Telegram Premium users will receive a .gram domain directly, while owners of bots, chats, and channels will…

Telegram Premium users will receive a .gram domain directly, while owners of bots, chats, and channels will need to win one in an auction.

In the published documents, Telegram described the domain registration process: • Domains can be redirected to any link, not just a Telegram profile. • Telegram Premium users will be able to register domains through a separate procedure. • Owners of channels, chats, and bots will reportedly be able to register domains through an auction—similar to how the secondary market for usernames currently works on Fragment. • Registration will not be exclusively limited to Telegram users—this is a requirement for compliance with the domain zone’s registration rules. • Telegram has until October 21 to opt out of .gram; if it does, it will most likely automatically receive the .telegram domain zone. • Link Freedom Group (LFG) is also vying for .gram and has 157 other applications. Each carries a base fee of $227,000. • While .telegram is the backup domain for Telegram, LFG’s backup domain in this application is .jjj. In its application, LFG explains “gram” as a unit of mass, and when asked about the meaning of .jjj, it responds “no meaning.”

The winner will be determined by the highest bid in an auction to be held in a year, once ICANN has completed all its reviews. The auction will start at $1 and end when only one bidder with the highest bid remains. For example, in 2012, Google won the .app domain for $25 million.