HOT: GoDaddy acquires new gTLD Business

Some news deserve to be published and the word to be spread so I apologize for doing the below (my first copy-paste of a press release):

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), the company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs, today announced it is acquiring Neustar Inc's Registry business. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2020.

The Neustar Registry business features a high-performance backend registry technology platform and enhanced domain security systems that enable people and brands to seamlessly connect and transact online with speed, security and reliability.

"GoDaddy is committed to helping everyday entrepreneurs bring their ideas online with the best possible domain name choices," said GoDaddy Chief Operating Officer Andrew Low Ah Kee. "Neustar's registry platform enables us to accelerate that commitment and provides enhanced scalability for future growth. For more than two decades, GoDaddy has used its consumer insight to drive innovation in the domain industry and we'll continue to do so by creating more choice and value for consumers."

The new service will be called GoDaddy Registry and will be led by Nicolai Bezsonoff, currently Senior Vice President and General Manager of Neustar's Registry business. As part of the transaction, GoDaddy will strictly adhere to a governance model that maintains independence between the GoDaddy registry and registrar businesses. GoDaddy has worked closely with both registrars and registries for more than 20 years to help grow a healthy and competitive domains market and it will continue to do so for the benefit of consumers and the industry.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mr. Bezsonoff said, "Our team is thrilled to join the GoDaddy family. We share a strong history of partnership and collaboration with GoDaddy that spans two decades. Additionally, we have the same values, a common culture of innovation, and a mutual vision for empowering individuals, businesses and brands to succeed online."

The Neustar Registry business includes an extensive portfolio of top-level domains, including .biz, .co, .in, .nyc and .us, and supports more than 215 TLDs and approximately 12 million domains. This includes its Managed Registry Services business that provides end-to-end registry management for over 130 brand TLDs and 70 generic TLDs.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP acted as legal advisor to GoDaddy.

About GoDaddy

GoDaddy is empowering everyday entrepreneurs around the world by providing all of the help and tools to succeed online. With 19 million customers worldwide, GoDaddy is the place people come to name their idea, build a professional website, attract customers and manage their work. Our mission is to give our customers the tools, insights and the people to transform their ideas and personal initiative into success. To learn more about the company visit www.GoDaddy.com.

Source: GoDaddy Inc.

.SELECT and .COMPARE Sunrise Periods Start

Two Sunrise Periods are starting today 06 April 2020 and will end on 06 May 2020.

Both TLDs belong to iSelect in Australia, a company offering various Insurance services. The Trademark Claims Period for .SELECT and .COMPARE is the same: 06 May 2020 to 05 August 2020.

To learn more:

1. .SELECT
2. .COMPARE

New gTLD Registry Software by Google

Google now has an official page for the introduction of its free backend registry solution entitled "Nomulus".

Nomulus is the Google solution for new gTLDs such as :

• .GOOGLE
• .FOO
• .HOW
• .NEW
• .SOY
• .みんな
• and a few others.

It previously used Nomulus.foo to redirect to the URL of its free code available for download on GitHub, but there is now an official URL (and logo) presenting the product.

Good to know

When launching a new gTLD , the below is required:

1. The Company (and team) to operate the Registry;
2. Applying for the required TLD at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which means writing the application on the basis of the new gTLD Applicant GuideBook (AGB);
3. The mandatory ESROW service provider;
4. The mandatory backend registry solution provider: Nomulus is the code to create such a technical solution, it does not offer the service to maintain a registry technically. This is very important to understand prior to applying since the backend registry solution provider is one of the most important aspect of a new gTLD project.

Reminder: note that the free Nomulus solution created by Google is just the code, it requires to host the solution and maintain it and Google does NOT offer that service.

Surprisingly, the GitHub repository delivering the Nomulus code also advertises for other technical solutions.

Wipo new gTLD Decisions

Many are already familiar with the official World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Domain Name Decisions' website, which you can subscribe to, to receive a list of these decisions. Each "recent" notified domain name decision is a mix of legacy TLDs (such as ".com" for example), country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) and new generic Top-Level Domains (new gTLDs).

At the new gTLD's Club, we only pay interest in new gTLDs so, this new content entitled "WIPO new gTLD Decisions" will deliver links to decisions using a new domain name extension only.

Religions and new gTLDs: 2019 in Review

This is the last 2019 new gTLD review from Jovenet Consulting and this one is about Religions.

Reminder
In 2019, we collected datas from each registries from specific industries and took a snapshot of their monthly domain name registration volumes, during 12 months. This is the last report from a list of 20 reviews and it is about Religions.

