CNIC.L Regulatory News (CNIC)

CentralNic Group plc

("CentralNic" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Chinese Government approves .XYZ

CentralNic Group plc (AIM: CNIC), a world leader in domain name and internet services, today announces that the most popular new generic Top Level Domain (new gTLD) ending .XYZ is one of the first domain endings to be accredited by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ("MIIT"), allowing businesses and individuals in China to use .XYZ domain names to host their websites. 

CentralNic, which is .XYZ's exclusive distributor, worked closely with .XYZ to put in place a customised technology platform that has been approved by both the global internet regulator ICANN and China's MIIT - succeeding in securing .XYZ a ranking among the first batch of non-Chinese "not-COM" domains approved for Chinese citizens. MIIT-accredited .XYZ web addresses will be available via Chinese domain registrars from the 16th December 2016.

Ben Crawford, CEO of CentralNic said: "I am delighted that our partner .XYZ has received its MIIT accreditation, .XYZ has always been the dominant new TLD, and China the biggest new TLD market. It's an exciting moment that should see .XYZ grow even faster."

.XYZ is actively sold through more retailers ("registrars") than any other new Top-Level Domain name, and is already a multi-million seller in China, as Chinese citizens have obtained the .XYZ they wanted in anticipation of the MIIT accreditation.

Daniel Negari, CEO of .XYZ, said: "Accreditation in China is one of .XYZ's most significant milestones to date. CentralNic has been an amazing back end partner of XYZ and went above and beyond its contractual requirements to help navigate through foreign policies and technical requirements.

"We look forward to our continued partnership with CentralNic to make .XYZ the go-to domain extension for every business and individual in China."

Since its launch in 2014, .XYZ has dominated the new Top-Level Domain space. Representing one in four of all domains registered using new TLDs (in a field of 1200 new TLDs launched), .XYZ domains have been used by the gamut of websites from small businesses in emerging markets, through to Google, Mark Zuckerberg and the founders of Skype.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

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Notes to Editors

CentralNic (AIM: CNIC) is a London-based AIM-listed company. It earns revenues from the worldwide sales of internet domain names using its proprietary technology platform. It sells these domain names on an annual subscription basis. Customers pay for domain names upfront, making CentralNic a cash-generative business with annuity revenue streams.

CentralNic comprises three business lines within the domain name industry. It operates a global wholesale network, supplying domain names to over 1,500 vendors in 77 countries. CentralNic is the exclusive wholesaler for over 30 new Top-Level Domain extensions (the new alternatives to .com and .net). These include .xyz, .site, .online, .website, .space, and .tech. These extensions rank among the top twenty five most subscribed new Top-Level Domains. One in three of all domains registered under new TLDs globally uses the CentralNic platform. This positions CentralNic as the leading global supplier with more than eight million of these domains under management.

CentralNic is also a leading global domain name retailer, with retail websites including internetbs.net, buydomains.london and domain.luxury. After acquiring Instra Group, CentralNic Group now includes instra.com and a number of other leading retail websites. Through its enterprise programme, CentralNic supplies domain names (including high-value premium domain names), software and services directly to large companies and governments.

For more information please visit: www.centralnic.com