Revocation Reports for .CEB and .LUPIN

Two new gTLDs were just revoked. The two dotBrand Top-Level Domains are:

1. .CEB
2. .LUPIN

Read the Revocation Report for .CEB here. The .LUPIN is available here.

3 new Sunrise Periods coming for .HAIR - .SKIN and .BEAUTY new gTLDs

3 old new gTLD properties of L'Oréal were acquired by serial entrepreneur and are now relaunched. The Top-Level Domains concerned are:

1. .HAIR
2. .BEAUTY
3. .SKIN

"Parce que je le vaux bien"

The official ICANN websites just announced that all 3 Sunrise Periods will start on 1 Decembre 2020 and end on February the fifth, 2021. There is a Trademark Claims Period and an Early Access Period.

For more, check the .HAIR sunrise details, other new gTLDs have the exact same dates.

Official: the .FORUM new gTLD

This publication follows our previous post about the .FORUM new gTLD.

The update is dated November the fourth and it appears that the start date for the Sunrise Period has changed to the 16 of November 2020.

The general availability starts on March the second, 2020.  

.BEST to reinforce partnership with Backend

The .Best Registry today announced that is reinforcing its strategic partnership with Backend Registry provider before launching THE.Best social commerce innovation.

"As we are now close to the Best social commerce app launch, we have decided to strengthen our backend operations to support our .Best domains distribution from the Best app” said Cyril FREMONT, Chief Executive Officer of the .Best Registry and THE.Best social commerce".

.Best Registry will be the first Top-Level Domain to distribute .Best domains from the Best app. 

THE.Best social commerce onboarding already started with social media early-adopters: Cyril.Best, Hotels.Best, Adrien.Best, Julian.Best, Alexandra.Best, Christophe.Best, Joao.Best, Pizzas.Best, Sonia.Best, Miami.Best, Foodlover.Best, Fashionista.Best, Jesuis.Best, Cars.Best, Foodvegas.Best, Chaussures.Best, Jean.Best, Fabrice.Best, Heloise.Best, Stephane.Best, Luxe.Best, Music.Best, Games.Best, Kevin.Best, Emilyinparis.Best, Hotels.Best, Watch.Best, Trailer.Best, Djs.Best, Luxury.Best, Foodparis.Best, Wines.Best, Show.Best, Book.Best, Laptops.Best, Spas.Best, Karim.Best, Maillotdefoot.Best, Parisien.Best, Foodnyc.Best, Steven.Best, Valerie.Best, Foodla.Best, Restaurants.Best, …

About .Best (Top-Level Domain): .Best (THE BEST SAS) is the Registry Operator for .Best domain names and already counts +100K .Best live domains registered in 180 countries.

.Best mission is to develop THE.Best social commerce as a new rewarded social media solution for 4B social media users and a new promotion and e-commerce opportunity for brand & business owners.

 .Best Websites:

• Register your .Best Domain Names : www.go.best
• Join THE.Best Social Commerce : www.the.best
• Protect your Best Trademarks : www.brands.best

New gTLD Project John Wolley WANTS YOU !

2023 is not so far away and to be set up before the next round of new gTLD starts, I look for (a) partner(s) interested in financing new gTLD innovation. 

What is project John Wolley?

The project is a combination of local directories operated behind a single domain name extension: "domain names as a service". In more simple words, project John Wolley is a Universal Directory with plenty of great ideas inside to make this project both a "solidaire" and a lucrative one.

Are welcome:

• Accredited Registrars,
• Existing Registries,
• Backend Registry providers,
• Financial Institutions,
• Experienced Entrepreneurs willing to invent something new.

For a detailed explanation of the project (under NDA), contact Jean Guillon.

Countries interested (as of today):

• United States of America
• Bulgaria
• France
• Luxembourg
• Belgium
• United Kingdom
• Germany
• Mexico

Just terminated: the .LUPIN dotBrand new gTLD

The .LUPIN new gTLD was terminated by its owner and this is what the termination of registry agreement says:

"As you are aware, “.Lupin” TLD was never technically or operationally activated or used by Lupin in any manner. Hence, pursuant to the Registry Agreement (RA) for .LUPIN gTld between ICANN and Lupin Limited dated 07 NOV 2014; we hereby notify our intention to not renew the Registry Agreement beyond the period for which the last payment was made by Lupin and that the Registry Agreement be treated as terminated. You are requested take the termination on record and return to us all information / data belonging to Lupin Ltd."

Read the Termination of Registry Agreement here (PDF download). 

Read the ICANN Notice of Registry Operator Request for Termination of Registry Agreement for  .lupin TopLevel Domain here. (PDF download)

 

The .BEST new gTLD and THE.BEST Social Network (update)

As you might probably know, THE.Best social media has now made an important shift to become an innovative social commerce app where social media users can not only review but also promote their best products and services.

Cyril Fremont, CEO of the .BEST new gTLD wrote a few lines to explain in details the new social commerce direction that he is now taking according to the .Best mission : "Turn every social media user into a .Best seller".

Why social commerce ?

Social commerce is one of the hottest trends in social media today, and it seems to have an even bigger impact in 2020.

30% of online shoppers say they would are likely to buy direct from a social media network like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat.

Instagram data tells us that 70% of shoppers look at Instagram for product discovery: https://www.facebook.com/business/instagram/shopping

Instagram is actually transforming its business model to enable social browsers to buy directly from instagrammers.

In China, Social Shopping via videos is currently performing extremely well. There are efforts from short video apps like Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese sister) that match merchants with content creators for promotion. During the coronavirus lockdown, millions of consumers relied on live videos to check out products and posed questions to merchants remotely, a practice that has won endorsement from local governments as a way to drum up domestic consumption. In just Q1 this year, more than 4 million live shopping sessions took place in China; but that's not only a natural evolution of social media, E-commerce platforms are also evolving to social commerce.

