ICM Registry, doesn’t think domains like .sex will be approved. Yesterday Lawley told the crowd at the TRAFFIC conference in Fort Lauderdale that he thinks some of the fresh objection procedures in the fresh TLD guidebook, along with increased involvement by ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee, will make it hard to get any adult related TLDs through the process.

He stated that if it does happen the applicants ought to be ready for a long and expensive process.

On that note, Lawley has some advice for all fresh TLD applicants: keep your burn rate down. Plan on the process taking three times and long and costing three times as much as you think.

Lawley is speaking from experience; he spent millions over the past 5 years getting .xxx approved.