ICM Registry develop .xxx ‘brand’
Smut surfers may soon be officially accommodated on the internet after the suffix .xxx was approved by Icann, the watchdog responsible for allocating top level domains (TLD) such as .co.uk and .com, but is the idea just plain dotty?
Sensing a goldmine British internet entrepreneur Stuart Lawley of ICM Registry has been on a 10 year crusade to win authorisation for the .xxx domain so that legal pornography sites can be structured under a single domain.
Speaking of his plan Lawley said: “I knew of the importance of developing an online “brand” from my Oneview.net days and so was fascinated by the opportunity presented by new TLDs. A carefully thought out TLD could offer significant branding advantages by clearly conveying information about the likely nature or content of the websites registered to the domain.”
Pornography is big business on the internet with domains such as ‘porn.com’ changing hands for as much as $12m. The notion of a separate fenced off pen in the virtual ether hasn’t gone down too well with pornographers however who fret that lawmakers will force the closure of existing porn domains.
Such a move would make it easier to filter sexual content in web searches… and thus lower ad revenues for these sites.
Lawley remains keen on the idea however projecting potential revenue of £20m a year from flogging site addresses at $60 a pop.