Chinese e-commerce giant and pioneer of shoppable videos Alibaba is looking to recruit over 100,000 international influencers this year – rising this number to 1 million influencers by 2023 – to help brands sell more across the globe through the group’s international retail platform, AliExpress, which claims to have 180 million annual active consumers: https://twitter.com/FremontCyril/status/1315938584525000705

To be 100% clear about THE.Best vision: https://twitter.com/FremontCyril/status/1315704910068023296

• WEB 1.0 from 2000 to 2010 was the rise of e-commerce platforms (amazon, alibaba, ...)
• WEB 2.0 from 2010 to 2020 was the rise of social media platforms (facebook, instagram, twitter, ...)
• WEB 3.0 starting 2020 will be the rise of social commerce.

What about social media user motivations in 2020 ?

There are actually almost 4B active social media users (+10% YoY): https://twitter.com/FremontCyril/status/1315594932875415552

Social media statistic uncovers that an average of 3 hours are spent per day per person on social networks and messaging.

But more importantly: 54% of social browsers use social media to research products (Source GlobalWebIndex). More and more buyers are joining social media networks and looking for reviews and product recommendations. Here is the summary of social media users motivations in 2020 :

• Social Media Browsers : Research products. (Ex : +350 MAU on Pinterest )
• Social Media Creators : Monetize their content (Ex : 39% active influencers on Instagram)
• Business Owners : Promote their products. (Ex : 80M Facebook Business pages)
• Brand Owners : Protect their trademarks. (Ex : 7M Registered Trademarks)

What about THE.Best social commerce value for social media users?

• Social Media Browsers : THE.Best provides an open social commerce app that let social media browsers discover (feed), research, find and review the best products/services in any category (hotels, high-tech, beauty, fashion, ...)
• Social Media Creators : THE.Best provides a unique curating solution that help content creators monetize their audience promoting the best products.
• Business Owners : THE.Best provides an innovative digital solution that help business owners promote their Best products through influencers.
• Brand Owners : THE.Best provides a dual digital protection for official trademark owners : https://www.brands.best.

What is THE.Best secret sauce and unique curating innovation for social media creators ?

Curating content is adding your voice (and value) to an existing handpicked collection of content. Gathered from a variety of sources, around a specific topic, that you publish and share with your social community. Many brands already use content curation on their owned and operated websites and blogs to promote industry news stories, but social media is the marketing platform where curation happens most. Social media content curation takes place when a marketer filters through all of the interesting content online and shares the best news, video, images, etc. he/she finds online on a company’s social networks.

In THE.Best social commerce app, each post is a commodity, so that curating content means promoting other products. So that, THE.Best social commerce app enables content creators monetize their social media audience by curating best products on a dedicated .Best social commerce website. Every social media user can build its own .Best social commerce website just by curating other best products and services. By promoting others products, social media users win rewards for each click coming from their .Best social commerce website.

What about Brand & Business owners ?

As a Brand and Business owners, THE.Best content curation helps you promote your best products from thousands of social commerce websites. Brand and Business owners can achieve data-driven marketing at a scale with minimum effort.

How content curation is important for social networks ?

Internal content curation is the growth key of most social media platforms :

• Twitter has its Tweet/Retweet content curation,
• Pinterest has its Pin/Board content curation,
• THE.best has its Best(product)/.Best(websites) content curation.

What's THE.Best plan ?

THE.Best Social Network new social commerce features (promoting your best products) will be available by next week for influencers, vip, business and brand owners through a new apple store (testflight) and google play app version.

THE.Best unique product curation features will be available by end of 2020 with the new social commerce website template.

The .FORUM new gTLD is here

The ICANN just announced the Sunrise Period for the .FORUM new gTLD.

WHEN

• Starts: 15 November 2020
• Ends: 15 December 2020

WHAT THE APPLICATION SAYS

Fegistryʹs mission for .forum is to create a recognizable, viable, and profitable extension to bring together individuals and companies who are passionate about self-identifying with forum.

There are thousands of forums on the Internet and a registrant can create a website that identifies itself directly in the TLD. It seems fitting, as ICANN opens up an unprecedented and innovative program to expand how we use and identify with the Internet, that use cases like .forum should be allowed as well. 

We are creating the opportunity for internet users to identify websites that operate as forums by looking just at the TLD. By owning a domain in the .forum community it creates a win-win for most companies because they don’t need to identify to the left of the dot they are a forum.

It is our goal to be a financially successful company, solvent throughout our launch and profitable within our first year of operations. We believe this is an eventual reality and that our projections and financial analysis included in this application demonstrate this.

We hope to grow at a rate that allows us to continually improve our registry offerings, and increase benefits for both our customers and employees.

Our commitments and projections at this time are focused on conservative estimates of our revenue in order to best prepare for a TLD market with the possibility of 100,000+ TLDs in the next decade.

We don’t expect the demand for domains under our TLD to be big. Perhaps up to 10,000 registrations by the end of year 3, however we do have investors and a technical team that will stand behind the company if projections are higher than we anticipate.

For more, check the details here.

Will it be .WEB or .WED ?

Well, it seems that it won't be .WED since the Notice of Registry Agreement Termination by ICANN is now written and the TLD is being terminated.

Yes, there is a .WEB on its way and it is a strong barrier to launching a .WED but it does not absolutely mean that a future launching  of the .WEB (probably by Verisign) could not be transformed as an advantage to develop .WED (previously, that TLD stood for "wedding").

My opinion on this

I can hardly believe that the people behind .WED did not make it to sell their TLD because when I emailed asking for a price I got an error in return ! The details were provided by ICANN (...)

When a TLD is failing, you don't make an offer, you ask for a price. These guys just let the full TLD project fail because they didn't know how to handle the situation. Note that this is a good lesson to learn: when "you don't know", please ask those who do because there always is a solution and a SWOT analysis is just one of them. And actually, THERE ARE BUYERS around.

News from the .BASKETBALL new gTLD

The "Fédération Internationale de Basketball" (FIBA) just updated us with some noticeable info:

1. The Trademark claims period will open on the First of February 2021;
2. The Limited Registration Period (LRP#4), which started yesterday on the 21st of September, will end on the 31st of January 2021.

This is at least what the ICANN website says.

Number of domain names registered in total (as of today): 324

The .CONTACT new gTLD: some fresh news

The .CONTACT new gTLD was delegated in 2015 and a date was finally announced for its Sunrise Period.

