.post

Overview

.post is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) operated by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) for the global postal community. It is reserved for postal-sector stakeholders and secured with DNSSEC. The TLD was created to identify legitimate postal services online and to integrate physical, financial and electronic postal capabilities such as e-post, e-finance, e-commerce and e-government services.

History

• ICANN approved the .post sponsorship application during the second group of new TLD approvals (application process reported in 2004–2005).
• The UPU and ICANN signed a sponsorship/management agreement on 11 December 2009, giving the UPU managing authority for the string.
• The string was delegated to the DNS root (entered the root zone) in August 2012; IANA shows delegation to the TLD registry on 8 August 2012.
• The UPU initially selected CORE as a backend provider but, after a bidding process, Afilias was chosen as the registry backend in 2011.
• Poste Italiane and other postal operators supported the launch effort; Poste Italiane provided financial support toward the TLD's setup and launch.

Usage and Audience

• Intended users:
  • UPU member postal administrations
  • National and regional post offices
  • Organizations and businesses in the postal sector and related services
• Typical uses:
  • Official postal service websites and customer interfaces
  • Postal e-services such as online parcel/letter services and postal electronic messaging
  • Specialized postal services (an example service noted is Postal Registered Electronic Mail, PREM)
• Adoption notes:
  • A Dot Post Group (DPG) of postal operators was formed to oversee development; as of October 2014, a subset of UPU members were active participants and some had launched .post sites.
  • Early live registrants included postal services in Italy, Brazil and Malaysia.

Registration Rules

• .post is a sponsored TLD restricted to the postal community; registrants must be approved members of the .post Sponsored Community before registering.
• The UPU requires applicants to obtain a .post Community ID as part of the authentication process and verifies eligibility prior to domain allocation.
• Applicants must provide legal proof of ownership of the requested string and fit into one of the defined Registrant Groups under the .post Domain Management Policy.
• The TLD uses structured naming rules for second- and third-level registrations and enforces full authentication and verification of eligible registrants.

SEO and Brand Impact

• .post is positioned as a trust and authenticity signal for postal services online: it aims to identify legitimate postal operators and reduce confusion for users and businesses.
• Security measures such as DNSSEC and sponsorship by the UPU contribute to the domain's trustworthiness and brand positioning within the postal sector.
• Stakeholders and supporters described .post as offering a "secure and trusted environment" for customers of postal online services.

Notable Cases or Examples

• The Universal Postal Union became the first U.N. agency to secure and manage its own top-level domain.
• Afilias serves as the registry backend provider for .post.
• Poste Italiane contributed funding and signed a cooperative agreement with the UPU to help launch .post.
• Early live .post deployments included national postal operators in Italy, Brazil and Malaysia; some operators offer traditional postal interfaces online and services such as PREM.

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

domain:       POST

organisation: Universal Postal Union
address:      Weltpoststrasse 4
address:      Bern CH-3015
address:      Switzerland

contact:      administrative
name:         TLD Administrator
organisation: Universal Postal Union
address:      Weltpoststrasse 4
address:      Bern CH-3015
address:      Switzerland
phone:        +41 31 350 34 50
fax-no:       +41 31 350 31 10
e-mail:       dotpost@upu.int

contact:      technical
name:         Howard Eland, Senior Director, DNS Infrastructure Group
organisation: Identity Digital Inc.
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldtech@identity.digital

nserver:      V0N0.NIC.POST 2a01:8840:0:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.0.1
nserver:      V0N1.NIC.POST 2a01:8840:1:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.1.1
nserver:      V0N2.NIC.POST 2a01:8840:2:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.2.1
nserver:      V0N3.NIC.POST 2a01:8840:3:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.3.1
nserver:      V2N0.NIC.POST 2a01:8840:4:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.4.1
nserver:      V2N1.NIC.POST 2a01:8840:5:0:0:0:0:1 65.22.5.1
ds-rdata:     35725 8 2 5b8265dc3f1952980ab5369253c4a4ed9d674d91b8c39360b22a7deaef168fe0

whois:        whois.nic.post

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.upu.int

created:      2012-08-07
changed:      2025-05-15
source:       IANA