sTLD (Sponsored Top-Level Domains)

sTLD is the acronym used for Sponsored Top-Level Domains and refers to any TLD that has a sponsoring organization behind it who can select the registry to maintain the extension (otherwise ICANN will select the registry).  Policies applied to the registry (and in turn the registrars and registrants) are made by the sponsoring organization so long as they are reasonable and based on known standards.  Examples of sTLDs include .asia, .mobi and .tel.