Donuts Inc (Dog Beach, LLC), owner of this domain name extension, announced that the Sunrise Period will start on the 29th of September 2020, and end on the 28th of November 2020.

From what I understood from this project, there should be "a little more" than just registering a domain name when you go for your ".contact". Also, the TLD Marketing asset kit from Donuts offers nothing for this string so...can that be a sign that the .CONTACt new gTLd will be different from other TLDs? Let's wait and see what comes out.

More details here.

Why you should NOT apply for a .BRAND new gTLD

I read LOTS of publications about how fantastic .BRAND new domain name extensions are, and I fully agree that they are a wonderful tool.

I noticed that none covers why one applicant should NOT apply: no new gTLD specialist explains what can the disadvantages be to submit a .BRAND type new gTLD application so here is my personal cover published on CircleID:

There are two kinds of new domain name extensions: those dedicated to selling domain names through the network of accredited Registrars and those dedicated to a personnel use. I call these "dotBRANDs" or ".brand" new gTLDs since they are used — most of the time — by Trademarks for their own benefit. This article focuses on .BRAND new generic Top-Level Domains. In the ICANN vocabulary, these are "Registry Agreements with Specification 13”...

Read the full article here.

Gartner kills .CEB new gTLD after acquisition

Gartner Inc. terminated the Registry Agreement for .CEB after acquisition. This is what the content of the letter to the ICANN says:

Gartner, Inc. is the successor-in-interest to the Corporate Executive Board Company “CEB”), having completed an acquisition of CEB in 2017. This letter is to notify you that pursuant to Section 4.4 (b) of the Registry Agreement (RA) between ICANN and The Corporate Executive Board Company of April 9, 2015 Gartner, Inc. hereby terminates the RA for CEB. The Corporate Executive Board Company kindly asks if ICANN can initiate the termination process as soon as possible. Please do let us know if any further information is required.

Termination letter is available here (PDF download)

The ICANN Preliminary Determination letter is available here.

Termination of Registry Agreement for .JCP

On 23 April 2015, ICANN and JCP Media, Inc., entered into a Registry Agreement under which JCP Media, Inc., operated the .jcp top-level domain.

J. C. Penney Corporation, Inc. jut terminated the .JCP new gTLD on June the 23rd, 2020. Read the letter here (PDF download).

The ICANN acknowledged:

"In conformance with Section 4.5 of the Registry Agreement (as modified for a .Brand TLD), ICANN org may not delegate the TLD to a successor registry operator for a period of two years without the Registry Operator's consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed."

Read the answer here (PDF download)

Unfortunately, I can't point to JCP.com since the front page says: "We Are Currently Unable to Provide a Shopping Experience for This Country" (France).

ICANN to ACTO on .AMAZON : now talk to AMAZON

ALEXANDRA MOREIRA, Secretary General of the ACTO* wrote to the ICANN again with the intention to "to resume negotiations on the TLD’s governance with the Amazon Corporation., from the point where their side interrupted it, with a view to arriving at a satisfactory agreement." The letter can be downloaded here (PDF download).

Göran Marby, President and Chief Executive Officer Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) kindly answered some sort of a "no" with the option to talk directly to AMAZON:

"ICANN no longer can serve in a role of facilitating negotiation of the means..." and "I kindly encourage the ACTO Member States to resume negotiations with the Amazon Corporation ..."

"The process to complete the delegation of the .amazon top-level domain spanned over many years and took into account the interests of the applicant for the strings, the interests as expressed by ACTO and its member states, , and the relevant ICANN’s multistakeholder processes as limited through the ICANN Bylaws." 

The full ICANN answer can be downloaded here.

*The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) is an Intergovernmental Organization formed by eight Member Countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, encouraging sustainable development and social inclusion in the region.

The COVID ended the .SHRIRAM new gTLD

This is the Notice of Registry Operator Request for Termination of Registry Agreement. The .SHRIRAM Top-Level Domain was terminated.

The notice was sent in May by SHRIRAM and it is due to the COVID situation:

We refer the registry agreement dt.23.01.2014 entered by Shriram Capital Ltd with you. Due to unprecedented Covid-19 effect on the business, we have no other option but to terminate the registry agrcement with effect from 3l't March 2020. We request you not to transit the domain name .SHRIRAM to any third party as we are the registered trademark owner of the name SHRIRAM. We requcst you to kindly do the needful at the earliest.

Download the notice of termination by the ICANN (PDF download)

Just updated: the .GAY new gTLD

The TLD Startup information page from the ICANN website was just updated with detailed information for the .GAY new gTLD. Important Dates:

• Sunrise Period: 10 February 2020 to 31 March 2020;
• Trademark Claims Period: 11 May 2020 to 07 December 2020;
• Limited Registration Period: ''Sunrise II'' - 6 Apr 2020 to 6 May 2020.

Check the official page.

Want to learn more about "the next Round"?

I keep having that question: "when is the next round?" and "what's your estimation?". Well, I like to give my opinion but ICANN history has clearly demonstrated that no date should ever be given unless it was published by the ICANN itself on its website somewhere. So no, I don't think it will be in 2022.

The next Applicant Guidebook

The applicant guidebook (also called the "AGB") is your next Bible and believe me, reading it is a total nightmare when you have no knowledge of the new gTLD application procedure: don't let this 338 pages PDF block you from submitting your application. By the way, the document I am referring to is dated 2012: it is the official documentation from the previous round of new gTLDs, the existing one is still being discussed and written.

I want to learn more

So you want to learn more? There is a way. Again, don't think that you will understand all of it but the positive thing about this is that there is documentation at the moment, a lot of it. The next official guidebook is being drafted and you can even contribute. Note that you will need to select the right group(s) to follow and learn to work in the distance doing meetings in the middle of the night and receive documentation that only the person who wrote it understands it. That is how it works but if you succeed in following the work group (which is a very big deal for me), you will start to understand what's coming upfront for the next round of new gTLDs. You will also understand how tortured are the participants ;-)

Where do I go?

