Anyone in the World Can Now Register a .my Domain

A .my domain used to come with an unwritten filter built in: registering one meant proving, in one way or another, an actual connection to Malaysia. That's no longer the whole story. Anyone who has recently tried to register a .my domain, or read that the rules changed, is really asking a simpler question underneath it all: who can register one now, and does that change anything for a business already using, or considering, a .my address? This guide covers what changed and when, what stayed the same, how the Malaysian extensions now compare, what a registrant needs, what the change means for a brand that has not yet secured its name, and the practical steps to take.

What changed, and when

On 20 June 2024, MYNIC — the registry responsible for the .my country-code domain — relaunched the second-level .my domain and removed the requirement for a Malaysian presence that had applied since the domain's earlier rules were set. Before that date, registering a plain .my domain (yourname.my) meant demonstrating some genuine connection to Malaysia. Since that date, it doesn't — a business or individual anywhere in the world can register one the same way they'd register a .com.

Before and after, side by side

What didn't change: .com.my and the other third-level extensions

This is the detail that trips people up most often. The June 2024 change applies specifically to the second-level .my domain — the bare yourname.my format. It does not apply to the third-level extensions registered underneath .my: .com.my, .net.my, .org.my and similar still require a genuine Malaysian presence to register, exactly as they did before. A foreign business can now register yourname.my, but not yourname.com.my, without meeting the local-presence requirement.

MYNIC's reasoning here is straightforward: the third-level extensions are meant specifically as commercial, network and non-profit identifiers for organisations actually operating in Malaysia, so the registry kept the eligibility check in place for exactly those three extensions while relaxing it only for the general-purpose second-level domain.

The Malaysian extensions compared

Our guide to .com.my registration requirements lists the documents a .com.my registration asks for, and whether the extension affects SEO covers the search side.

Registering both together is cheaper than it looks over time: a Malaysian business holding yourname.my at RM120/year and yourname.com.my at RM80/year together pays a combined RM200/year — a modest outlay next to the cost of losing the plain .my version to an unrelated overseas registrant, or having to rebrand later because a competitor already held the name on one extension or the other.

Why MYNIC made this change

MYNIC has publicly linked the change to a growth target: reaching 400,000 registered .my domains, up from where the count stood before the relaunch. Opening the domain to a global market and pricing registration more competitively were both cited as part of the same push. Removing a registration restriction that only Malaysian-connected registrants could meet is a straightforward way to expand the pool of who can register at all.

The move mirrors a pattern seen with other country-code extensions. .co (Colombia), .io (British Indian Ocean Territory) and .ai (Anguilla) each saw registration volumes climb after their registries dropped comparable presence requirements and let the extension compete as a short, brandable name rather than strictly a national identifier. MYNIC's relaunch applies the same logic to .my — a short, pronounceable extension that reads naturally in English — while leaving .com.my as the extension reserved specifically for registrants who can actually show they're in Malaysia.

What a foreign registrant needs now

Since the change, registering a plain .my domain from outside Malaysia doesn't require a local address, a Malaysian company registration, or any proof of presence in the country. A registrant still needs the standard information any domain registration requires — valid contact details — and goes through an accredited registrar to complete it, the same as registering any other domain extension.

• Not required: a Malaysian office address, a local phone number, an SSM business registration number, or any document proving a connection to Malaysia.
• Still required: a valid registrant name and email address, a payment method the registrar accepts, and agreement to the registry's standard terms — the same baseline any domain registration anywhere asks for.
• Worth doing anyway: using a real, actively monitored email address for the registrant contact, since renewal notices and transfer-authorisation requests go there, not to whatever payment method is on file.

A worked example: the same name, two outcomes

Take a hypothetical business called Northwind Studio, based in the United Kingdom with no Malaysian office, staff or address. Before 20 June 2024, Northwind simply could not register northwind.my — the registrar's eligibility check would reject the application regardless of whether the name was available, while a Malaysian competitor with no stronger claim to the name, but a valid local presence, could register it freely.

