The Lowdown

Welcome to the 
The Lowdown from 
DN Journal - your source for notable news and information from all corners of the global domain name industry! 

The Lowdown is compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher 
Ron Jackson.

The Internet Commerce Association Brought the Domain Industry to Broadway With Special Event in New York City

The Internet Commerce Association (ICA), the rapidly growing non-profit organization that fights to protect domain owner's rights, took another giant step forward last week in New York City. The organization has played an invaluable role in bringing domain professionals from around the world together face to face through their Annual Member Meetings held every January in Las Vegas. This year, for the first time, the ICA took their mission another step ahead with an exclusive member gathering and fundraiser held in the Big Apple May 19 & 20.

The event, purposely limited to 50 attendees to deliver a uniquely intimate experience, began with a special Foodie Tour of some of New York's top restaurants Tuesday evening (May 19). That was followed Wednesday with a full day of business sessions and networking, hosted by Squarespace at their NYC office. Squarespace SVP and General Manager Kevin Doerr (below) recently joined the ICA's Board of Directors and he was delighted to welcome ICA leaders and many of their most dedicated members to the landmark event.

Above: One of the many highlights Wednesday was the appearance of Larry Fischer and his son and business partner Jeff on stage to talk about how they closed the biggest domain sale in history last year (publicly revealed this year), AI.com at $70 million. Larry & Jeff represented the seller while John Mauriello served as the buyer's broker. 
Photo credits: All photos in this article are courtesy of the ICA unless noted otherwise.

Above: Another informative discussion centered on how to Monetize Domains Without Selling. It featured, left to right, Richard Lau (Logo.com), Braden Pollock (Legal Brand Markeing.com), Inderpreet Singh (D3) and Nena Hajakhani (Sedo). 

Below: Attendees were also treated to an encore from Larry Fischer who joined his friend and fellow Super Broker Andrew Miller (ATMHoldings.com), at left,  to talk about closing High Value Sales - a topic this duo knows intimately well after closing many of the biggest transaction on record. In sales reported so far this year, Andrew has already been credited with the $10 million sale of Club.com and the $7.5 million sale of Green.com.

Above: There was also a bittersweet moment in New York that was of extraordinary significance for the ICA. Since the founding day of the organization back in 2006, Sedo General Counsel Jeremiah Johnston (seen here with ICA Executive Director Kamila Sekiewicz) has represented the company on the ICA's Board of Directors. Jeremiah deserves enormous credit for helping develop the ICA into the indispensable industry advocate that it is today. He will be leaving Sedo at the end of this month and will step down from the ICA Board at the same time. 

Appreciative members in New York let Jeremiah know how much they appreciated his tireless efforts on behalf of the organization. On LinkedIn today, Jeremiah wrote, "A wonderful 20th anniversary celebration from the Internet Commerce Association last week in NYC — big thanks to Kamila Sekiewicz, Zak Muscovitch, Tiffany Mark, Jeanette Lalande, and the team at Squarespace for putting together such a memorable event. It was a great time surrounded by some of the domain industry's brightest minds, and I'm truly grateful for the thoughtful gift marking the close of my time on the board. The domain industry is in great hands! 

Indeed it is, as attendees at the ICA NYC gathering (seen in this "class photo" from Board Member Ryan McKegney) will surely attest!

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OpusDNS Adds Domain Monetization Solution With Acquisition of fruits.co

Just seven months after being launched by domain industry pioneers in October, OpusDNS GmbH has announced a key acquisition. The company, founded by Hakan Ali and Robbie Birkner, revealed the acquisition of fast growing domain monetization platform fruits.co, a company founded by Dr. Fabian Heuschele four years ago this month. In the announcement, OpenDNS noted that the move is a clear signal that "the future of the domain market lies in open, innovative platforms and not in closed, technologically outdated systems."

Since its launch as a forward-thinking new domain registrar, OpusDNS has attracted 350 partners that were drawn to its registrar and management infrastructure. With fruits.co OpenDNS adds a monetization solution that has

gained ground with a focus on performance, revenue optimization, and continuous development. Together, OpusDNS and fruits.co represent a portfolio of several million domains.

Robbie Birkner added, "We do not see ourselves as a traditional competitor. Rather, our ambition is to complement and extend existing ecosystems, equipping our partners with the tools they need to unlock greater value.” 

