In line with the era of artificial intelligence (AI), South Korea’s internet address system is renewing its appearance for the first time in 22 years. The Ministry of Science and ICT, led by Minister Yoo Sang-im, announced that from the 5th, they will begin accepting general registrations for new national internet addresses (domains) ‘ai.kr’, ‘it.kr’, ‘io.kr’, and ‘me.kr’.
The newly introduced kr domains are designed to meet the growing demand for new technologies and personal branding across various fields, symbolized by four categories: artificial intelligence (ai), information technology (it), digital (io), and personal (me). Particularly, ai.kr is expected to face fierce competition for early registration due to its high symbolic and rarity value among domestic and international companies and organizations.
Anyone with an address in Korea, including both corporations and individuals, can register, using 2 to 63 characters in English letters, with the use of numbers and hyphens (-) also allowed. The annual registration fee is approximately 20,000 won, which is cheaper than similar foreign national domains costing around 100,000 won. Applications for internet addresses can be made through 15 domestic registration agencies, and detailed information is available on the Korea Internet & Security Agency website (krnic.or.kr).
In addition to their inherent meanings, the new domains can be diversely utilized based on user interpretation. The ai.kr domain is suitable for AI-related communities, academic conferences, personal portfolio sites, as well as AI companies, while it.kr is expected to be popular with media or product sites dealing with the latest technology trends. The me.kr domain may be used by medical services or personal branding platforms, while io.kr is anticipated to be highly applicable for digital service companies.
Um Yeol, the Information and Communication Policy Officer at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “To address the demand for domains in response to changes in technology and industry during the AI era, we have introduced these new kr domains. We hope that domestic companies and individuals will strengthen their brand identities, protect their trademarks, and enhance their online competitiveness through new domains like ai.kr.”
The industry anticipates that the introduction of these new domains will invigorate the domestic internet address market. Especially given the intensifying global competition in AI, the adoption of ai.kr is expected to lay the foundation for establishing a Korean-style digital identity.