I am only interested about "new gTLDs" so the path that I would suggest to follow is this one:

1. Visit the "New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP Home" (see here);
   
2. In the left column, there is blabla but point 2 tells you when the next meetings are (you will have to scroll down the list for the latest meetings). Note that these pages are then updated with the content of the meeting and an agenda is proposed prior to each meeting. It is this content you want to follow-up with to have an idea of what the actual discussions are for the next round of new gTLDs, and this is what you will probably read in the next Applicant Guidebook.
3. To receive plenty of email with updates about ICANN new gTLDs, you can subscribe here: all reminders and publications related to active projects are emailed there (if you would like to join an active working group, you will need to email your request).
4. Point 3 is king of disorganized and some subjects are outdated, I stick to point 2 personally.

My opinion on this process

I think it is a long one but I am the only one to think that, or am I? Also, you have to perfectly read English...but everyone speaks English right? I would love to be able to contribute more but the ICANN vocabulary is dictated by those exact same service providers you will have to talk to, to submit your new gTLD application so it is hardly understandable for new comers. For this exact same reason some will select the wrong service provider and pay an haw-full price for the submission of their application and its maintenance.

When it is time

At some point, the ICANN will give us a date. At that moment, you will have decided to apply because your project will also have been prepared upfront: this is important, don't get there with your first questions. A few things to consider:

1. Talk to more than one service provider AND DON'T LISTEN TO THE ONE THAT TELLS YOU ABOUT HIS FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE BECAUSE EXISTING FIGURES CLEARLY SHOW THAT MANY PROJECTS HAVE FAILED ;-) Remember that there has been one ICANN new gTLD round only in the history of Internet. 
2. Don't tell about your string but at the last moment and be very careful about NDAs: meeting with more than one service provider in competition in the same room is the number one mistake.
3. Don't sign a stupid contract with an exit fee or a minimum number of domains to create: try to get a price per domain created below the $1.
4. Don't forget about the annual 10,000 ICANN tax: if your plan is to create a .BRAND new gTLD, it WILL cost you a lot to use you personalized domain names.
5. Consider innovation and not just selling domain names.

The .ZUERICH new gTLD is here

The ICANN just made a modification to the official TLD Startup Information page related to the .ZUERICH new gTLD which was delegated in...December 2014.

Sunrise Period

• 01 December 2020 to 04 February 2021

Trademark Claims Period

• 24 February 2021 to 26 May 2021

Additional Periods

1. Limited Registration Period (LRP #1): 1 Apr 2020 to 31 Aug 2020
2. Qualified Launch Program (QLP): 21 Nov 2017 to 23 Sep 2019
3. Limited Registration Period (LRP #2): 4 Jan 2021 to 4 Feb 2021

Mission/purpose of the .ZUERICH new gTLD:

The content below was extracted from the official application submitted to the ICANN (and I got rid of the boring part):

The Canton of Zurich is one of the largest of Switzerland’s 26 Cantons, or national districts, and is home to the city of Zurich, which is the largest city in the country. The city has throughout its long history played an important role in the cultural and historical development of the Swiss Confederation and the country’s national identity.

The TLD “.ZUERICH” will be an expression of self-understanding and autonomy for the local state of Zurich and is anticipated to promote local industry, scientific interests, tourism and marketing, and to highlight the high standard of living in the Zurich region in a globally-visible and easily recognized format.

Long term, effective marketing of the “.ZUERICH” TLD is an important part of this plan, which will be effectuated through the careful and well-orchestrated cooperation of the city of Zurich, the Zurich Tourism office and the Canton itself. The key elements of the ISDM strategy include: i) unique and permanent positioning of the new “.ZUERICH” TLD, ii) preserving and enhancing the reputation of the space, iii) maintaining the well-regarded reputation of the Zurich brand, and iv) development of a common entry site for the name space (see Attachment 1 to our response to Question 48).

The applied-for TLD string, “ZUERICH,” represents the phonetic pronunciation of the German-speaking Canton. In German, the spelling of the Canton is “Zürich”. The Umlaut over the “u” in the word produces a “ue” sound, leading to the pronunciation of “Zuerich”, corresponding to the proposed TLD text. Thus, it has become standard amongst Swiss Internet users, when typing, to replace “ü” with “ue.” The logical TLD for the Canton is therefore “.ZUERICH.”

The Mission and Purpose of the “.ZUERICH” space

The new gTLD “.ZUERICH,” is intended to support the new branding project of Zürich on the Internet.

The “.ZUERICH” TLD shall provide a comprehensive vehicle through which the Canton may communicate not only with citizens, companies, and organization within its region, but even with individuals and companies worldwide who, in one way or another, interact with the Canton of Zurich.

Initially, the Canton will reserve all domain names under “.ZUERICH” to itself, and may later elect to license domain name registrations under “.ZUERICH” to its affiliates such as, but not limited to i.e., Cantonal and city governmental departments and municipalities, cultural and artistic organizations, or transportation authorities. The Canton may further decide to license the use of second level domain names to other affiliates.

The Canton of Zurich will oversee all registrations for the space, and will be the only authorized registrant of domains. This provision will be made clear in, and enforced via, the applicable Registry-Registrar agreement. All registrars offering “.ZUERICH” domain names for registration will be aware of this requirement, and will be provided with sufficient information to enable them to verify whether a potential applicant for a domain name is in fact the properly authorized entity. The single-registrant nature of the space will provide the Canton with necessary monitoring opportunities, to ensure that the TLD is used only for appropriate purposes and to display relevant content.

The Canton anticipates benefiting from this new space by providing a single comprehensive and helpful location where interested parties can learn more about the opportunities available in Zurich. Visitors and long-time residents alike will come to view gTLD “.ZUERICH” as the natural “go-to” for information about the area. Used in this way, the Canton expects the gTLD “.ZUERICH” to play an important role in its new branding project for Zürich.

Backend Registries don't speak French

One might be surprised by such title but as a person involved in creating and promoting dotBrands and other generic new gTLDs, there are a few things that I see...and one that is now obvious is that Backend Registries don't speak French (but a very few).

Creating a new domain name extension requires to think upfront about a strategy but also...about service providers. The Backend Registry is a mandatory service provider when creating a new Top-Level Domain but unfortunately, the offer is limited in France because of our language: Backend Registries don't offer French as a language.

