The agency in charge of Internet addresses says it’s given preliminary approval for 27 new suffixes — all in Chinese, Arabic and other languages besides English.

But there are some familiar names among the applicants on the initial list, among them:

  • Verisign
  • Amazon
  • Wal-Mart
  • Samsung

They are the first approved out of nearly 2,000 bids submitted last year. The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers previously said it was reviewing the non-English bids first.

ICANN expects additional approvals in the coming weeks.

Did your company apply for a domain name or a specific corporate address? You can check online for an update.

Final approval is not guaranteed.

“There are three possible outcomes of Initial Evaluation: Pass, Eligible for Extended Evaluation, or Ineligible for Further Review,” ICANN says.

  • Pass – The evaluation panels determined that the application is consistent with the requirements in the Applicant Guidebook and can advance to the next phase of the Program.
  • Eligible for Extended Evaluation – The Financial, Technical/Operational, Registry Services, or Geographic Names evaluation panels determined that the application did not provide sufficient information to award a passing score. The application is eligible for extended evaluation.
  • Ineligible for Further Review – The DNS Stability, String Similarity, Background Screening, and/or Geographic Names evaluation panels determined that the application did not meet the relevant criteria in the Applicant Guidebook, and the application is ineligible for further review.

Winning bidders must now work out contractual and other details. The new suffixes could be available for use as early as the middle of the year.

Proponents of the new suffixes hope the expansion will lead to online neighborhoods of businesses and groups around specific geographic areas or industries and help non-English speakers avoid typing English domain names like “.com.”