ICANN ( , eye-can ) is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers . ICANN is a non-profit corporation that was made on September 18 , 1998 . The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN , ) is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey , California , United States , that was created on September 18 , 1998 , and incorporated on September 30 , 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S. government by other organizations , notably the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority ( IANA ) .