The corporations engaged in domestic artificial intelligence (AI) business wanted to express their identity through domains, and in response to this desire, the introduction of a new country (kr) domain came after 22 years.
Lee Jeong-min, Head of Team of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) Internet Address Policy Team, noted on the 27th that "many corporations were already using domains like '.ai' to reflect AI images, but that domain is a country domain of 'Anguilla.'" He added, "Due to being an overseas country domain, unnecessary expenses continued from the registration and maintenance costs, which prompted KISA to introduce the new related domain."
KISA began supplying the new country (kr) domain from the 3rd. It has been 22 years since the introduction of 'mil.kr,' which was limited to military use in 2003. The new country domains being supplied are ▲ai.kr ▲io.kr ▲it.kr ▲me.kr, totaling four. Initially, KISA planned to supply only three domains: ai (artificial intelligence), io (input/output), and it (information technology), but added me (myself) in response to the opinions of corporations. With the new domain registrations, the number of Korea's country domains will increase from 29 to 33.
The Head of Team said, "In addition to AI, looking at the trends of domains widely used in overseas countries, the domain 'io,' which comes from the United Kingdom Indian Ocean region, resembles the numbers 1 and 0 and is preferred by digital corporations for its meaning of input/output." He explained, "The Italian country domain 'it' was also highly utilized for its meaning of information technology, and the Montenegrin country domain 'me' was often used by individuals for blogs or portfolio domains."
Anyone, whether a corporation or an individual based in the Republic of Korea, can register the new country domain. However, KISA will grant a priority registration period to existing trademark holders until January 17 next year for rights protection. For example, the domain 'www.sk.ai.kr' will allow the SK Group, which holds the trademark, to register it first. The final completion of domain usage registration is expected by the end of February next year, and starting March of the same year, general registration applications will also be accepted regardless of trademark ownership.
The Head of Team said, "A total of 774 registrations of the new domain occurred during the priority registration period conducted earlier this year, with ▲ai.kr (240), ▲it.kr (193), ▲io.kr (175), and ▲me.kr (166) in that order." He stated, "There seems to have been a demand for corporations engaged in AI-related businesses to secure these domains." He added, "The new domains can be registered at an annual cost of around 20,000 won, making them cheaper than similar overseas country domains, which are about 100,000 won." He noted that the domains can have two or more English letters within a limit of 63 characters, with numbers and hyphens (-) allowed.