.biz

.biz is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for registration of domains to be used by businesses. The name is a phonetic spelling of the first syllable of business. The TLD was created to relieve some of the demand for domain names in the top-level domain, and to provide an alternative for businesses whose preferred domain name in had already been registered by another party. There are no specific legal or geographic qualifications to register a domain name, except that it must be for "bona fide business or commercial use." It was created in 2001 along with several other domains as the first batch of new gTLDs approved by ICANN in the expansion of the Domain Name System following the increased interest in internet commerce in the late 1990s. The TLD, originally administered by Neustar until 2020, is currently administered by GoDaddy and registrations are processed via accredited registrars. In contrast to other newly installed top-level domains, the registry did not implement a sunrise period to grant trademark owners first chance at registration, but instead used a procedure it called the "IP Claims Service" whereby trademark owners could file intellectual property claims in advance and then challenge any eventual registrant through a policy named Startup Trademark Opposition Policy (STOP). This process was created by Jeffrey J. Neuman as proof-of-concept protection service and an alternative to the Sunrise policy. A number of domains were successfully obtained by trademark owners from other registrants through this policy; some of the more controversial cases included those of and , the latter being reversed by a court decision. On June 23, 2008 at the ICANN 32nd International Public Meeting in Paris, the registry announced that it had officially surpassed two million registrations worldwide. In Turkish, biz means 'we' and is used in some sites such as turkleriz.biz (We are the Turks) and fenerliyiz.biz (We are fans of Fenerbahçe).