One Seychelles firm filed 10 of Africa’s 16 new domain applications
in plain words
ICANN, the group that manages internet names, received applications for new website endings. A company in Seychelles tied to one businessman filed many of the African requests. The writer says this connects to a dispute over internet number blocks in Africa.
Full summary
Emmanuel Vitus, an international consultant in cyberdiplomacy and digital governance, argues that Africa’s share of ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The nonprofit that coordinates the global DNS and gTLD policy. Full definition of ICANN’s latest round of new generic top-level domain applications is narrower than the headline count suggests. ICANN published the applications on 7 October 2026. Of the 1,615 submissions worldwide, 16 came from Africa, and Vitus says a single Seychelles company, Innovation Service Limited, accounts for 10 of them, or 62.5% of the regional total. The company is controlled by businessman Lu Heng.
Its ten applications cover .connect, .donate, .faq, .fix, .larus, .real, .send, .uid, .visit and .vpn. The application portal also lists replacement string A backup string an applicant can switch to shortly after Reveal Day. Full definition of replacement string, such as .nrs as an alternative to .larus, which Vitus says would inflate the count if counted separately. The records describe applications awaiting evaluation rather than delegated extensions. The other six African applications come from Kenya Network Information Center for .safari, HOST AFRICA of South Africa for .lodge, and four Mauritius companies seeking .audit, .therapy, .voice and .wealth. Vitus puts the continent’s portion of worldwide applications at roughly 0.99%. He notes that Africa filed 17 of 1,930 applications in the 2012 round The first round of ICANN's New gTLD Program, which opened for applications in 2012. Full definition of 2012 round, so its absolute count has dropped by one.
Vitus links Lu Heng’s role to a wider dispute over AFRINIC, the regional Internet registry The central database and system of a top-level domain, or loosely the organization that runs it. Full definition of registry for Africa. He says Lu also controls Cloud Innovation, which received roughly 6.2 million IP Internet Protocol The internet's basic rules for sending data, using numeric addresses for every connected device. Full definition of IP from AFRINIC, and that Cloud Innovation has asked for the registry to be dissolved. Vitus argues that both bodies should give their communities a clear explanation of how they protect the public interest.
Vitus also describes Lu’s earlier entry into registry operations through .help. UNR, formerly Uniregistry Corp., offered its portfolio A collection of domains held by one owner. Full definition of portfolio in a private auction An auction between rival gTLD applicants outside ICANN, now banned. Full definition of private auction in April 2021, and contemporary reporting identified Innovation Service as the buyer. An assignment agreement published by ICANN names UNR as transferor and Innovation Service as recipient, and records that UNR sought ICANN’s consent on 20 May 2021. The execution table lists Heng Lu as Innovation Service’s CEO, with signing dates of 6 and 7 April 2022. The document does not disclose the price. Vitus notes that clauses 8 and 9 deny the transfer conveys property or ownership rights in the extension, and that Innovation Service took on contractual rights and obligations to operate .help. He adds that ICANN had linked delays in the wider UNR transfer to concerns about auction claims and parallel blockchain namespace The set of all names in one naming system, such as the DNS. Full definition of namespace, and had said top-level domains were not property. An IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The functions that coordinate the root zone, IP addresses and protocol numbers. Full definition of IANA transfer report dated 4 January 2024 records Innovation Service as the operator.