No French? You don't exist

There is a demand in France and interested parties in creating their domain name extension usually proceed through their accredited Registrar, sometimes their Law Firm and sometimes...directly through the Backend Registry provider. I usually talk to the Backend Registry first and fortunately for me, I speak, write and read English.

I like to go straight to the point and just like everyone in business, I like to limit the number of subcontractors. In more simple word, if I had the project to create a new gTLD, I would talk directly to the appropriate service provider and to me, that provider is the Backend Registry: the better when he  has a presence in your country or speaks your language.

I will speak french for you

There are coming Backend Registries (preparing their offer for the next round) and existing Backends; but from my Top10 list, one website offers French only and I believe that this is potential lost business for the others because addressing to one in his language breaks the first barrier to business. 

As a new gTLD Consultant based in Paris, I will offer that service to introduce your Backend Registry offer to French, contact me and will explain how.

Innovation comes with the .RIP new gTLD

The first time that I heard about the .RIP new gTLD (which stands to me for "Requiescat In Pace" or "Rest In Peace"), I first thought: who's mind is tortured enough to invest money in creating such a new domain name extension and...WHO ON EARTH is going to buy domain names ending in ".rip" ?

My way of thinking

The thing with new gTLD is that it take time to adapt to a new domain name extension: end users - who absolutely don't care about domain names (but professionals) - can only be surprised to read a new domain name for the first time, and when it does not look "standard", one can doubt. I imagine one can doubt when it reads a domain name ending in ".rip".

Thinking twice

Many have gone through the terrible experience to go to the cemetery and bury a loved one. I have and I really loved that person. When going through such a terrible experience, some need to go forward and leave past behind, but some need to return to the cemetery to spend a moment thinking, in front of the grave. It is my case. This is where I believe the .RIP new gTLD makes sense to people like me.

The .RIP new gTLD

If "rip" can have a negative meaning, it can have a very positive one too and that's what I realized a long ago after listening to so many people say : "wow, this TLS is gloomy".

The truth is that the .RIP new gTLD answers one question that the funeral industry has not yet imagined: what is that useful service I could sell to that person who wants to visit his loved one's grave when the distance to the cemetery is too far away? I answered that question.  

"Do it yourself"

A few years ago I though that the funeral industry would jump on that idea and the .RIP Registry would become a success. I also thought that if I was in that business, I would build a business on this. Recently, I checked the stats from the .RIP new gTLD and noticed a small 4,000 something domain name registrations so I understood that no funeral business found a way to use these tool as  a service they could sell.

A few weeks ago I thought about it again and while I had time to spend at home, I realized that such a service should not be so difficult to created: very hard to market and sell but not so difficult to build online, so it is wad I did.

Tombe.rip

The need was a product, an presentation of that product and a way to buy that product. It is what I created on Tombe.rip : a service to buy a grave for the loved one...on Internet. This service is available in French right now.

The .CLUB Registry turns 6

Congratulations to the .CLUB Registry on which this Blog was developed as soon as it launched.

I remember talking to the Registrant of the same ".info" domain names prior to the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program to start but the owner (a guy from the Registry itself)...did not even answer me in time. I also considered the .NEWS Registry but it came later so I went for the .CLUB and developed my visibility on this great and short domain name. Congratulations to the .CLUB Registry which is now in position 8 of the TOP 10 with a total of 1,372,931 domain names created (source nTLDStats).

Read the full article here.

The .SYMANTEC new gTLD was terminated

The .SYMANTEC Top-Level Domain was terminated by the ICANN. This follows the termination notice (PDF download) sent by Symantec Corporation on the 12 of March 2020. this is what the notice of registry operator request for termination of registry agreement returned by the ICANN for the .SYMANTEC Top-Level Domain says:

On 12 March 2020, Symantec Corporation notified ICANN org of its intent to terminate the .symantec Registry Agreement entered into on 04 December 2014. Pursuant to Section 4.4(b) of the Registry Agreement, Registry Operator may terminate the Registry Agreement for any reason upon one hundred eighty (180) calendar day advance notice.

Pursuant to the terms of Section 4.5 of the Registry Agreement, as modified by Section 6 of the Specification 13 (.Brand TLD Provisions), ICANN org consulted with Symantec Corporation to assess whether to transition operation of the .symantec top-level domain (TLD) to a successor Registry Operator.

Subject to an ongoing evaluation, ICANN org has made a preliminary determination that operation of the .symantec TLD need not be transitioned to a successor Registry Operator. ICANN org’s review and determinations regarding transition to a successor registry are subject to Section 4.5 of the Registry Agreement (as modified for a .Brand TLD).

ICANN org’s preliminary determination to not transition the TLD to a successor Registry Operator is based on the following rationale:

1. .SYMANTEC qualifies as a .Brand TLD.
2. Transitioning the TLD is not necessary to protect the public interest.

In conformance with Section 4.5 of the Registry Agreement (as modified for a .Brand TLD), ICANN org may not delegate the TLD to a successor registry operator for a period of two years without the Registry Operator's consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed.

Before releasing its final determination, ICANN org will consider input provided by interested parties via email at XXX@icann.org. The deadline to submit input is 30 May 2020 – 23:59 UTC.

UPDATE: the .MEET new gTLD

Just updated (27 April 2020)

Would Google be preparing the "After Covid-19" period with this update on the .MEET new gTLD? This is what the ICANN just published for the .MEET new gTLD Sunrise Period:

• Sunrise Period: 25 May 2020 to 24 Jun 2020;
• Trademark Claims Period: 25 Jun 2020.

Strange

Surprisingly - and again, I think I have an idea but I wish that someone else could explain this - the official application is pointing to the .MEET application from Afilias: a competitor of Google Registry: both are Registries and Back end Registry solution providers so I guess that .MEET is probably not going to use Afilias' platform for its operations. 

What the application says

I will get back on this if I have an explanation but I extracted the content below from the application from Afilias since it is the only one available:

There is currently a proliferation of online dating and companionship services on the Internet. Research shows that there are over 1,500 Internet dating sites in the U.S. alone, creating confusing choices for consumers. Most consumers do not have the time, money, or desire to use the services of more than a few dating services. As a result of this fragmented industry, consumers have limited choices of people to select from when they seek their ideal date or the perfect companion.

