Who needs new gTLDs when you can grab your own ccTLD!
Last year I noticed a trend in the ccTLD world, with a lot of governments and interest groups taking an interest in governance of their namespaces.
AFNIC, which runs .fr and several other cctlds, came under review from the French government.
Less than a year later the French government has put the registry management out to tender.
Interested parties have 52 days from the announcement, which was made on January 15th, to submit their proposals.
The winning bidder will get the contract for an initial period of 7 years.
So who is likely to place a bid?
Presumably AFNIC, who currently manage the namespace, will be in there, but there are bound to be others. Antony Van Couvering hints at COCCA making a play for it, while Afilias and several others may also be interested in getting a pitch in.
