Twitter hands domain name portfolio to Melbourne IT

Social networking giant Twitter has given control of its domain name portfolio to Australian registrar Melbourne IT, in a two-year deal that may see the social networking giant claim the “twitter.com.au” domain.

Chief technology officer Bruce Tonkin says the company has signed a two-year deal with Twitter that will see it manage all the company’s domains, as well as maintain regular contact with the company about domain renewals.

Tonkin also says the social networking site may be looking into obtaining the “twitter.com.au” domain, but insisted no official comment has been made.

“I’m sure they’re looking at other domains, but I can’t comment on that. Most of our corporate clients are always adding names,” he says.

Melbourne IT manages about 3,000 corporate clients worldwide, and is in the top five largest domain name registrar companies in the world. Altogether, it manages about six million domain names from SME and larger corporate clients.

“In general terms, the nature of the deal is that we look after their domain name portfolio, and any other domains they may have. They manage those through a single portal and can put in orders for new names. If you don’t use a registrar company you often lose track of what URLs you have, and when you forget to renew a domain name, you may lose it to someone else and buying it back can be expensive.”

Tonkin says Twitter’s decision to have a registrar handle its domain portfolio demonstrates the need for other companies to follow suit, as domain registrations are becoming increasingly more complex.

“From our point of view, it’s very interesting that a company like Twitter, which most people consider to be considerably web-savvy, would outsource a service like this that requires specific knowledge. It sort of reinforces the need for registrars to handle this sort of business.”

Tonkin says the two companies will continue to communicate about Twitter’s domain name portfolio, and that most of its business will be handled through its US office.