Since the change, that asymmetry is gone for the .my extension specifically. Northwind can now register northwind.my the same way it would register northwind.com: search availability, enter standard registrant contact details, and complete payment through an accredited registrar. What Northwind still cannot do is register northwind.com.my without first establishing a genuine Malaysian presence — that eligibility check still runs exactly as it did before the relaunch. The practical effect is that a name previously protected for Malaysian-connected registrants only is now first-come, first-served globally on .my, while staying protected on .com.my.

Does a .my domain still mean “Malaysian business”?

The extension itself hasn't changed what it signals — a .my domain still reads as Malaysian-oriented to a visitor or a search engine the way it always has. What's changed is only who is now allowed to register one, not what registering one communicates. For a business that specifically wants the strongest possible signal of genuine local presence, .com.my remains the more precise choice, since it still requires a real Malaysian connection to register — the eligibility gap between .my and .com.my is, for the first time, actually meaningful in that direction.

Should a Malaysian business register a .my domain now?

If anything, this makes registering early more relevant, not less. A Malaysian brand that hasn't yet secured its own name as a .my domain is now competing with registrants worldwide for that same name, rather than only with other Malaysian-connected registrants. Registering the relevant .my (and, for businesses that want the stronger local signal, the matching .com.my) sooner rather than later avoids finding it taken by an unrelated registrant somewhere else once demand from the newly opened global market picks up.

The cost of waiting is asymmetric. Registering a .my domain costs a one-off annual fee; recovering a name someone else has already registered usually means negotiating a buyout at a price the new owner sets, pursuing a dispute under MYNIC's domain-name dispute resolution policy if genuine trademark grounds exist, or simply choosing a different name and rebuilding brand recognition around it. None of those options is as cheap, as fast, or as certain as registering the name while it's still available.

What to do, by situation

How to register a .my domain, step by step

1. Search the name at a registrar to confirm it is available as .my, and check .com.my at the same time.
2. Choose the registration term; longer terms reduce the number of renewals to track. See multi-year registration.
3. Enter the registrant details in the business's name, not an individual's or an agency's.
4. For .com.my, supply the Malaysian company registration details the registrar asks for.
5. Switch on domain lock and WHOIS privacy, and set renewal reminders to an address you check.
6. Verify the WHOIS record once registration confirms, especially the registrant name and email, since those are exactly what a future renewal notice or ownership dispute relies on.
7. Point the domain at your website and email, or redirect it to your primary domain.

Common misunderstandings

• "The rules changed for .com.my too." They did not; the third-level extensions still require a Malaysian presence.
• "A .my domain no longer looks Malaysian." The signal is unchanged; only eligibility widened.
• "Nobody abroad will want my name." Generic and brandable names are the first to be taken in any newly opened market.
• "I can register it later if I need it." Availability is the one thing a registrar cannot promise.
• "Having the trademark means I automatically get the domain." It helps in a dispute; it does not reserve the name.
• "Registering in the agency's name is fine." The domain should be in the business's name; see who owns your website.
• "MYNIC reviews and approves each application." Registration for .my is now first-come, first-served, the same as .com — there's no discretionary review of who is allowed to hold a given name.

Where Gotka Technologies fits

Gotka registers .my domains from RM120/year and .com.my domains from RM80/year, alongside hundreds of other extensions from RM10/year, through Gotka's domain registration service — every registration includes domain lock, WHOIS privacy protection and free transfer-in as standard. For help deciding between .my and .com.my specifically for a Malaysian business, see our guide on .my vs .com: which domain should a Malaysian business register, and once a domain is registered, domain lock, explained covers the one setting worth checking is switched on.

Key terms used in this guide

• MYNIC: the registry that administers Malaysia's .my country-code domain.
• Country-code domain (ccTLD): a two-letter extension assigned to a country, such as .my for Malaysia.
• Second-level domain: a name registered directly under .my, in the form yourname.my.
• Third-level domain: a name registered under a category beneath .my, such as yourname.com.my.
• Local-presence requirement: a rule that a registrant must show a genuine connection to the country.
• Accredited registrar: a company authorised by the registry to sell and manage domains.
• Registrant: the person or company recorded as the domain's owner.
• Domain lock: a registrar setting that blocks transfers until the account holder switches it off.
• WHOIS privacy: a service that hides the registrant's contact details from public lookup.