The purpose of .MEET is to create an Internet namespace which could be used by visionary entrepreneurs and⁄or the existing online dating and companionship matching providers to become the gathering place on the Internet for many of the more than 40 million online companionship seekers.

This new online namespace could be used to create a .MEET portal destination to facilitate the creation of secure, confidential and easily accessible Internet identities to enable Internet users to find registrars to become registrants of .MEET.

.MEET domains could also appeal to organizations supporting the online dating and companion industry. Online dating and companionship services may be interested in obtaining a .MEET domain to differentiate their services from other businesses that are now using a .COM, .NET, .INFO or other all-purpose TLD.

Registrars could collaborate with leading industry vendors to create new and never-before possible services to leverage the unique and easily identifiable .MEET registrant. Using existing or new offerings, .MEET registrants may want to create personalized, secure and anonymous Internet identities to make themselves easily discoverable by the entire universe of online relationship seekers.

The .MEET domain name and the registrants that obtain the .MEET TLD would help to catalyze a more efficient online dating and companionship service on the Internet. Using simple match-making features, large numbers of .MEET registrants, over time, could motivate visionary entrepreneurs or a visionary industry player to provide a more complete, market-driven service for consumers.

People would quickly come to know that others are actively seeking relationships and they can become easily discoverable under a .MEET domain. Over time, facilitated by new apps and virtual communities, visionary entrepreneurs, registrars and new and existing industry players, using proven social media capabilities, could help .MEET registrants to create more and better content to expand the size of the virtual community they serve. As the .MEET TLD is increasingly adopted and content accrues, search engines could modify their algorithms to specifically target .MEET sites and content, making the TLD even more accessible, relevant and useful. Due to these dynamics, we anticipate that we could have 15,000 domains under management (DUMs) after three years.

The .RIGHTATHOME new gTLD was terminated

ICANN answer to Notice of Registry Operator Request for Termination of Registry Agreement - .RIGHTATHOME new gTLD.

  

On 18 March 2020, Johnson Shareholdings, Inc. notified ICANN org of its intent to terminate the .rightathome Registry Agreement entered into on 23 July 2015.

Pursuant to Section 4.4(b) of the Registry Agreement, Registry Operator may terminate the Registry Agreement for any reason upon one hundred eighty (180) calendar day advance notice.

Pursuant to the terms of Section 4.5 of the Registry Agreement, as modified by Section 6 of the Specification 13 (.Brand TLD Provisions), ICANN org consulted with Johnson Shareholdings, Inc. to assess whether to transition operation of the .rightathome top-level domain (TLD) to a successor Registry Operator.

Subject to an ongoing evaluation, ICANN org has made a preliminary determination that operation of the .rightathome TLD need not be transitioned to a successor Registry Operator. ICANN org’s review and determinations regarding transition to a successor registry are subject to Section 4.5 of the Registry Agreement (as modified for a .Brand TLD).

ICANN org’s preliminary determination to not transition the TLD to a successor Registry Operator is based on the following rationale:

1. .rightathome qualifies as a .Brand TLD.
2. Transitioning the TLD is not necessary to protect the public interest.

In conformance with Section 4.5 of the Registry Agreement (as modified for a .Brand TLD), ICANN org may not delegate the TLD to a successor registry operator for a period of two years without the Registry Operator's consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed.

Before releasing its final determination, ICANN org will consider input provided by interested parties via email at (email_was_modified_here@icann.org. The deadline to submit input is 20 May 2020 – 23:59 UTC.

This is standard procedure to terminate a new gTLD application.

Read the full request from SC Johnson on LinkedIn.

UNR and GoDaddy Registry

"We're preparing for the next Round"

There have been many announcements recently: Uniregistry (the Registrar) being acquired by GoDaddy and GoDaddy acquiring another Registry's business with Neustar Registry: isn't this a preparation for the next round of the ICANN new gTLD program? "Oh yes it is".

UNR 

Many followed the news when GoDaddy acquired most of Uniregistry's business (the Registrar and domaining business marketplace, as well as the CEO's domain name portfolio). It is an announcement when a Registrar acquires another. In this deal, GoDaddy acquired all BUT the Registry and Backend-Registry businesses from Uniregistry. It means that Uniregistry kept these two businesses. Since Uniregistry ("Uni" ?) now belongs to GoDaddy, it now makes sense to change name, and that new name is "UNR" (which seems to mean "Uni Naming and Registry). I like short names but please, get rid of "Uni" because in becomes confusing.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy, the number one Registrar in volume of domain names registered, and which acquired Uniregistry, also acquired a Corporate Registrar named Brandsight but it is still unclear to me if this acquisition was to acquire the company's portfolio or if it plans to do develop a serious Corporate Registrar offer for its clients. Note that this would be welcome.

GoDaddy which had a "Retail Registrar" identity is now developing other identities: the Corporate Registrar one and the Registry one too (I would like to add the Backend-Registry identity too but the Neustar Registry acquisition remains unclear about this business).

Note that I make a difference between the Registry's business and the Backend-Registry's one since one is the governing body of a domain name extension selling to Registrars, when the other is the tool to allow the Registry to create domain names and there is a financial connection between those two: the Backend-Registry usually sells to the Registry; because most Registries cannot afford (or have the technical knowledge) to own their technical solution. They usually sub-contract this operation.

GoDaddy Registry

Very recently, GoDaddy made the acquisition of a major player's business named Neustar Registry: not "Neustar" but its Registry's business only. This is a major announcement because GoDaddy was not present in the first Round of the ICANN new gTLD program. It applied to its own dotBrand (the .GODADDY new gTLD) but never used it. The funny thing is that its  .GODADDY domain name extension is operated by another Backend-Registry provider (...) which is not Neustar Registry (I would understand that this changes soon).

