Hello Registry Acquires Automattic's DotBlog Registry Operation

At the recent ICANN Istanbul meeting, CIRA and SIDN announced the new name and branding of their cloud-based domain name registration backend service: “Hello Registry”.

Previously, CIRA’s backend service was known as “Fury” and was favored by some country code domain name administrators and certain gTLD extensions such as .ie. A few months ago, CIRA and SIDN announced a partnership to create a new registry backend. Hello Registry was developed as a product of this collaboration.

New Era in .blog Registry Operation

Starting April 2025, the .blog domain name registry will also transition to Hello Registry.

This will be the third major backend change for .blog:

1. It was first managed by Nominet.
2. Then CentralNic (Team Internet) took over.
3. Now, it joins Hello Registry (a partnership between CIRA & SIDN).

What Does This Mean for Domain Registrars?

While such backend changes usually do not bring direct functional changes for registrars, they do require managing the technical integration and transition process. Since the domain name industry operates on low profit margins, ensuring a smooth transition is of great importance.

.blog Domain Name Usage Status

As of the time of writing, the .blog extension has over 300,000 registered domain names. More than a third of these domains are managed through Automattic’s own registry.

How the transition process will unfold and how Hello Registry will make a difference in the long run will become clear in the coming period.