The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) announced the registration of more than 46,000 new domain names under the UAE national domain .ae in 2022, bringing the total number of registered domain names to 300,000 by Q1 2023. This shows an increase of nearly 20% compared to 2022.
Thus, .ae is the most used national domain and one of the fastest-growing domains in the Arab region.
This increase reflects the interest of government entities, individuals and companies in the national domain due to its benefits, including giving credibility to the work of the registered entity, in addition to preserving the intellectual and commercial property rights of trademark owners.
.ae has many features, most importantly providing the best user experience, the availability of distinguished names and abbreviations, with the further ability to match the name to the official website, trademark, email or blog. Entities and individuals can register their activities automatically and in just a few minutes through a list of TDRA-approved registrars to register domain names.
Commenting on the importance of registering entities and individuals under the .ae domain, Eng. Abdulrahman Al Marzouqi, Director of Policies and Programs Department at TDRA, said: “The UAE has the most developed and competitive economy in the region, and this gives an important advantage for businesses and companies that own a .ae domain, as it enhances the confidence of customers and partners with the organization that owns the domain. This is added to many benefits, including the ease of obtaining a domain, the speed of the procedure and the possibility of obtaining a name that matches the nature of the business or its name. Today, we have 23 accredited companies in the UAE competing in providing domain registration services at competitive prices.”
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Al Marzouqi added: “The domain name is an integral part of the trademark of any organization, and we at TDRA attach exceptional importance to the protection of trademark owners. We have embodied this by developing a fair dispute policy to protect trademark owners. TDRA also uses the services of the World Intellectual Property Organization to make unbiased judgments.”
In addition to facilitating the identification of the entity and optimizing it on search engines, .ae facilitates the follow-up of the registration process and helps registrants achieve a secure digital society. This is achieved by developing and implementing clear policies that prevent misuse of technology and safeguard the digital society.
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In order to develop the UAE national domain, an official .ae website was launched this year and is supported by ChatGPT. It provides several advantages, such as speed and the suggestion of distinctive names based on the user’s description of their commercial activity. ChatGPT technology also supports searches in Arabic and the local dialect in addition to the English language.