Now GoDaddy plans to become a major player in the new gTLD business, this could hurt a lot the Corporate Registrar's businesses since they were the one to offer the .BRAND application nad management service to their clients, subcontracting the technical part to Backend-Registry solution providers such as Neustar Registry. Note that Neustar was neither a Corporate nor a retail Registrar - and GoDaddy is already a Registrar, the most important one worldwide. Getting into that business means that future new gTLD applicants (.BRAND - Cities and Entrepreneurs) could be offered a key-in-hand-solution, having their digital assets operated by the same service provider, all in one place:

• A Registrar (Corporate or Retail) for their domain name portfolio management: all possible operations in all TLDs (legacy TLDs, almost all new gTLDs and almost all ccTLDs);
• A Registry (.BRAND - Generic, Community or Geographic TLD) for the technical operations of their new gTLD:
• .BRAND domain names operated in the exact same place where they manage their other domain names;
• Tools to operate a Registry dedicated to selling domain names to the general public maybe? Note that the solution provider to offer that service would probably be king, we learnt a lot from the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program and the complexity around the understanding of the process and the submission of an application were a serious issue: the provider to simplify that and what comes after...gets my serious attention.
• All other solutions (website hosting and marketing, email, brand and domain name monitoring, security, etc...) invoiced in the same place!

My thought on all this

UNR keeps the Registry and Backend-Registry's businesses but recently announced that it intends to develop it. The word that I read in a press release was "dotBrand" by its CEO, and my understanding of this reading is that UNR will be present in "Round two" of the next ICANN new gTLD program with a new gTLD probable offer for entrepreneurs but also - and more precisely - for Trademarks with an offer for .BRAND new gTLD applicants. This is an important information for me because there won't be so many service providers with an offer around. Let's hope that they will consider the French market (JC: reading this?)

The strange thing about all this is that GoDaddy acquired someone else's business for the Registry and Backend Registry's businesses (Neustar) so there must be a reason behind this. The positive thing is that UNR will be in competition with GoDaddy for its Registry offer(s) and "price" is what made Uniregistry a good service provider because it was "cheap" (it was cheaper to buy a domain name with Uniregistry than Godaddy) so let's hope that their Registry solutions will be cheaper too.

What about Google Registry?

I stand-by because Google, not only offers a free technical registry platform (the Back-End Registry solution) but it also became a Registrar in 2014 and its domain name business is developing fast. Google also operates its own Registries on its technical platform so the only thing that is missing...is an offer. Round two is a little far away but no one can tell if there won't be an offer in a close future. Note that I already asked Google the question in 2017 and the answer was "no". For those interested in digging in that direction or looking for who's working on an offer, I'd suggest to check Nomulus.foo.

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.

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"

Politics and new gTLDs: 2019 in review

I was first wondering if I would do a single publication for Politics and Legal new gTLDs but since I just learnt that am stuck home due to the Coronavirus' French containment - and it appears that it is going to last for the next 45 days - let's say that...I have time in front of me...

Political new gTLDs
I was already asked twice that question: "what do you use registrations and creations?" Well, this is a very good question because some domain names are not "bought" but they can be created by the registry. Some Premium domain names for example are created but they don't belong to a Registrant (yet) but to the Registry who tries to sell them.

I listed twelve Political new gTLDs and here is what I noticed in 2019:

• Two have more than 10,000 domain name created: .GURU has 55,680 and .BEST has 86,600. At the moment I am writing these lines, the .BEST new gTLD should approach the 100,000 creations;
• Three strings are very close one to the other: .VOTE - .VOTO and .VOTING can create lots of confusion to Registrants (domain name owners) who would want to build a website around the subject. I would personally register all three of them and use the .VOTE new gTLD since it is the word used in several languages. Two of these strings are stagnating and .VOTING lost half of its registrations since January 2019.
• Three of these TLDs have a negative meaning: .GRIPE - .FAIL and .EXPOSED. This is why I added them to this report. All have their registrations to decline in volume and all are below 5,000 domain names. I did not add the .SUCKS new gTLD. It was added to the Adult new gTLD report.
• Three other Top-Level Domains are seriously political and represent two political parties. None has more than 1,500 domain names created:
• .DEMOCRAT (volume of domain names has declined since January 2019);
• .REPUBLICAN (volume of domain names has declined since January 2019);
• .GOP (volume of domain names has stagnated since January 2019 for a total of 1,146 domain names in December).
• Five Top-Level Domains on a total of twelve had more registrations in December than in January. The .GIVES new gTLD is one of them with...1,774 domain names created in December 2019.
• The only political new gTLD to have "exploded numbers" is the .BEST new gTLD which started 2019 with four thousand registrations only and ended it with more than 80,000 !
• I wonder how long it takes for American political parties to clearly identify under a .DEMOCRAT or a .REPUBLICAN

Read the full report here.

Coming: "Legal new gTLD: 2019 in Review"

How SKY is improving the use of its .SKY new gTLD

I recently shared with Dawn Shackleton, Head of Online Brand Protection (Sky Technology) at Sky. Dawn is also Vice President of the Brand Registry Group so she often meets with other .BRAND new gTLD applicants. Dawn is also the person to talk to for the .SKY new gTLD.

The .SKY new gTLD

I had read about this job offer: a position related to the .SKY new gTLD and the SKY domain name portfolio (which must be an important one). I dug a little about .SKY and noticed that SKY is one of these rare .BRANDs to do something with its TLD. In France, we have the .ARTE new gTLD but I found no reference using a ".arte" domain name but redirections. I then asked her if anything new was coming and here is what I wrote down:

• The use of dotSKY is building month on month;
• Its primary use is for Corporate purposes and the growth of use stems from the decision to move Sky's corporate website over to skygroup.sky from being a sub domain of sky.com;
• The most recent website is productionservices.sky which showcases Sky first class TV production talent and studio facilities for hire;
• Their biggest success to date is the adoption of sub domains of contact.sky that they use where 3rd party agencies are sending bulk emails out to customers or internal Sky people. This gives assurance to people that the email they are receiving is authentic.

This is why you need your .BRAND

Did you read that sentence from Dawn: "This gives assurance to people that the email they are receiving is authentic". There are other reasons to apply for a .BRAND but this short sentence is one of the main reasons why Banks and other major Trademarks should acquire their own dotBrand domain name extension.

Being able to seal an email is one thing that a personalized domain name extension allows: ".com" or any other domain name extensions do not offer that option.