Religions in 2019
The subject is represented in terms of domain name extensions (domain names which ending is the one of a religion, for example, and different from ".com") and most organized religions are represented:

• I listed 20 domain name extensions with a relation to a religion.
• One was withdrawn: the .UMMAH new gTLD (note that this was before 2019).
• Three are International Domain Name extensions (IDNs).
• The .WED new gTLD now benefits from the ICANN Emergency Back-end Registry Operator program. It is a failed project and you hit www.nic.wed in your browser, you can learn more about this program. It still had 35 domain names created in December 2019.
• Two extensions are close one to the other: the .WEDDING and the .WED new gTLDs;
• Two were ended and .ISLAM is one of them: both were "not approved" by the ICANN;
• The Vatican applied for several extensions in multiple scripts: all mean "Catholic" but the .CATHOLIC new gTLD is the only one in use with 13 domain names created in December 2019. Other scripts are not used and have one domain name created only.
• Two are .BRANDs: the .CBN (The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc.) and .LDS (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) new gTLDs. If The CBN uses five domain names in total, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints created one domain name only since the extension was delegated in November 2014.
• Two generic new gTLDs grew in volume in 2019:
• The .CHURCH gained 900 domain name registrations in one year between January and December and ended the year with a total of 24,955 domain names;
• The .BIBLE new gTLD gained 200 and ended the year with 1,694 domains.
• Two generic new gTLDs lots registrations: the .WEDDING and .CHRISTMAS new gTLDs.
• The .FAITH new gTLD dropped from 53,096 registrations in January to ... 4,182 in December.
• The .ISMAILI (the religion) new gTLD had seven domain names created in December 2019 and is one, with the .CATHOLIC new gTLD, religion to effectively use its domain names.
• The .KOSHER and .MORMON had one single domain name creation in December 2019. Operators of these Registries applied for these TLDs...not to use them. Mormons could launch their directory I believe.
• Generally speaking, Christianity is best represented.

Read the full report here.

UPDATE: The .DEALER new gTLD

The official "TLD STARTUP INFORMATION" ICANN web page was just updated with fresh infos about the .DEALER new gTLD.

Official dates:

1. Sunrise Period: 29 Apr 2020 to 31 May 2020;
2. Trademark Claims Period: 8 Jun 2020 to 6 Sep 2020.

What the application says:

• The intended mission and purpose of the .DEALER gTLD is to serve as a trusted and intuitive namespace for the benefit of Dealer.com, its qualified subsidiaries’, affiliates’ customers and other Internet users. The .DEALER gTLD will deepen and broaden these entities’ relationships with those audiences.
• The .DEALER gTLD may be thought of most appropriately as a “Brand TLD” in that it serves primarily to provide a trusted, hierarchical and intuitive namespace for businesses that use Dealer.com’s broad range of online dealership products and services. Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a Brand TLD category, such as the .DEALER gTLD, in the current round, it is widely anticipated in the brand community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs. The .DEALER gTLD is planned to protect Dealer.com’s online presence and identity, expand its marketing and promotion efforts, provide a secure channel for online products and services, and offer a platform through which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of Dealer.com.
• Dealer.com intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .DEALER gTLD to Dealer.com and its qualified partners and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow Dealer.com to establish .DEALERʹs operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement is intended to exempt Dealer.com from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
• After the initial stages of operation, Dealer.com will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through fee-based registrations to parties other than Dealer.com and its qualified partners and affiliates.

There are 3 more stages to read in the application.

FAQs from the Registry website

• The FAQ says there are no Premium domain names but their renewal fee are higher;
• The MSRP for .dealer domains is $1,999 USD for the 1st year (good luck with that): I don't understand what MSRP stands for.
• There are no requirements to acquire a ".dealer" domain name: they can be registered by any individual or business, whether they are authorized domain dealers or not, and can be used for any purpose: this has nothing to do with what the application says and my understanding of this - note that this is not the first time - is that the application published by the ICANN was not updated after changes were made. 

Health and new gTLDs: 2019 in review

Many domain name extensions, "Generics" and "dotBrands" like, were created with a relation to Health. I listed 32 of them:

