Sponsored top-level domain

A sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. IANA currently distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains:

• country-code top-level domains (ccTLD)
• generic top-level domains (gTLD)
  • sponsored top-level domains (sTLD)
  • unsponsored top-level domains
• infrastructure top-level domain (.arpa)

A sponsored TLD is a specialized top-level domain that has a sponsor representing a specific community served by the domain. The communities involved are based on ethnic, geographical, professional, technical or other theme concepts proposed by private agencies or organizations that establish and enforce rules restricting the eligibility of registrants to use the TLD.

Generally speaking, a sponsored TLD is a specialized TLD that has a sponsor representing the narrower community that is most affected by the TLD, while an unsponsored TLD operates under policies established by the global Internet community directly through the ICANN process.

For example, the .aero TLD is sponsored by SITA, which limits registrations to members of the air-transport industry.

TLD	Eligibility	Sponsors
.aero	Members of the air-transport industry	SITA
.asia	Companies, organisations and individuals in the Asia-Pacific region	DotAsia Organisation
.cat	Catalan linguistic and cultural community	Fundació puntCat
.coop	Cooperative associations	DotCooperation LLC
.edu	Post-secondary institutions accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education	EDUCAUSE
.gov	United States Government	General Services Administration
.int	Organizations established by international treaties between governments	IANA
.jobs	Human resource managers	Society for Human Resource Management
.mil	United States Military	DoD Network Information Center
.mobi	Providers and consumers of mobile products and services	dotMobi
.museum	Museums	Museum Domain Management Association
.post	Postal services	Universal Postal Union
.tel	For businesses and individuals to publish contact data	Telnic Ltd.
.travel	Travel agents, airlines, hoteliers, tourism bureaus, etc.	Tralliance Corporation
.xxx	Pornographic sites	ICM Registry LLC

There will be many more of these, including top domains named after and controlled by a company. See Proposed top-level domain and Generic top-level domain#New top-level domains.