Just Updated: the .CYOU Sunrise Period

The Sunrise Period details page at ICANN was recently updated with something new:

• Sunrise Period: 14 May 2020 to 15 Jun 2020;
• Trademark Claims Period: 16 Jun 2020 to 14 Sep 2020.

This Registry was acquired recently but the latest purpose of the TLD was not updated on the official ICANN application so I am not providing it here.

More here.

New gTLDs for Catering and Culinary: 2019 in review

We, French, like Food...and actually, this report is one of the first that came to my mind in 2016 when I started to publish weekly (then monthly) domain name registration volumes from specific industries. There were three applicants for the .FOOD new gTLD and one only for the similar IDN Top-Level Domain (.食品) which makes that string exist in two versions: English and Japanese. The funny thing about this example is that the Japanese version (belonging to AMAZON) has more domain names created - 58 in total - than the ASCII version which had one only in December 2019. It stuck to one since it was delegated in November 2016.
I compiled a list of 23 Top-Level Domains and noticed a few things for catering and culinary new gTLDs in 2019:

• There is another IDN for the .RESTAURANT Top-Level Domain. It is its Chinese version, the .餐厅 new gTLD. If the ASCII version had a total of 8,000 domain names in December, the Chinese version had 70 (but it is increasing).
• There were seven .BRANDs new gTLDs and three were withdrawn before 2019. One .BRAND is active, it is .FAGE which has created 61 personalized domain names in total but none were created in 2019 (it stuck to 61 from January to December).
• The three withdrawn applications were .PAMPEREDCHEF and surprisingly, the two other were from McDonalds: .MCD and .MCDONALDS. I wonder how long it will take McDonalds to submit an application again :-)
• Two ASCII TLDs exist in two languages: French and English: the .COFFEE (19,521 registrations) and .CAFE (15,959) new gTLDs.
• The two surprises of the year are .BAR and .REST: both had more than 20,000 domain name creations in December. The two of them gained an important number of creations in the end of 2019: +12,000 for .BAR in November and +16,000 for .REST in December. Interesting, isn't it? Note that I am not sure about .REST and still wonder if it means "restaurant". It is possible that I remove it from this report in the future.
• I personally like the .EAT new gTLD which is operated by Google but for some reason, nothing happens with it and it sticks to two domain name creations. I can't wait to see what's Google plan for this one.
• The other TLDs listed here do progress slowly, very slowly in volume.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "New gTLDs for Sex and Alcohol: 2019 in Review"

Interview: Ten Years Between New gTLD Applications Is Too Long

This is an interview from David Goldstein: Domain Pulse Q&A With Jovenet Consulting’s Jean Guillon. If interested in new gTLDs, I strongly suggest that section from Domain Pulse entitled "New gTLDs"

Dismay at the time it’s taking for ICANN to launch a new round of new gTLD applications is an underlying theme for Jovenet Consulting’s Jean Guillon in today’s Domain Pulse Q&A, as well as it’s the insiders who are framing the new applicant guidebook and the larger companies are the ones with the resources to put into submitting applications from an anticipated overly complicated applicant guidebook. But it’s not all dismay as Jean is excited about the future of new gTLDs, the .BEST registry, and he has a French city waiting to apply for its own gTLD and he believes he’s worked out what works and doesn’t.

Questions asked by Domain Pulse:

1. What were the highlights, lowlights and challenges of 2019 in the domain name industry, both for you and/or the industry in general?
2. What are you looking forward to in 2020?
3. What challenges and opportunities do you see for the year ahead?
4. How have new gTLDs fared in 2019?
5. What progress do you see on a new round of applications for new gTLDs in 2020?
6. What one thing would you like to see addressed or changed in the domain name industry?

Read the full interview here.

New gTLDs for Photography: 2019 in Review

Photography is very much present on Internet: the web is a great way to introduce visual elements to a public. For this reason probably there are so many new domain name extensions dedicated to photography. I listed 25 of them and here is what I noticed in 2019:

• There are seven .BRANDs and most popular photography Trademarks are represented: .CANON - .NIKON .PANASONIC and the .SONY new gTLD. Surprisingly, one Trademark withdrew its application (a long ago): the .OLYMPUS new gTLD.
• By the way, CANON is launching this in April 2020 and it is the most active photography .BRAND new gTLD in terms of usage: it added 10 new domain names to its total of registrations since January. Canon uses 48 personalized domain names.
• Did you notice: isn't .CAM is very close to .COM? I 'd consider such extension in terms of Brand Protection.
• Three TLDs have more than 50,000 domain name creations (and increasing) and .ART is number one from that list with a total of 72,703 domain names registered. It had 44,920 in January.
• Three domain name extensions are very similar: .PHOTOGRAPHY - .PHOTO and .PHOTOS : these similar new gTLDs can become a nightmare in terms of strategy if you forget to buy...the three of them for the same second level domain you planned to use. Let me explain: if you buy whatever.photo and forget to register whatever.photography and whatever.photos, chances are high that a third party will do it in the future. This is a risk in terms of Brand Protection.
• All nine TLDs above 10,000 domain name registrations (but one) had more domains created in December than in January: that is a positive sign, adoption is coming. The .DIGITAL and .VIDEO are some of them.
• Nine extensions from that list did not maintain their registration level from January to December and .WEBCAM, which started the year with a total of 54,270 domain names created, only had 5,773 in December...
• I see some sort of competition between .FILM which ended the year with 4,511 registrations and .MOVIE (3,268 registrations). We would use the word "film" in French, but not in Spanish. English speaking person would use "movie" I guess. French tend to use complete stupid names with hyphens sometimes so I guess that the movie industry should be approached in France.
• There is a .MOV (for movie I guess) operated by Google but it sticks to 2 domain name creations. I would be Google, I'd use for the Movie section of YouTube. Hey wait! There is a .YOUTUBE and a .TUBE too.
• My opinion on why .PICS does not meet with adoption is that the meaning of the string is already too old: worldwide bandwidth now allows to have fast access to media content, aren't "pics" kind of old now?
• I like .FILM, come on dotFilm, open a virtual branch in France, there is space for you ;-)

Read the full report here.

Coming: "New gTLDs for Catering (and Culinary): 2019 in Review"