Michael Riedl (Team Internet Group): Domains, trust, and transformation
Michael Riedl, CEO of Team Internet Group, leads a company powering the backbone of domain infrastructure. In this interview, he unpacks the seismic 2025 reboot of the Internet’s address book and explains why this rare reset is creating new opportunities not only for innovation and trust but also for long-term value creation in an industry most people do not even realise exists.
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Next year, the Internet’s address book is being reinvented. What does that actually mean, and why is it such a big deal?
Most people don’t realise that every website, email and online service depends on one invisible system, the Internet’s address book known as the Domain Name System. It turns a simple name like amazon.com into the digital coordinates computers use to find each other. For more than 30 years, that address book has been dominated by one single ending, .com. But next year, something extraordinary will happen. The global Internet regulator, ICANN, is reopening the system so that entirely new Internet endings, what we call top-level domains, can be created again. The last time this happened was in 2012, when names like .shop, .safe or brand-specific endings like .nike came to life. This does not happen often, about once in a generation, and each time it reshapes how we navigate and experience the Internet. This next round will spark another wave of innovation, more choice, more security and more identity, redefining the way the Internet is organised.
“It is a fascinating intersection of technology, trust and finance, and it is rare to see a moment where all three come together so clearly.”
Where does Team Internet fit into this new phase, and what role is Luxembourg playing in it?
Team Internet plays a pivotal role in this next phase of the Internet’s evolution, as we are one of the few companies that actually build and operate the digital infrastructure behind it. Through our CentralNic Registry, we provide the core technology that keeps many of the world’s domain extensions running reliably and securely. Through BrandShelter, we help global companies protect and manage their digital identities, from their domain portfolios to their online brand presence. So when the Internet’s address book opens up again, we are not watching from the sidelines. We are the ones ensuring it works, scales and remains trusted. Luxembourg has been part of that story from the beginning. It is where our domain operations were once based, and it remains an example of how a small country can punch above its weight in digital infrastructure. You see that in the success of local champions such as Namespace. And if I may add, Luxembourg once had a forward-thinking tax exemption for domain names, which quietly expired a few years ago. Let us just say it was one of those cases where the law moved slower than the Internet. But the spirit of innovation here certainly has not expired.
How will businesses and individuals benefit from this change, and how can they take part?
When people think about domain names, they often think of something small, like a website address. But at the corporate level, it is far more strategic. In the last ICANN round in 2012, several major companies secured their own dot-brand domains. Ferrero is one example, and SES, the satellite operator here in Luxembourg, is another. These allow them to run everything under their own private and verified digital space, such as .ferrero or .ses. That is a powerful way to protect customers and brands at a time when digital fraud is exploding. To make it tangible, imagine if BGL had its own .bgl domain extension. Any website or email ending in .bgl would be instantly authentic. If it is not on .bgl, you would know straight away it is suspicious. That is the kind of clarity and trust these new domains create. At the same time, operating a commercial top-level domain is also a highly attractive business model. Every time someone registers or renews a name, the operator receives a small fee, year after year. The global market leader, Verisign, which operates .com, is valued at around 25 billion dollars, largely due to that recurring revenue. And while Team Internet focuses on running the infrastructure and providing trusted registry services, our partner Dominion.bond is preparing to bring this unique asset class of next-generation domains to a wider circle of professional investors who recognise the scale of what opens next year.