.gent

Overview

• .gent is a geographic gTLD (GeoTLD) for the city of Ghent (Dutch: Gent; French: Gand) in Flanders, Belgium.
• It was created to provide Ghent, its residents, organisations and companies with a clear, city-branded identifier on the Internet.
• Official website for the TLD: https://nic.gent/

History

• Introduced and delegated in 2014 as part of ICANN's New gTLD Program.
• Registry agreement with ICANN was signed by Combell on 23 January 2014.
• The string was delegated to the DNS Root Zone on 10 July 2014.
• The City of Ghent supported the initiative and provided a letter of support to the applicant.
• Combell acts as sponsor/manager for .gent; OpenRegistry was engaged to provide the registry/technical back-end. The registry is referred to as Dot Gent Registry.
• The project was announced shortly after approval of the new gTLD program (noted as three days after ICANN 41 in Singapore).

Usage and Audience

• Primary audience: residents, organisations and companies with a connection to the city of Ghent; the applicant emphasized Dutch/Flemish as the common language for the TLD's main audience.
• Although aimed at local use, .gent is a standard gTLD and may attract registrants from outside the city's borders.
• Intended uses highlighted by the applicant include promoting Ghent nationally and internationally and providing a recognizable local Internet identity.

Registration Rules

• The .gent application and registry materials state that .gent is a standard gTLD and that no particular restrictions or eligibility conditions will be imposed on registrants.
• The applicant indicated an expectation that registrants will typically have some connection to Ghent, but this nexus is not enforced through formal policy or contractual restrictions.

SEO and Brand Impact

• The .gent TLD was positioned by its applicant and supporters as a city-branding tool to give Ghent a unique and recognizable online identity.
• The TLD aims to promote local visibility for residents, organisations and businesses by associating domains directly with the city name.

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

domain:       GENT

organisation: Combell nv
address:      Skaldenstraat 121
address:      Gent 9042
address:      Belgium

contact:      administrative
name:         Jimmy Cappaert
organisation: Combell nv
address:      Skaldenstraat 121
address:      Gent 9042
address:      Belgium
phone:        +3292187979
fax-no:       +3292187978
e-mail:       jimmy.cappaert@combell.group

contact:      technical
name:         CTO
organisation: CentralNic
address:      Saddlers House, 4th Floor
address:      44 Gutter Lane
address:      London EC2V 6BR
address:      United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)
phone:        +44 20 33 88 0600
fax-no:       +44 20 33 88 0601
e-mail:       tld.ops@centralnic.com

nserver:      A.NIC.GENT 194.169.218.89 2001:67c:13cc:0:0:0:1:89
nserver:      B.NIC.GENT 185.24.64.89 2a04:2b00:13cc:0:0:0:1:89
nserver:      C.NIC.GENT 212.18.248.89 2a04:2b00:13ee:0:0:0:0:89
nserver:      D.NIC.GENT 212.18.249.89 2a04:2b00:13ff:0:0:0:0:89
ds-rdata:     2640 13 2 e97c1f6f53e1284399d6daaf670d8fcbddb5618710ade52c1219757c14c77d88
ds-rdata:     65113 13 2 ff773c6dfaaa57475219ba35030a346181a8737e02e2ea2566c452b5ffd5a69a

whois:        whois.nic.gent

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

created:      2014-07-03
changed:      2023-10-05
source:       IANA