Summary

  • The ICANN87 GAC communiqué counts 21 internationalized-domain applications in the 2026 round, about 1.3% of the total.
  • ICANN's 2012 application overview counted 116 IDN bids out of 1,930, roughly 6%. Both figures count applications, before any final delegation.

There is plenty of traffic at ICANN's new-domain application desk. Its October statistics show 1,615 applications from 481 applicants. Then the Governmental Advisory Committee opened a smaller drawer: just 21 of this round's applications are for internationalized domain names. In its 26 October Bali communiqué, the GAC puts their share at about 1.3%.

The same unit had a very different showing the last time ICANN opened a general new-gTLD round. Its original 13 June 2012 overview counted 116 IDN applications among 1,930 applications after refunds: about 6%. The 2026 count is preliminary; the public string list is due to settle on 17 November. Even at that stage, the contrast is striking. The total application pile is only modestly smaller than in 2012. The IDN pile is dramatically smaller.

An IDN lets the top-level label use characters outside ordinary ASCII. ICANN's current Applicant Guidebook explicitly expects diverse applications, including IDNs, and links them to choice and digital inclusion. It also requires applicants to clear IDNA2008 and Root Zone Label Generation Rules. Those are the written entry conditions. The newly published count is what reached the desk.

The two official 2026 records have different clocks. ICANN's Application Publication and Statistics page still bears a 7 October timestamp; its 1,615 total counts a replacement-string application once even if two records temporarily appear. The GAC's 21 came in the communiqué dated 26 October, after the replacement window. The GAC itself calls the IDN number provisional until String Confirmation Day. That is the next count worth putting alongside today's.

The committee says the low number may leave the round short of the linguistic and geographic diversity the ICANN community expected. That is a concrete warning from the government advisers, not a diagnosis of why applicants chose their strings. A useful answer would follow the application funnel: which scripts drew interest, where prospective applicants stopped, and which hurdles were technical, financial or commercial. The ticket window is open in principle. This tally shows who actually turned up with an IDN form.

Original records: GAC Bali communiqué; 2026 application statistics; 2012 application overview; 2026 Applicant Guidebook.