Free State of Bavaria awards contract for application, marketing and operation of the new top-level domain
Munich, January 17, 2012: The IT Commissioner of the Bavarian State Government, Franz Josef Pschierer, has awarded Bayern Connect GmbH the contract for “.BAYERN”. The Munich-based company will handle the application for the new top-level domain (TLD) with the Internet authority ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
In June 2011, ICANN, the organization responsible for the domain name system on the Internet, decided to allow freely selectable terms as TLDs. Since the introduction of the World Wide Web, it has been possible for the first time for any interested party, including federal states, to apply for their own TLD. The Free State of Bavaria was one of the first governments in the world to opt for its own TLD and the first federal state to select an applicant for the ICANN process.
“It is important for us to have a partner who has the necessary expertise to successfully complete the registration process with ICANN and who will ensure proper marketing of the domain following the application process. It is also important to us that the interests of the Free State of Bavaria are safeguarded and that the “.BAYERN” domain is operated for the benefit of the general public. Bayern Connect GmbH’s concept met these requirements perfectly,” said State Secretary of Finance Franz Josef Pschierer, IT Commissioner of the Bavarian State Government, explaining the decision.
“The high-caliber team at Bayern Connect GmbH has been working for years on the successful implementation of the complex application process at ICANN. We are therefore delighted that this intensive preparatory work has also convinced the Free State of Bavaria. We will now do everything we can to ensure that Bavaria has its own home on the global Internet,” says Caspar von Veltheim, Managing Director of Bayern Connect GmbH. ICANN is expected to delegate the “.BAYERN” TLD to Bayern Connect GmbH at the beginning of 2013. Interested parties will then be able to purchase a domain ending in “.BAYERN” regardless of their location. The addresses will be allocated on a non-discriminatory basis according to the “first come, first served” principle.
About Bayern Connect GmbH:
Bayern Connect GmbH was founded in 2009 by Managing Director
Caspar von Veltheim. The focus of the business model is the marketing and operation of “.BAYERN”. In January 2012, the Munich-based company received the mandate from the Free State of Bavaria to operate and market this new top-level domain.
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