.biz

Overview

.biz is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) introduced in 2001 and intended primarily for businesses. The name is a phonetic spelling of the first syllable of "business." It was created to provide an alternative namespace for businesses when desired .com names were unavailable.

Key points:

• Introduced: 2001 (created to relieve demand on .com)
• Intended use: business and commercial entities
• Structure: registrations permitted at the second level

History

• Created in 2001 as part of the first batch of new gTLDs approved by ICANN to expand the Domain Name System.
• Originally administered by Neustar (Neulevel joint venture) and later administered by GoDaddy (Registry Services LLC). Wikipedia notes Neustar administered .biz until 2020; the registry is currently operated by GoDaddy.
• Registry agreements and contract renewals were managed through ICANN; Neustar's contract was extended after its 2012 expiry and renewed in 2013 (per contemporary registry reporting).
• Milestones:
  • June 23, 2008: registry announced it surpassed two million registrations worldwide.
  • 2012: reports indicated more than 2.2 million registrations at the 10-year anniversary.
  • As of 1 January 2022: 1,472,919 registered .biz domains (source: Wikipedia infobox data summary).
• Technical security: .biz launched DNSSEC support (registry-enabled DNS security extensions) on September 8, 2010.

Usage and Audience

• Primary audience: businesses and commercial entities seeking an alternative to .com.
• Actual uses are various; examples include small businesses, community sites and language-specific uses.
• Linguistic and regional uses:
  • In Turkish, "biz" means "we," and some Turkish sites use .biz for native-language phrases (examples in source: turkleriz.biz, fenerliyiz.biz).
  • The unrecognised Republic of Abkhazia has used .biz domains for certain sites where it lacks its own ccTLD.
• Alternative DNS roots: before ICANN approval, .biz-like names existed in alternative DNS roots, which created potential inconsistencies in resolution depending on client DNS configuration.

Registration Rules

• General eligibility: there are no specific legal or geographic qualifications required to register a .biz domain, but registrations must be for "bona fide business or commercial use."
• Restrictions and dispute policy:
  • Registrations can be challenged if the registrant is not a bona-fide commercial entity.
  • Dispute policy: Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) applies.
• Trademark protection process at launch:
  • Instead of a traditional sunrise period, the .biz registry implemented an "IP Claims Service" and a Startup Trademark Opposition Policy (STOP) that allowed trademark owners to file claims and later challenge registrants.
  • That policy led to several trademark-related challenges and some controversial recoveries.
• Registry operational requirements:
  • The registry has required that DNS servers be officially registered with the registry's approved list before a registrar may record the domain in WHOIS, to mitigate conflicts with alternative DNS roots.
• Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs): the .biz registry offers IDN registrations in multiple languages, including Chinese, Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Trademark disputes: the registry's STOP/IP Claims approach resulted in several contested transfers of domains to trademark owners. Notable contested names mentioned in source material include "paint.biz" and "Canadian.biz," the latter of which was later the subject of a court reversal in at least one instance.
• Example uses and regional notes:
  • Turkish-language sites using .biz for the meaning "we" (e.g., turkleriz.biz, fenerliyiz.biz).
  • Use by entities in regions without an assigned ccTLD (example: sites associated with Abkhazia).

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       BIZ

organisation: Registry Services, LLC
address:      100 S. Mill Ave, Suite 1600
address:      Tempe AZ 85281
address:      United States of America (the)

contact:      administrative
name:         IANA Contact
organisation: GoDaddy Registry
address:      100 S. Mill Ave, Suite 1600
address:      Tempe AZ 85281
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1 480-505-8800
fax-no:       +1 480-624-2546
e-mail:       iana@registry.godaddy

contact:      technical
name:         IANA Contact
organisation: GoDaddy Registry
address:      100 S. Mill Ave, Suite 1600
address:      Tempe AZ 85281
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1 480-505-8800
fax-no:       +1 480-624-2546
e-mail:       iana@registry.godaddy

nserver:      A.GTLD.BIZ 156.154.124.65 2001:502:ad09:0:0:0:0:30
nserver:      B.GTLD.BIZ 156.154.125.65
nserver:      C.GTLD.BIZ 156.154.127.65
nserver:      M.GTLD.BIZ 204.74.105.1 2610:a1:3180:0:0:0:0:53
nserver:      N.GTLD.BIZ 204.74.107.1 2610:a1:3280:0:0:0:0:53
nserver:      W.GTLD.BIZ 2001:dcd:1:0:0:0:0:13 37.209.192.13
nserver:      X.GTLD.BIZ 2001:dcd:2:0:0:0:0:13 37.209.194.13
nserver:      Y.GTLD.BIZ 2001:dcd:3:0:0:0:0:13 37.209.196.13
ds-rdata:     11044 8 2 e41af415e6cd0727c2924d6e60b896fb9c6d81831ac90c9dca4c22497701ab1a

whois:        whois.nic.biz

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.nic.biz

created:      2001-06-26
changed:      2024-04-16
source:       IANA