I think the minimum price for setting up a TLD is tens of thousands of dollars, and it doesn't have to be a country it can be any kind of string, like .pepsi or .beef or anything.
Quick, someone register .pepsi and .coke then do nothing with them until either company pays you... of wait, we're right back at the domain squatting thing again?
No, because it's not an open registration process. it's an application process, and if you or i tried to acquire the .pepsi TLD it would be denied outright (and our $185k application fee would be forfeit).
New gTLDs (like .app) which receive multiple applications and have no clear owner are opened to an auction among the qualified applicants. Other more specific applications are given to the most qualified applicant (for example, i know the applicant for .ski has been endorsed by the USSA and FIS, the american and international governing bodies for skiing)
I think the minimum price for setting up a TLD is tens of thousands of dollars
Almost $200k, actually, and that's just the fee to present the request; you'll still have to have the infrastructure to actually run the root DNS servers for your TLD(s).
ah, makes sense. (parent explicitly said "TLD squatters. Same exact problem as before, just more expensive.") obviously doubt Google qualifies as a squatter.
Yeah, I don't know what the parent is on about, they're completely wrong. Nobody is squatting TLDs, all the new ones have gone to orgs actively working as registrars.
