With the Sunrise phase approaching for .africa on June 2, the .africa registry is expecting a rush to register domains in the first TLD for all of Africa.

Europe has long had its own TLD, .eu, and Asia has had .asia since 2007, but the most diverse continent and a possible future economic powerhouse, Africa has long been without a TLD to call its own.

While country code TLDs have been assigned to all countries since the inception of the internet, the average price of a ccTLD in Africa is around $250. That means in many parts of Africa, representing one’s local or cultural pride is unattainable for many small businesses and even most individuals. Africa has seen some TLDs targeting cities, regions, or countries, called geoTLDs, such as .durban, and .joburg, since the opening of the new gTLDs, but these had very narrow market appeal outside of South Africa specifically. The entire African diaspora, and beyond, has a potential interest in acquiring .africa domains.

With the African population alone representing a potential market of more than a million domain name consumers, competition for sought-after .africa domains could get heated.

This one could be a big one.

So if you are the owner of a trademark, don’t wait until someone else has registered it to get your .africa domain. There’s still time to register your trademark with Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) and register your domains in the Sunrise phase.

Gandi’s Corporate services team is ready to help you with this process. Just contact them using the online contact form.