The Internet is Evolving; Are Your Systems Keeping Pace?

We would like to welcome the contribution of Mr. Baher Esmat, Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement - Middle East & Managing Director - Middle East & Africa (MEA). This article is the first of a series of articles Mr. Esmat will contribute to our newsletter.

By: Baher Esmat
ICANN Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement - Middle East & Managing Director - Middle East & Africa (MEA)

The introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) into the Internet ecosystem through the New gTLD Program, has enabled the largest expansion of the Domain Name System (DNS). In addition to fostering innovation, competition, and consumer choice in the domain name industry, this expansion has unlocked the potential to reach communities and users around the world that face linguistic barriers to the Internet.

By allowing users to access the Internet in their chosen online identities and local languages (non-ASCII characters and scripts), private sectors, governments, and civil societies have the ability to better serve their communities and take advantage of significant business opportunities. Analysys Mason estimates that there is a potential of USD 9.8 billion in revenue growth to come from both existing users of new gTLDs and new users accessing the Internet through IDNs (i.e. in their local language or script).

Universal Acceptance provides the gateway to the next billion Internet users.

What is Universal Acceptance?
Universal Acceptance (UA) is a fundamental requirement for a truly multilingual and digitally inclusive Internet. UA ensures that all domain names, including long new TLDs and IDNs, and email addresses are treated equally and can be used by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems. Technically, they must accept, validate, store, process, and display all domain names equally, consistently, and correctly.

Until Universal Acceptance is achieved, it is not possible to provide a consistent and positive experience for all Internet users. Please read the recently published UA Readiness Report 2020.

What it Addresses?
Universal Acceptance addresses an issue that prevents some Internet users from successfully completing transactions online. The problem can arise when applications reject or don't treat all parts of the domain name correctly, which can occur if those domain names are longer than three characters (e.g., .photography) or in different languages and scripts (e.g., الاردن. top-level domain for Jordan in the Arabic script).

Why it Matters?
To excel in the long run, organizations and businesses need to ensure that their systems and services will work with the continuously expanding and evolving domain name space. When organizations and businesses are UA-ready, they set themselves up for future success and prospective business growth by supporting their customers' chosen identities.
UA-ready websites, applications, and services lead to better user experiences. When a company is UA-ready, email addresses in any script from any domain name can be used. When a site is UA-ready, it will allow customers with new TLDs and IDNs to successfully use the site and its forms.

Are You EAI-Ready?
Check to see if your mail server advertises support for receiving internationalized email addresses: https://uasg.tech/eai-check/. For more information on UA readiness click here.

About ICANN
ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique, so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.