Add .IN, .BZ and .WS to the list of ccTLDs you can sell through OpenSRS beginning October 8th, 2009. The addition of these new extensions brings the total number of ccTLDs that OpenSRS offers to 22.

Here’s what’s being added:

• .IN (India) – India’s population of over 1.2 billion people represents a huge and increasingly connected market for domains and Internet services. That said, there are no residency requirements for .IN domains and anyone can register one. In addition to second level domains (e.g. example.in), you can also register the following third level domains: co.in, net.in, org.in, firm.in, gen.in, and ind.in. To start things off with a bang, we’re rolling out a .IN promotion at the same time. From launch through to the end of October, .IN domains are just $2.99! Find out more and sign up.
• .WS (Western Samoa/WebSite) – While Western Samoa might not seem like the largest of markets for domain names, the fact that the ccTLD .WS can represent the word WebSite has made .ws domains a fairly popular alternative to other extensions for personal and small business websites. There are no residency requirements for .WS domains.
• .BZ (Belize) – .BZ domains are promoted as an alternative domain extension for businesses. There are no residency requirements for .BZ domains.

The OpenSRS domains wholesale pricing chart has been updated with the costs for the new extensions.

And on a related note:

• .NL (Netherlands) – Effective October 2, 2009, the residency requirements for .NL domain registrations have been effectively removed as the Registry is now providing a local presence for those registrants who don’t have one. Simply submit any non-resident .NL domain registrations as normal, with the correct contact information and we’ll be sure to add the local presence upon submission to the registry.

ccTLDs Growing Strong

The latest VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief was released in September and it highlighted something that we’ve been saying for a while now – Country-Code Top-level domains (ccTLDs) are hot, and getting hotter.

While growth in Generic Top-level domains (gTLDs) has slowed somewhat of late, ccTLDs continue to show impressive growth of 14% year-over-year. With a total of 74.4 million registrations, ccTLDs now represent over 40% of the total domain registrations worldwide.

Taking a look at the top ten TLDs in terms of number of registrations shows half are ccTLDs. In fact, .CN and .DE both out-rank .NET and .ORG!

The numbers add up to this: ccTLDs represent a significant sales opportunity to Resellers. Ignore this trend and you will miss out on a real area with strong growth potential.

We’re continuing to look at ccTLDs and we’re committed to adding more ccTLD options for our Resellers in the future.