‍Both platforms will remain operational and continue to be managed independently, benefiting from shared expertise, a focused product strategy, and enhanced innovation capabilities.   

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Nordic Domain Days Founder Details How His Team Plans to Set a New Standard at 2026 Event Next Week in Stockholm

Update: This event ran smoothly and exceeded all expectations. Our complete start to finish review has now been published as a DNJournal Cover story.

After hosting their landmark 10th anniversary show last year, Nordic Domain Days is embarking on a new decade next week. From day one, the scope of the popular spring time event in Stockholm has continually expanded under the direction of Founder & Curator Lars "LG" Forsberg. So much so that people now come from around the world to see what is happening in that vibrant region. It's a rare once a year opportunity to meet the movers and shakers in one place - a place that also happens to be one of the most scenic on earth.

With its 10-year track record, you might think you know what to expect next week but if we learned anything from NDD and LG, it's that standing still in unacceptable. To get the inside story we connected with LG to find out what's ahead for attendees next week.

"Last year was special," LG began. "Over 400 people from 55 countries came to Stockholm to celebrate ten years of Nordic Domain Days, and it would have been easy to rest on that. Instead, we took the energy from 2025 and asked ourselves: what if we just keep going? The theme for 2026 is "Turning it up to 11," a nod to the Spinal Tap scene where the amp dial goes one past ten. It captures exactly where we are."

"This year we have expanded to a full two-day program. Monday is our Business Day, covering the Domain Industry Update, the Future of the Internet, and an expanded Domain Investment segment curated by Giuseppe Graziano with three back-to-back panels. Tuesday, the main stage is dedicated to Policy, Legal and Abuse in the morning, followed by our Tech! segment in the afternoon. We have introduced Master Classes on Tuesday morning (two deep-dive hands-on sessions running alongside the main stage), and the DNS Abuse Workshop returns for its fifth year in partnership with eco and topDNS.

"The things people come back for have not changed. The format is still physical-only, no streaming, no recording. We still cap attendance around 450 because we believe the quality of conversations in the 

Lars "LG" Forsberg
NDD Founder & Curator 

hallway are as important as the ones on stage. The Welcome Drinks on Sunday night, the VIP Dinner, the Monday evening Meatball Dinner and the Grand Social Event with live music on stage, the Farewell Dinner on Tuesday, the karaoke, and yes, the tattoos…These are all part of what makes NDD feel less like a conference and more like a reunion."

"What is new beyond the program is the scale of the production. We have more partners than ever (over 50 organizations supporting the event), more speakers (35+ stage appearances across both days), and registrations are running ahead of last year. We are more or less sold out since a few weeks back, only releasing cancelled tickets."

With those comments, the interview was just getting started. Here is the rest of the conversation:

DNJournal: This is shaping up to be a landmark year for the domain industry. We are in a booming aftermarket and of course a long-awaited round of new gTLD applications has now opened. What are some of the sessions and who are some of the featured speakers who will be in Stockholm to talk about these and other timely topics?

LG Forsberg: "The new round is a big topic for us. Raymond King, CEO of Porkbun, is on stage Monday morning with a session specifically on the 2026 round. Theresa Swinehart, SVP Global Domains and Strategy at ICANN, delivers a keynote, and Aysegul Tekce from ICANN follows with a deeper session on the expansion of domain names. Stuart Dinnes, Head of Channel EMEA at Verisign, rounds out the morning with a look at domain name industry trends and drivers.   

On the investment and aftermarket side, Giuseppe Graziano has put together a strong afternoon with three panel sessions devoted to Domain Investment.

(Left to right): Alan Shiflett (GoDaddy), Braden Pollock (Legal Brand Marketing) and Giuseppe Graziano (GGRG.com) during a live edition of The Breakfast Club at NDD last year. 

The Breakfast Club podcast will return to the stage next week, followed by a panel on what decades in the domain business teach you, featuring Monte Cahn from RightOfTheDot, Kimberly Darwin, Yiqiu Tao from Dynadot, and Dave Evanson from Sedo. The third panel tackles domain monetization with Rickard Vikstrom from DomainCrawler, Paul Dinin from Giant Panda, James Tuplin from Above.com and Claus Barche from Taku by GMO.  

