The top-level domain (TLD) .CITIC (.中信) is a brand TLD and is specifically allocated for CITIC Limited. This Chinese multinational conglomerate holds an extensive portfolio in sectors like financial services, resources and energy, manufacturing, engineering contracting, and real estate, as well as others.
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, under its new program for domain name extension, approved the .CITIC TLD. ICANN’s initiative was to expand the available domain names for cyber branding, cyber business, cyber marketing, and cyber advertising.
Efforts from ICANN have more than quadrupled the number of TLDs from the original 22 to now over 1,200. These include country code TLDs (like .uk, .ca, .us), generic TLDs (like .com, .edu, .org), and brand TLDs (like .google, .apple, And of course, .citic). These new TLDs are taking the internet to a new level of meaning and presence by directly catering to specific businesses, brands, communities, or even locations (source: ICANN).
The .CITIC TLD enables CITIC Limited to better represent their corporate identity digitally and enables them to provide information and services more efficiently to the global community. It enhances brand awareness and ensures that the company has a meaningful and personalized digital identity (source: ICANN).
For example, CITIC bank, a subsidiary of CITIC Limited, could use the .CITIC TLD to better represent their online presence with a personalized domain like www.bank.citic instead of a more general domain like www.citicbank.com.
Contrary to generic TLDs, the new brand TLDs, including .CITIC, aren’t for public registration. Thus, any domain under .CITIC would represent this specific brand, preventing confusion between other banks or industries that might have similar acronyms or abbreviations (source: ICANN).
The brand TLDs, like .CITIC, represent a growing trend of internet domain branding, which signifies a unique transformation in how digital identities are being perceived and operated. These changes make the internet a more structured domain while at the same time opening up new avenues for businesses to create their unique digital space.
Sources:
1. ICANN – New gTLD Current Application Status. https://gtldresult.icann.org/applicationstatus/viewstatus
2. ICANN – New gTLD Program Benefits. https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/about/benefits
3. CITIC Limited. https://www.citic.com
4. ICANN – The Expanding Domain Name System. https://www.icann.org/news/blog/the-expanding-domain-name-system