• Ten are dotBrands (also called .BRANDs):
• One of them was withdrawn before 2019: the .MTPC new gTLD. 
• The .HISAMITSU had 24 domain names created in December, that is six more than in January of the same year. It also means that the Trademark uses its personalized domain names.
• The .MERCKMSD still has not found a use of its domains: it had the same number of creations in December than in January: one. I don't understand such behavior: the TLD was delegated in 2017 and the company pays its providers and the ICANN not to use it. The exact same applies for the .MSD and .CLINIQUE new gTLDs.
• The .LUPIN dotBrand behaved strangely in terms of volumes. This is something that I noticed during 2019 with clients from backend registry Verisign: the variation from a month to the other could be very strange: it gained 10 creations to lose them the month after. This is not specific to the .LUPIN new gTLD but to many other dotBrands.
• The other "medical" dotBrands remaining are:
• the .TEVA Trademark;
• .LUNDBECK
• .AETNA
• .LILLY
• There is one IDN new gTLD: the .健康 ("healthy" in Chinese ).
• Two generic Top-Level Domains are similar: the .DENTAL and .DENTIST new gTLDs and three other are kind of close too: .HEALTH - .CARE and .HEALTHCARE.
• The generic .DDS new gTLD did stick to one single domain name creation from January to December 2019
• The bad news if for .DENTIST - .SURGERY - .DIET - .PHYSIO - .HIV and  .健康 new gTLDs: these generic Top-Level Domains had less domain names created in December than in January of the same year and none had more than 3,600 domains in total at the end of the year. These figures should normally have increased. Note that none lost too many registrations. In some other reports (from other industries), some Registries lost thousands of registrations from a month to the other. It is not the case here.
• The good news is for  all other generic TLDs, their progression curve has been constant:
• Four kept growing in volume month after month:
• .CARE gained an average of 200 domain name registrations per month and ended the year with a total of 23,561 creations. The same for .HEALTH which gained an average of 300 per month to end the year with a total of 12,583 creations. The two others are .CLINIC and .VET new gTLDs.
• Other Top-Level Domains had more domains names created in December than in January of the same year: .HEALTHCARE - .DENTAL - .VISION - .DOCTOR - .RIP - .REHAB - .HOSPITAL and .PHARMACY
• I like what the applications for .VET says: ".VET is a versatile string that is appealing to a broad and diverse group of registrants. This includes veterinary surgeons and physicians, and other medical practitioners devoted to the care of pets and animals. The term also refers to veterinary clinics, educational institutions, providers of veterinary products and supplies, veterinary science periodicals, and others operating in the veterinary field. The term VET also refers to persons with significant experience in an area o field, including those with military service records" 😆. The .VET new gTLD gained more than 1,000 domain names in one year and it seems that war veterans are welcome to use its domain names too.
• Believe it or not, I strongly believe that there is a hidden market for .RIP ("Requiescat in Pace" or "Rest in Peace". I am amazed that non major funeral group has considered taking advantage of this extension: such domain name ending offers hundreds of possibilities to leave a trace on Internet after one has died. The .RIP new gTLD gained 200 creations in one year.
• The .SKIN and .MED new gTLDs stagnated with respectively 8 and 3 registrations.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "RELIGIOUS new gTLD: 2019 in Review"? This will be the last review from 2019.

You probably noticed that there are no stats for 2020. In fact, I maintain them but I have decided not to publish them on a monthly basis. If you are interested in such publications, contact Jovenet Consulting.

New gTLDs for the Law: 2019 in Review

I listed eleven new Top-Level Domains (domain name extensions) which are connected to the law: it can be a profession or a generic term. In 2019, nothing extraordinary happened but here is what I noticed:

• One is a Trademark (a .BRAND new gTLD);
• One is a Chinese IDN (Internationalized domain name);
• The .ESQ new gTLD, operated by Google, was delegated in August 2014 and had two domain names created in January 2019, same as December.
• Four of these Registries have more than 10,000 domain name registrations and the number one had 27,324 domain names beginning of December 2019. Surprisingly, this Top-Level Domain is the .TRADEMARK new gTLD in its Chinese version: the .商标 (trademark) domain name extension.
• Two of these gTLDs exist in English and Spanish: .ATTORNEY and .ABOGADO. Note that "abogado" is the name of a fruit too.
• Three of these TLDs lost registrations during the year, it means that they had less registrations in December than in January of the same year: .LAWYER - .ATTORNEY and .ASSOCIATES
• Two had the exact same number of domain names during the entire year: no increase, no decrease.
• One of the TLDs that I like best is the .POLITIE new gTLD: is stands for "Police" in the Netherlands. It is the only one that I found from this kind: it's the only Police in the world to operate its own domain name extension. The application submitted to the ICANN says: "In addition, an Internet portal for the National Police will offer opportunities for partnerships with local stakeholders and provide a platform for local partners to share information concerning a particular incident or a structural problem within a neighborhood" but unfortunately, I was not able to locate that Internet portal. The .POLITIE new gTLD had eight domain names created as of December 2019.
• The .LEGAL and .LAW new gTLDs both gained an average of 600 domain names from January to December. Adoption is slow by end users but it is there.
• The .PARTNERS Top-Level Domain gained 1,000 domain names in one year.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "HEALTH new gTLD: 2019 in Review"