.AU, the ccTLD of Australia is set to undergo major changes explained auDA, the administrator of the Australian domain registry service. They further explained that these reforms will simplify the usage of .au domains by dropping the .com TLD in the domain names (for e.g yourwebsite.com.au will simply become yourwebsite.au) provided you register for the same.
AUDA further explained that along with the TLD change, they will also be introducing non-ASCII characters for domain names which will allow usage of Chinese, Arabic or any other language. They further added that this reform will be made keeping in mind the needs of international diaspora that has settled in Australia.
Explaining this in detail, John Swinson, Chairman of the auDA policy review panel commented:
We believe there is an untapped market for internationalised domain names given Australia’s multicultural community and the increasing demand for Australian products and services overseas.
Industry analysts speculate that the advent of these reforms will most likely change the dynamics of domain name registrations in Australia with businesses grabbing hold of brand names for trademark acquisition. In closing, auDA revealed that they will also be looking to make amends in the domain name registrations with respect to sub-leasing, suspensions, publishing revered names as well as prohibited ones.