ICANN opens its first hub office in Istanbul,Turkey

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),announced that it will open its first hub office in Istanbul,Turkey .

You can read the press release after the jump :
"ICANN President and Chief Executive Officer Fadi Chehadé today announced the organization will open its first hub office in Istanbul, Turkey.

The announcement marks a significant moment in the evolution of ICANN as it prepares to spread its operational functions across three global headquarters - Los Angeles (current location), Istanbul and Singapore.

“ICANN is becoming increasingly international in terms of our outlook, policies and the makeup of our staff. Now our global hub strategy will take our internationalism to an improved operational level,” said Chehadé. “These hub offices will become part of the core fabric of ICANN.”
The Istanbul hub office will be led by David Olive, ICANN’s Vice President for Policy Development. A number of current ICANN staff will relocate to Istanbul over the coming months and local staff also will be hired.

“We looked closely at a number of possible global locations,” said Fadi Chehadé. “We chose Istanbul because of the quality of its infrastructure, growing ICT sector, business-friendly environment and its close cultural and geographic proximity to Europe, the Middle-East and Africa.”
“ICANN provides efficient and considered management of the Internet’s Domain Name System, and today marks the latest step in the organization’s journey of extending its global influence,” said Binali Yildirim, Turkey’s Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs, and Communications. “The ICANN European HUB is being established in Istanbul to act as an epicenter that will help shape Internet policy to deliver a more connected community across Europe, Middle East and Africa.”
ICANN currently is overseeing the implementation of more than 1,400 new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), representing one of the biggest changes to the Internet since its inception. The first wave of these domains will come online in the coming months. As a result of this massive expansion of the Domain Name System (DNS), ICANN too is expanding as it continues its mission to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet."

View the original article here

First Quarter 2012 Domain Name Sales vs First Quarter 2013 Domain Name Sales

The total reported domain name sales across all exentions slippeed 3% in the first quarter of 2013 ,when a total of $21,8 in sales million was reported ,from the same quarter a year ago ,when a total of $22,4 million in sales was reported .
If in the first quarter of 2013 the biggest domain sale was Booker.com for $375,000 and all the six-figure reported domain sales added together came in at $1,83 million,in the same quarter a year ago,th biggest two domain sales added up to a total of $1,85 million .

First Quarter 2013 Domain Name Sales
1.Booker.com $375,000
2.Mojo.com $300,000
3.Apuestas.com $221,100
4.Estate.com $165,000
5.Mobile.xxx $160,000
6.Partners.com $125,000
7.Adib.com $117,000
8.Unit.com $115,000
9.Torrents.com $112,651
10.Banque.com $91,210
11. LawHelp.com $85,000
12.VagaDeEmprego.com $78,600
13.Medicine.org $75,000
14.ULive.com $75,000
15.CellphoneCases.com $75,000
16.DOA.com $74,400
17.Oar.com $69,000
18.WalkInTubs.com $69,000
19.Salledebain.com $60,000
20.FXX.com $60,000

First Quarter 2012 Domain Name Sales :
1.PersonalLoans.com $1,000,000
2.Silver.com $875,000
3.StockPhoto.com $250,000
4.BowlingBalls.com $225,000
5.Saturn.pl $189,930
6.CDN.net $185,000
7.NYE.com $175,500
8.LOV.com $160,000
9.Kboing.com $150,000
10.Frame.com $148,000
11.ULE.com $145,000
12.SOL.com $127,400
13.Channel.com $125,000
14.Airline.com $125,000
15.Flights.ca $120,000
16.eDiscovery.com $100,000
17.End.com $100,000
18.Let.com $100,000
19.Aili.com $90,000
20.ApartmentListings.com $87,500