On the policy and abuse side, Keith Drazek from Verisign and Bertrand de la Chapelle from the Internet and Jurisdiction Policy Network open Tuesday with an update on the Internet Infrastructure Forum. Thomas Rickert from eco covers NIS2, ICANN's DNS Abuse Mitigation PDP, and what comes next. Rowena Schoo from NetBeacon Institute, Prudence Malinki from MarkMonitor, and Henry Chan from the Trusted Notifier Network add depth to what is probably the strongest policy lineup we have had.  

The Tech! segment on Tuesday afternoon, hosted by Ulrich Wisser from ICANN, has seven sessions running from DNSSEC automation to Anycast DNS operations to dangling DNS threats. And our two Master Classes cover crypto agility (DigiCert and Excedo Networks) and AI tools for domain investors (Alan Shiflett, GoDaddy).  

The common thread is practical, honest content. We do not do sales pitches on stage. Every speaker is there to share something the audience can take home and use.

LG Forsberg welcoming at full house at NDD 2025 last year in Stockholm.

DNJournal: Alongside the extraordinary line up of speakers and sessions, Stockholm itself is a big reason people that NDD has flourished. What kind of networking and local flavor experiences will be part of NDD 2026?

LG Forsberg: Stockholm in late May is hard to beat. The sun barely sets, temperatures are above 20 degrees Celsius, and the city comes alive. The venue, Clarion Hotel Stockholm, is in Sodermalm, the part of the city with the best restaurants, bars, and atmosphere.  

The social program is where NDD really separates itself. Sunday evening starts with Welcome Drinks in the Living Room Bar, followed by the VIP Dinner (a three-course seated affair), and then .blog Sunday Night Live with karaoke on the main stage. Monday after the program wraps, we have After Work drinks, the traditional Meatball Dinner (yes, Swedish meatballs every year, and you always eat too many!), and then the Grand Social Event with live music acts performing on the main stage. I will keep the lineup as a surprise, but if people were at NDD 2025 with Dr. Alban and Gunther, they know we do not do things halfway. Tuesday closes with a Farewell Dinner, this year a Swedish Taco Buffe.

Live music will be a big part of NDD's social program again this year.

Throughout the event, there is the NameSRS Arcade Lounge, the NDD Pinball Corner, the VIP Lounge hosted by Hello Registry, our meeting spaces, and of course, something we do not advertise ahead of time but has become one of the most talked-about traditions at NDD. I will leave it at that.  

The real magic is the format itself. By keeping everyone under one roof, at one hotel, eating together, socializing together, and staying together, the connections happen naturally. There is no running between halls, no competing side events, no splitting the group. That is by design and it is the single most important thing we do.

DNJournal: While domains are a global platform, every region has their unique characteristics. What is the current  domain business environment like in the Nordic countries (and for their respective ccTLDs)?

LG Forsberg: The Nordics are in an interesting position. The ccTLDs common here (.se, .dk, .fi, .no, .is, and .nu) are mature, well-run, and trusted. They are not the fastest-growing TLDs in the world, but they are among the most stable. Internetstiftelsen, which operates .se and .nu, continues to invest heavily in DNS infrastructure, security, and research. They are one of our partners this year, and Kristian Ormen from their team opens the program on Monday with a session on thick versus thin registries, which ties directly into a major structural change they are implementing for .se.  

What is distinctive about the Nordic domain market is the trust factor. Consumers and businesses in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland have high trust in their local ccTLDs. A .se domain carries weight in a way that is hard to replicate with a generic extension. At the same time, the registrar landscape is competitive and innovative. Companies like Loopia, Oderland, and NameISP are pushing modern, user-friendly approaches to domain management.  

The broader trend we see is that the Nordic domain community punches well above its weight internationally. Netnod runs some of the most critical DNS infrastructure in the world from Stockholm. The DNS Abuse conversation that is shaping global policy has strong Nordic voices. And the investment and aftermarket side, while smaller than the US market, is sophisticated and growing.  

NDD itself reflects this. We started as a Nordic event, but today over 75% of our attendees come from outside the Nordic countries. The Nordics gave us the foundation, the values, and the meatballs. The world showed up for the rest!

