More than a decade ago, the U.S. government privatized the responsibility to issue domain names. The Los Angeles, California based non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) assumed the responsibility to coordinate. The site is funded by the registration fees collected and the non-profit charges $185,000 to evaluate each application. The Icann is getting ready to issue 1,400 new suffixes in mid-2013. This is the main expansion since 2004.
Major companies such as Google and Amazon.com as well as little known companies such as Donuts are interested in new domain name suffixes. Donuts spent more than $56 million to apply for 307 suffixes before the May 2012 deadline to apply. Google is applying for 99 while Amazon.com is applying for 76 new suffixes. It is a lucrative business. Speculators including Google, Amazon.com and Donuts can charge a fee to issue new licenses for businesses once they get a new suffix. If more than one applies for a suffix, the highest bidder will get the rights.
Expect to see new suffixes such as .mortgage, .dentist, .app, .law, and .financial in the near future. One of biggest problems is cybersquatting, a practice of blocking competitors through domain names and creating look-alike web sites designed fool consumers.