ZDNS remains deeply engaged in global Internet community governance, strengthening international exchanges, broadening consensus, and advancing global cooperation in Internet governance. Through concrete actions, the company continues to fulfill its responsibility and mission in contributing to a shared future in cyberspace.
From October 25 to 30, the 84th Annual General Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was held in Dublin, Ireland. A delegation from the National Engineering Research Center for Internet Domain Name System (ZDNS) was invited to attend, joining the global Internet community to discuss key topics such as policies for the next round of new gTLD applications and DNS abuse mitigation.
As one of the core issues of this year’s meeting, the policy framework for the second round of new gTLD applications has now taken shape, drawing significant international attention.
Feng Shuo, Deputy General Manager of ZDNS and Co-Chair of ICANN’s Policy Development Process Working Group on the Next Round of New gTLDs, explained that compared with the first round, the upcoming round features a more refined and transparent policy framework. The application process will include several critical stages, such as string evaluation, applicant assessment, and contention resolution. The string evaluation phase will cover eight dimensions, including DNS stability review, reserved names identification, and other essential safeguard mechanisms.
The meeting concluded that ICANN will publish all received application strings on Reveal Day, after which a 104-day public comment and objection period will begin—longer than the previously planned 90 days. ZDNS experts emphasized that ICANN explicitly prohibits resolving contention sets through private auctions, joint ventures, or other off-platform arrangements, ensuring fairness and integrity throughout the application process.