(Posted May 19, 2026) To refer others to the post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
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Today's 10th Anniversary of Armenia's IDN Shows How Domains Can Become a Source of National Pride 

We posted an article Monday about worldwide domain registrations nearing the 400 million mark. That is an astounding number - one that will become a reality because people around the globe have discovered the countless ways domains can be used to create something long-lasting and meaningful that is accessible to anyone, anywhere with just the click of mouse. In many cases domains become a point of national pride - something we are seeing today as Armenian celebrates the 10th anniversary of .հայ  - the nation's native language IDN (internationalized domain name). 

ICANN approved the TLD on April 26, 2016 and it was launched for public use on May 5, 2016 by the administrator - Internet Society of Armenia (ISOC

Armenia), the organizatiuon that also oversees Armenia's .AM country code top level domain.

As noted in an article at ArmenianDomains.com,"The introduction of the .հայ domain was intended to encourage the visibility of online content and websites in the Armenian language and script, helping Armenian entities establish a unique online presence that mirrors their cultural and linguistic heritage. Many Armenian websites using the .AM ccTLD have also acquired their .հայ equivalent either to use as a separate website in the native language of Armenia or forward the domain to their .AM website."

More insight into  the impact that a native script TLD like .հայ came from a recent meeting of Armernian leaders devoted to growing the TLD's user base and drawing more attention to Armenian langiage content online. In that discussion, Kristina Hakobyan, Board Vice Chair of the Internet Society NGO, emphasized that Armenian, as one of the world’s oldest languages with its own distinct alphabet, deserves a strong presence in the global digital environment. She said, "Expanding opportunities for online communication in Armenian not only helps preserve national identity, but also addresses practical needs by improving internet accessibility for wider segments of society." 

Last year's 9th anniversary celebration of the the first registration in the Armenian-script .հայ included a festive flashmob featuring a performance by “Karin” Folk, Song and Dance Group. It was organized by Internet Society NGO – the manager of both .am and .հայ domains. 
(Photo courtesy of ISOC.AM)

With the 10th anniversary approaching, the March 2026 meeting was also scheduled with an eye on a Universal Acceptance Day event that was held soon after on March 31st in Yerevan. On that topic Kristina noted that Armenia’s participation in the global Universal Acceptance movement marked a significant milestone in this effort. The initiative seeks to guarantee that all languages and domain names are fully recognized and supported across the internet. Siranush Dvoyan, Chair of the Language Committee of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia, also took part and presented the Language Committee’s efforts to advance the digital transformation of Armenian, broaden the scope of Armenian-language content online and enhance its overall quality. She stressed the importance of effective collaboration between government institutions and professional organizations to expand the use of Armenian in the digital sphere. 

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Worldwide Domain Name Registrations Nearing the 400 Million Mark After a Healthy 1st Quarter Detailed in Latest Verisign Industry Brief 

VeriSign, (the administrator of the .com and .net TLDs) has released their latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) covering the 1st quarter of 2026. This update showed that the total number of domain registrations across all TLDs worldwide ended the most recent quarter at 392.5 million. With 24.1 million domains added over the past year, that reprsents a healthy 6.5% leap year over year. As a point of comparison, at the end of Q1-2025 total domains registered had only risen 1.7% from the previous year. 

.Com, by far, the dominant TLD on the Internet, ended the latest quarter with 163.6 million registered domains, up 6.4 million YOY, representing a 4% increase. .Net went the opposite direction with a slight dip from 12.6 million registrations last year to 12.4 million at the end of 1Q-2026.

ccTLDs finished the latest quarter with 146.3million registrations, 3.4 million more than a year ago, representing a 2.4% increase YOY. New gTLDs, working from a smaller user base, were able to pile up more impressive gains percentage wise. With 49.6 million registrations at the end of 1Q-2026, the new G's were up a whopping 31.3% after adding 11.8 milliion domains over the past year.

For legacy gTLDs not including .com and .net (a group dominated by .org that also includes older TLDs that were released prior to the beginning of ICANN's new gTLD program in 2012 like .info and .biz), registrations stood at 20.5 million at the end of the latest quarter, up 2.6 million domains from a year ago. That gave this group a double digit increase of 14.6% year over year.

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