Dear CPWG members, Greetings. Many thanks Chubasco M. Diranga for the mail in the trace. Please see the attached certificate of my related work in the design and development of trust layer. I am working further. Sincerely, Gopal T V 0 9840121302 https://vidwan.inflibnet.ac.in/profile/57545 https://www.facebook.com/gopal.tadepalli ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr. T V Gopal Retired Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering & Retired Director, Centre for Applied Research in Indic Technologies [CARIT] College of Engineering, Guindy Campus Anna University Chennai - 600 025, INDIA Ph : (Off) 22351723 Extn. 3340 (Res) 24454753 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ________________________________ From: Chubasco Diranga <alpharulz@gmail.com> Sent: 08 January 2026 07:54 To: gopal <gopal@annauniv.edu> Cc: CPWG <cpwg@icann.org>; jmcc@hosterstats.com <jmcc@hosterstats.com> Subject: Re: [CPWG] Re: The local gTLD markets for some ICANN regions and the 2026 round of new gTLDs Subject ________________________________ Dear John, CPWG colleagues, Thank you for the detailed data and analysis. The figures you shared clearly illustrate two structural realities that many regions—particularly AF and Pacific Island countries—continue to face: 1. the absence or scarcity of locally accredited ICANN registrars, and 2. the loss of meaningful market visibility following GDPR and WHOIS/RDAP changes. In many small or developing markets, expecting registrar accreditation as the primary path to local gTLD ecosystem development is neither realistic nor cost-effective. At the same time, relying on WHOIS/RDAP fields to understand local markets is increasingly unreliable due to privacy and proxy services. A practical complementary approach may be to introduce a Trusted Local Business Verification Layer, operating alongside (not instead of) registrars and registries. In simple terms, this would be a Trusted Local Business Register managed by recognised local institutions (e.g. chambers of commerce, SME authorities, ICT regulators), which verifies legitimate local entities independently of WHOIS data. Registrars and registries—particularly new gTLD applicants in the 2026 round—could voluntarily reference this verification to: * demonstrate genuine local market engagement, * distinguish legitimate local use from speculative registrations, and * partially restore market visibility lost through privacy regimes, without exposing personal data. Such a model does not require ICANN registrar accreditation, does not alter existing contractual frameworks, and is GDPR-safe by design. It may be especially relevant in AF and Pacific regions where reseller models dominate and local hosting ecosystems are still emerging. From a CPWG perspective, this kind of locally governed verification layer could: * support underserved-region applicants in the 2026 round, * provide better post-WHOIS market signals, and * strengthen public-interest justifications without adding regulatory burden. I believe this approach aligns well with CPWG’s focus on practical market realities and could be explored as a voluntary best practice or pilot concept rather than a policy mandate. Kind regards, Chubasco M. Diranga CPWG Participant Papua New Guinea / Pacific Region “Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.” On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 2:03 PM gopal via CPWG <cpwg@icann.org<mailto:cpwg@icann.org>> wrote: John, Many thanks. The Public Comment on String Similarity Guidelines is being reviewed. I am one of the four volunteers with this task. Your mail in the trace provides some good pointers. Gopal T V 0 9840121302 https://vidwan.inflibnet.ac.in/profile/57545 https://www.facebook.com/gopal.tadepalli ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr. T V Gopal Retired Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering & Retired Director, Centre for Applied Research in Indic Technologies [CARIT] College of Engineering, Guindy Campus Anna University Chennai - 600 025, INDIA Ph : (Off) 22351723 Extn. 3340 (Res) 24454753 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ________________________________ From: John McCormac via CPWG <cpwg@icann.org<mailto:cpwg@icann.org>> Sent: 08 January 2026 03:13 To: CPWG <cpwg@icann.org<mailto:cpwg@icann.org>> Subject: [CPWG] The local gTLD markets for some ICANN regions and the 2026 round of new gTLDs One of the problems with the gTLDs compared to ccTLDs is the lack of registrars. This means that much of the registration activity in gTLDs will be done via non-local registrars. That's the more well-known side of the problem. The less well known side is the sizes of the local gTLD web hosting industries. Every month, I run a website IP/country/usage tracking survey of all gTLD domain names and websites for the HosterStats Web Hosting Providers report. Along with the country of the gTLD website, it identifies the web hosting provider of each website and the general usage category (active/hold/parking/sales/redirect) of the gTLDs. It also tracks over 30 million ccTLD domain names in the same survey. The numbers of web hosting providers active in each country are in the report. These are the gTLD website figures for the gTLD markets in the ICANN AF region from the December 2025 report. They are the numbers of locally hosted gTLD websites. Most countries in the region host more of their gTLDs outside their country's Internet infrastructure. Cote d'Ivoire has a major South African provider using its IP space. Large numbers of IP addresses that were allocated to the Seychelles and Mauritius were acquired and repurposed for use outside the AF region. In the lists published by the RIRs, these IPs appear as SC or MU IPs despite being used in other countries. The survey methodology accoounts for that as it identifies the web hosting provider and its country. Local gTLD Website markets December 2025 - AF Region Region - Country - cc -gTLD websites AF South Africa ZA 568,129 AF Cote d'Ivoire CI 16,496 AF Kenya KE 15,700 AF Seychelles SC 7,952 AF Tunisia TN 5,474 AF Egypt EG 5,005 AF Morocco MA 4,336 AF Algeria DZ 1,716 AF Nigeria NG 1,598 AF Libya LY 1,444 AF Mauritius MU 780 AF Namibia NA 692 AF Ghana GH 425 AF Mali ML 384 AF Tanzania TZ 347 AF Senegal SN 321 AF Ethiopia ET 293 AF Uganda UG 265 AF Angola AO 229 AF Rwanda RW 216 AF Zimbabwe ZW 199 AF Mozambique MZ 195 AF Congo (Dem. Rep.) CD 182 AF Malawi MW 174 AF Cameroon CM 157 AF Botswana BW 91 AF Madagascar MG 79 AF Togo TG 81 AF Zambia ZM 73 AF Somalia SO 73 AF Benin BJ 40 AF Sudan SD 40 AF Guinea GN 34 AF Swaziland SZ 38 AF Equatorial Guinea GQ 34 AF Burkina Faso BF 31 AF Cape Verde CV 28 AF Congo (Rep.) CG 25 AF Gabon GA 16 AF Liberia LR 18 AF Niger NE 15 AF Lesotho LS 14 AF Burundi BI 12 AF South Sudan SS 9 AF Djibouti DJ 7 AF Mauritania MR 6 AF Gambia GM 5 AF Sierra Leone SL 5 AF Chad TD 5 AF Guinea-Bissau GW 4 AF Central African Republic CF 1 AF Eritrea ER 1 AF Comoros KM 1 AF Sao Tome and Principe ST 1 Some of these countries have more gTLD websites hosted outside their country's Internet infrastructure and South Africa hosts a lot of websites from other AF region countries. Large transnational registrars and web hosting providers are active in some of these markets. The focus in some is on the local ccTLD. The normal web hosting market in a developed market is Registries - Registrars - Reseller. (3R model) A lot of the operators at each level are local in a developed market. Due to the complexities and costs of acquiring ICANN registrar accreditation, the ccTLD registrar accreditation is often easier and cheaper to acquire. Thus more resellers become accredited ccTLD registrars while outsourcing their gTLD registrations to large registrars who provide registrations as a service (reseller accounts). There is a missing tier (ICANN registrars) in some of the countries which may be interested in the 2026 round of new gTLDs. With the mess created by the European Commission with GDPR and the destruction of WHOIS, it is more difficult (though not impossible) to measure country level markets at a hosting service provider (domain name registrations) level because the country of the registrant is often obscured or wrong (WHOIS Privacy). This means that commonly quoted figures simply relying on WHOIS/RDAP country fields are often badly skewed in favour of the country of WHOIS privacy providers. Providing support for potential applicants for the 2026 round is a good idea. It is important that these applicants understand their markets and the domain name business. The key part of that is selling domain names. 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