Formed in October 1998, the ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit, private sector corporation with a volunteer board of directors.

ICANN was formed with the chief responsibility for coordinating four key functions for the Internet:

1. the management of the Domain Name system,
2. the allocation of IP address space,
3. the assignment of protocol parameters, and
4. the management of the root server system.

For a company or organization to operate as a Registrar, they must first obtain ICANN accreditation.