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United Domains

Organization
Type Commercial
Focus Internet, Registrar
Region EUR
Country
  • Germany
City Gautinger Str. 10, 82319 Starnberg
Founded 2000
Founders Markus Eggensperger
Alexander Helm
Johann Hermann
Florian Huber
Nikolai Tiedemann
Websites

united-domains is a Germany-based domain name registrar with its headquarter in Starnberg, near Munich. The company was founded in 2000 and it was subsidiary of Lycos Europe from 2004 till 2008. Since 2009 it became part of United Internet.

History[edit | edit source]

united-domains was founded in August 2000 by a young team of software developers, marketing and legal experts. Markus Eggensperger, Alexander Helm, Johann Hermann, Florian Huber and Nikolai Tiedemann are the founders of the company.[1]

In 2003, united-domains opened a subsidiary, dopoly GmbH, to focus on reseller customers. Since 2011 it operates under the name of united-domains Reselling GmbH.

In 2004, Lycos Europe took over united-domains for an non-disclosed amount of money.

In 2009, united-domains was purchased by United Internet AG for 34 million Euro.[2]

In 2010, namecheck.com was officially launched.[3]

In 2011, united-domains opened a subsidiary, United Domains Inc, in Cambridge, MA to address the US market. In the same year united-domains started to collect non-binding pre-registrations for new gTLDs, and held the newdomains conference for the first time.

In 2013, united-domains held the newdomains conference for the second and last time.

In 2014, united-domains became the market leader in the European market for new gTLDs.[4] This changed over time with others pushing more into this market.

In 2015, united-domains celebrated its 15th anniversary.[5]

In 2016, united-domains won an Award for the best customer care service in Germany.[6]

In 2017, united-domains won the Readers' Choice Hosting Award in Gold.[7]

In 2018, Alexander Helm took over from long-term CEO Florian Huber. united-domains won the Readers' Choice Hosting Award in Platin.[8] Tobias Sattler was appointed as a new board member.[9]

Board[edit | edit source]

Board Members: Markus Eggensperger and Maximilian Burianek[10]

Products & Services[edit | edit source]

united-domains is an ICANN accredited registrar and supports more than 700 TLDs. Besides that it also offers web hosting and email services.

Industry Participation[edit | edit source]

united-domains was a silver sponsor at ICANN Silicon Valley[11] and ICANN Singapore.[12]

united-domains has also sponsored the .nxt conference on new gTLDs[13] and hosted its own conference on new gTLDs in September, 2011, the newdomains conference. Afilias was the top sponsor of the event, which was held in Munich, Germany, and timed to coincide with that city's famous Oktoberfest celebrations. In 2013 they hosted the conference again [14].

Business[edit | edit source]

united-domains Network includes:

Controversy[edit | edit source]

Starting March, 2011, united-domains has also started the pre-registration of the new TLDs such as .sfo, .berlin, .nyc, .web, .eco, .shop, .gay, .med, .xxx, .hotel, .film, .music, which seem likely to be introduced by ICANN in 2012.[15] This was generally received as misleading and unethical, given that no new TLDs had been applied for, accepted, or delegated yet. However, its "sale" of such domains is not complete, given that they are not charging or taking credit card information at this point. It seems it is a strategy mainly built around preparing and attracting customers, though some registrars in the industry see it as foul-play that confuses customers.[16]

In January, 2012, an unknown perpetrator registered over 500 accounts with united-domains' US domain registration system. The person used emails from representatives of registrars in direct competition with united-domains and also individuals active in ICANN's GAC. The prank was identified after each individual was sent a welcome message from the US registrar's system.[17]

References[edit | edit source]

Retrieved from "https://icannwiki.org/index.php?title=United_Domains&oldid=1372239"
... more about "United Domains"
RDF feed
Date foundedStores the date that an object was founded, normalized to the "Month DD, YYYY" format.
2000 +
Has ICANN regionAssociates an object with an ICANN-determined Geographic Region.
EUR +
Has cityStores the city associated with an object. This value does not get normalized.
Gautinger Str. 10, 82319 Starnberg +
Has countryAssociates a page with a country. Territory names are extracted from ISO 3166, "Country Codes".
Germany +
Has entity typeSpecifies the primary classification or fundamental type of the page's subject (e.g., Event, Organization, Person).
Organization +
Has focusAssociates an object with a focus theme. Not normalized.
Internet, Registrar +
Has organization typeAssociates an organization with its organizational or legal type (e.g., Non-profit, Government agency, Commercial).
Commercial +