.swiss: more than just a domain ending

The Internet Cor­por­a­tion for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have been re­spons­ible for awarding new generic top level domains (gTLDs) since 2013. After years of de­vel­op­ment and extensive tests, central re­gis­tries like BAKOM have gradually gained access to these modern domain endings, which promote com­pet­i­tion and diversity in the internet’s address system. Besides .swiss, these new gTLDs include thematic endings such as .hotel and .res­taur­ant, as well as geo­graph­ic­al endings like .miami or .quebec. In 2015, ICANN released .swiss, kicking off their new campaign. The in­tro­duct­ory phase resulted in 6,628 domain names being dis­trib­uted, primarily to public limited companies (PLC) and private limited companies (LTD). These companies took 58% and 15% of the domain names re­spect­ively. Since the official launch, domain re­gis­tries have received over ten thousand further ap­plic­a­tions for the .swiss domain ending. The release of such a TLD takes places within 20 days, assuming there’s no com­pet­i­tion from another ap­plic­a­tion, or any other kind of re­stric­tions to the desired internet address.

In­tro­du­cing a new TLD is by no means an attempt by Switzer­land’s domain re­gis­tries to replace the country-specific domain ending, .ch. With around two million web addresses re­gistered under this domain ending, the standard .ch is among the world’s most popular country TLDs, relative to Switzer­land’s pop­u­la­tion. This means that Swiss companies are running out of options for new .ch addresses - es­pe­cially highly coveted, short and snappy ones. The .swiss domain thus offers or­gan­isa­tions and busi­nesses new options when it comes to choosing web addresses, enabling them to create a domain that both indicates their defining features whilst also high­light­ing their Swiss location. This also promises to increase brand awareness beyond its borders, where Switzer­land’s strong position on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage often plays a critical role in building a good repu­ta­tion for its exports. To guarantee the high standard of new generic TLDs in the long-term, BAKOM uses the following three factors:

• Ex­clus­iv­ity: those applying for a .swiss web address should be able to demon­strate some kind of con­nec­tion to the country. Re­gis­ter­ing for this domain without an office or physical base in Switzer­land is not possible. Ad­di­tion­ally, busi­nesses and sole pro­pri­et­or­ships must be listed in the Swiss com­mer­cial register (although this does not ne­ces­sar­ily apply to found­a­tions and as­so­ci­ations). In­di­vidu­als are not permitted to file for an ap­plic­a­tion.

• Pri­or­it­ising public in­sti­tu­tions and trademark owners: public bodies and trademark owners were given pref­er­en­tial treatment during the in­tro­duct­ory phase. BAKOM retains this approach and offers companies the option to make claims during the 20-day grace period that is necessary for val­id­at­ing the requested domain. Another pre­requis­ite is that requested names must have some tangible relation to the applicant and their business model. 

• Ex­cep­tions for generic names: generic domain names like chocolate.swiss or sport.swiss are subject to special pro­tec­tion. These can only be used for the overall benefit of the wider community and must therefore represent all or a sizeable portion or the persons concerned. BAKOM allocates such generic addresses by way of a mandate. You can find a list of examples, as well as extensive in­form­a­tion on applying for a mandate here.

If your as­so­ci­ation or business satisfies the specified re­quire­ments for a .swiss domain, you can use this as an op­por­tun­ity to snap up an exclusive web address. As a registry operator, BAKOM has au­thor­ised many re­gis­tries to dis­trib­ute the new generic top-level domain. Fees vary between providers and fluctuate between 110 and 190 Swiss francs per year. This price tag ensures .swiss ranks among the more expensive domain endings, which is doubtless due to the ex­clus­iv­ity and high quality of the domain ending. On the official homepage, dot.swiss, you can find an overview of the ac­cred­ited re­gis­tries and resellers that offer the .swiss domain.