SAN FRANCISCO and MIAMI, November 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- .CO Internet S.A.S. (http://www.COInternet.co), the official Registry Operator for the .CO top-level domain, announced today from Web 2.0 Summit that the highly coveted single-letter domain name, i.CO, will soon be put on the auction block. The auction will be privately held and only qualified bidders will be eligible to participate. Bidder qualification will commence today and will end on January 21st, 2011.

The i.CO auction will be the first in an exclusive series of single-letter private domain name auctions to be sponsored by the .CO Registry, commencing in early 2011. It comes immediately on the heels of one of the most successful domain launches in history, with nearly 600,000 .CO domain names registered across 200 countries in under four months.

To date, only a few single-letter domain names have been allocated by the .CO Registry, with the most famous being Twitter's ubiquitous URL shortener t.CO, Go Daddy's x.CO, and Overstock.com's o.CO, which is currently being featured in the retailer's holiday season TV advertisements.

"As one of the shortest possible URLs in the world, and featuring the most popular single letter in the alphabet, the 'i.CO' domain is likely to be one of the most valuable pieces of online real estate ever available," said Juan Diego Calle, CEO and co-founder of .CO Internet S.A.S. "We could think of no better place to announce the availability of i.CO than at the Web 2.0 Summit, where the latest web and mobile innovations are revealed."

For the companies defining today's online and mobile environment, including global media and entertainment companies, the competition to deliver on the promise of the social web is increasingly intense.

"Short URLs, like t.CO, are emerging as another point of control for companies to join the Internet's conversations and track and manage the social graph," said John Battelle, chairman, CEO and founder of Federated Media and co-chair of the Web 2.0 Summit. "The savvy company that secures the i.CO domain name will have the opportunity to truly engage with mobile and socially connected consumers in a unique fashion. I look forward to seeing what the winner will do to leverage this one-of-a-kind asset."

The i.CO auction will be managed by Moniker(R) and SnapNames(R), both Oversee.net(R) companies, who are together leaders in the global domain auction marketplace. To register as a qualified bidder, or for additional information, please visit: http://www.i.CO, email sales@moniker.com or call 1-800-688-6311 to speak to an agent. Bidder names and bid details will be kept confidential to protect your anonymity.

About .CO Internet S.A.S.

.CO Internet S.A.S. is the Registry Operator for the .CO top-level domain. The .CO domain offers individuals and businesses a truly global, recognizable and credible option in branding their online presence. Thanks to leading-edge technology, enhanced security and unprecedented rights protections for brand owners, .CO is poised to become the world's next premier web address. Increasingly entrepreneurs, agencies, VCs and brands are turning to .CO to brand their companies, products and services online. For additional information about the .CO Registry, please visit http://www.COinternet.co and http://www.Opportunity.co and follow us on Twitter @dotCO.

About Web 2.0 Summit

Web 2.0 Summit - which has sold out year after year - brings together a powerful assembly of senior executives and entrepreneurial innovators, as well as technologists, financiers, analysts and pundits. Web 2.0 Summit is co-produced by O'Reilly Media and UBM TechWeb, in association with Federated Media.

About O'Reilly Media

O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

O'Reilly conferences bring together forward-thinking business and technology leaders, shaping ideas and influencing industries around the globe. For over 25 years, O'Reilly has facilitated the adoption of new and important technologies by the enterprise, putting emerging technologies on the map.

About UBM TechWeb

UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and professional information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology. Through its three core businesses-media solutions, marketing services and paid content-UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands and media applications in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs and IT managers, Web & Digital professionals, Software Developers, Government decision makers, and Telecom providers) actively engage in UBM TechWeb's communities and information resources monthly. UBM TechWeb brands include: global face-to-face events such as Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and Enterprise Connect; award-winning online resources such as InformationWeek, Light Reading, and Network Computing; and market-leading magazines InformationWeek, Wall Street & Technology, and Advanced Trading. UBM TechWeb is a UBM company, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

SOURCE: .CO Internet S.A.S.

CONTACT: Lori Anne Wardi, Director of .CO Internet S.A.S.,+1-917-838-6743, lori@cointernet.co; or Eric Sokolsky of Sparkpr,+1-908-288-7201, eric@sparkpr.com, for .CO Internet; or Maureen Jennings ofO'Reilly Media, +1-707-827-7083, maureen@oreilly.com; or Natalia Wodecki ofUBM TechWeb, +1-415-694-9413, nwodecki@techweb.com