ICANN and gTLD portfolio update: Board confident

For Immediate Release 24 April 2013

Top Level Domain Holdings Limited

("TLDH" or the "Company" or the "Group")

ICANN and gTLD portfolio update

Board confident of program's progress

ICANN Update

The Board of Directors of Top Level Domain Holdings (AIM:TLDH) are pleased to announce that the meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN"), held in Beijing from April 11-14, is expected to be the last before contracts for new generic top-level domains ("gTLDs") are formally signed. No new roadblocks were brought up at the Beijing meeting, and the Board of TLDH is confident that the program will now move forward with progressively clearer timeframes for each gTLD's release.

Neither ICANN's Government Advisory Council ("GAC") which delivered its official advice on individual strings in the program, nor the Security and Stability Advisory Committee ("SSAC"), which reported on any possible risks to the overall security and stability of the Internet, called for any delays. The ICANN roadmap strongly indicates that the Company should be launching its own first top-level domains early in Q4 2013.

ICANN has likewise announced that 132 applications have passed initial evaluation, including two applications from TLDH: .网址 ("web address" in Chinese) and .购物("shopping" in Chinese). ICANN is currently processing initial evaluations at the rate of about 50 per week, and has announced that it will ramp-up the rate of evaluations to 100 per week, based on which ICANN should be finished with initial evaluations by August 2013. ICANN also announced that it expects to start signing contracts by the end of May at the rate of approximately 20 per week.

Fred Krueger, executive chairman of TLDH, commented:

"We are delighted by the progress being made by ICANN, the status of our portfolio and the progress we are making in relation to those applications which are in contention with other applications."

The Board expects that some contentions will be resolved soon, although the majority are likely to be resolved closer to the commencement of ICANN-sponsored auctions, which will occur if applicants cannot resolve contentions on their own. ICANN has indicated its auctions will likely begin in November 2013.

gTLD portfolio update

The Board is also pleased to report that TLDH's portfolio received relatively few third-party objections, all from rivals for the TLDs in question. TLDH was notified that objections had been filed against only seven of its new gTLD applications, representing 9.7% of the Company's portfolio: two objections for .music and one each for .购物("shopping" in Chinese), .gay, .eco, .home, .vip, and .realestate. By comparison, Amazon received 24 objections (32%), Google 22 objections (22%) and Donuts 55 objections (18%). The Company will respond in due course and the Board are confident that the Company will overcome these objections.

GAC Advice

The GAC strongly advised against four gTLDs, none of which TLDH applied for. Another 513 gTLDs were given some kind of advice by the GAC, ranging from serious reservations to desired improvements. The Company has decided as a consequence of these warnings, and after discussion with relevant governments, to withdraw four of its applications: .FREE, .SALE, .SPA and .ZULU. The Company expects to receive refunds totaling $520,000 (£341,304) from ICANN, and to have released to it $144,000 (£94,515) currently set aside in letters of credit for ICANN's Continued Operations Instrument requirement.

A full list of TLDH's applications and their current status is set out below at the end of this release.

Timeline

The Board anticipates that over a hundred new gTLDs will have signed contracts with ICANN by the time of the next ICANN meeting in Durban, South Africa, commencing 15 July 2013. Following the execution of its contract with ICANN, each gTLD will schedule its pre-delegation testing as a final technical check, then proceed to delegation, integration with the Trademark Clearing House, and then launch. The Company estimates that the time from contract to launch will be approximately 3 months. TLDH's operating company, Minds + Machines, is now focused on the upcoming launches of .LONDON, .BUDAPEST, .NRW, .GOP and .KIWI. The Company is also actively pursuing arrangements with other applicants for new gTLDs.

TLDH gTLD Application Status

The following table summarises the status of the Company's applications for new gTLDs.

To view the full list of objections received by ICANN, please go to: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/odr/filings

To view the full list of GAC related objections, please go to:

https://gacweb.icann.org/display/gacweb/Governmental+Advisory+Committee

Further Information:

Top Level Domain Holdings Limited

North America

Antony Van Couvering Tel: + 1 310 452 1491

Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nomad) Tel +44 (0) 20 7628 3396

Roland Cornish

Michael Cornish

N+1 Singer (Broker) Tel +44 (0)20 7496 3000

Matt Thomas

gth media relations

Toby Hall /Suzanne Johnson Walsh Tel:+44(0)20 7822 7493/2

Or visit the group's website at www.tldh.org

ENDS