AIPPI - FORUM Brand strategy in light of new top level domains Hector Ariel Manoff amanoff@vmf.com.ar Helsinki, September 6, 2013
History of the domain name industry: the pioners DATE DOMAIN COMPANY March 15, 1985 symbolics.com Symbolics April 24, 1985 bbn.com BBN Technologies May 24, 1985 think.com Thinking Machines July 11, 1985 mcc.com Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation September 30, 1985 dec.com Digital Equipment Corporation November 7, 1985 northrop.com Northrop Corporation January 9, 1986 xerox.com Xerox January 17, 1986 sri.com SRI International March 3, 1986 hp.com Hewlett-Packard Bell Communications March 5, 1986 bellcore.com Research 2
History of the domain name industry: the pioners DATE DOMAIN COMPANY March 19, 1986 ibm.com International Business Machines March 19, 1986 sun.com Sun Microsystems March 25, 1986 intel.com Intel March 25, 1986 ti.com Texas Instruments April 25, 1986 att.com AT&T General Motors Research May 8, 1986 gmr.com Laboratories May 8, 1986 tek.com Tektronix July 10, 1986 fmc.com FMC Corporation July 10, 1986 ub.com Ungermann-Bass August 5, 1986 bell-atl.com Bell Atlantic August 5, 1986 ge.com General Electric 3
DOMAIN NAME IN NUMBERS FIRST COMMERCIAL DOMAIN NAME : SYMBOLICS.COM IN 1985 In 1992 15.000.COM In December 2009 192.000.000 In December 2012 4
TLD Overview for August 30, 2013 All TLD 146,572,639 All TLDs 110,443,929.COM 15,156,640.NET 10,367,756.ORG 6,338,134.INFO 2,423,926.BIZ 1,842,254.US 5
TOP TLDS BY ZONE SIZE Top cctld Registries by Domain Name Base, Fourth Quarter 2012 1..de (Germany) 2..tk (Tokelau) 3..uk (United Kingdom) 4..cn (China) 5..nl (Netherlands) 6..ru (Russian Federation) 7..eu (European Union) 8..br (Brazil) 9..au (Australia) 10..fr (France) 6
The experience of Trademark owners and the future Domain abuse is a business with low overheads, no barriers to entry & few risks (IRT Report) The sale and broad expansion of new TLDs in the open market, if not properly managed, will provide abundant opportunities for cybersquatters to seize old ground in new domains Francis Gurry, WIPO: 16 March 2009 Registrar failure, termination and compliance problems 7
.berlin 8
.eco 9
.gay 10
.radio 11
About ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers ICANN a not for profit corporation based in California ICANN administers domain name system & directly manages 24 generic Top Level Domains (gtlds such as.com,.org,.net,.biz, info) Sets technical standards that 270 country code Top Level Domains (cctlds) adhere to (.au,.be,.ch,.de,.es,.fr) ICANN s Mission: To enhance competition and promote choice and innovation 12
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All change ICANN is liberalising the gtld system A permissive application programme to allow anyone, anywhere to apply to run their own gtld registry (if they can pass the evaluation).google as well as google.com.search. 谷歌 ICANN anticipated 500 applications but received 2,091 applications of which 1,930 eventually completed Today 22 gtld registries & 280 cctld registries By 2014, 1200 gtld registries & 300 cctld registries 16
What happened on Reveal Day 13 June 2012 Icann received 1930 applications for a total of 1409 unique strings of which 230 strings have multiple applicants and 116 are IDNs 17
Who applied? Applications by type of TLD 899 47% Keyword 637 33% 255 13% Brand Keyword Brand, Product or Service 73 4% Community 55 3% Geographic 11 1% Community / Geographic 18
Brands Applicants by Sector
IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names) 116 IDN applications Scripts other than ASCII such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic ストア (Store) セール (Sale) 67 in Chinese incl. Richemont, Google, Walmart, L Oreal, Zodiac (for Website, Mall, Shop, I Love You) 15 in Arabic incl. Qatar Telecom, League of Arab States 7 in Russian Cyrillic including Moskva, Kids 20
Most applied for strings.app.art.design 13 11 10 9 8 7.home.inc.blog.shop.llc.book.mail.news.hotel.web.store.love.ltd.cloud Mechanism of last resort: auctions 21
Dominated by the First World North America 911 Latin America 24 Africa 17 22
Geo/Community applications Pr. No String 126 KOELN 148 HELSINKI 199 TOKYO 200 PARIS 230 BAR 244 CYMRU 288 BUDAPEST 294 OKINAWA 303 DURBAN 307 AFRICA 350 MELBOURNE 423 BERLIN 431 WIEN 465 NYC 565 NAGOYA 566 JOBURG 579 DOHA 589 OSAKA 630 NRW 635 LONDON 675 TAIPEI 682 ABUDHABI 761 CAPETOWN 786 ROMA 807 WALES 866 ISTANBUL 881 MOSCOW Pr. No String 1005 AFRICA 1020 ALSACE 1021 GENT 1064 BOSTON 1165 AMSTERDAM 1185 MIAMI 1212 TIROL 1245 MADRID 1310 CATALONIA 1314 DUBAI 1338 KYOTO 1352 SYDNEY 1404 QUEBEC 1416 VLAANDEREN 1518 BRUSSELS 1526 OSAKA 1531 YOKOHAMA 1552 BAYERN 1603 SAARLAND 1653 ZUERICH 1680 HAMBURG 1685 COLOGNE 1722 RIO 1738 BARCELONA 1842 AQUITAINE 1863 STOCKHOLM
Who profits? Total Cost of all 1930 applications $357 Millions Cost per application $185.00 0 24
In or Out Who did and did not apply Pharma applicants: BMS, Pfizer, Sanofi, Abbott, Alcon, Merck, Lilly, Teva but not AstraZeneca, Roche, GSK, Bayer Media & Internet: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, AOL but not ebay, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Zynga Sports: Bike, Cricket, Football, Hockey, Soccer, Ski, Surf, Rugby, Tennis plus Nike, Ping but not Adidas, Puma Fashion/Luxury: Chanel, Gucci, Hermès, Ralph Lauren, Swatch, Tiffany but not LVMH Autos: Audi, BMW, Bentley, Chrysler, General Motors, Fiat, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Landrover, Maserati, Nissan, Toyota, Volvo, Volswagen 25
Status update ICANN expected c.500 applications would be withdrawn 1574 applications have passed evaluation (as of 16/8) Fourteen failures (including McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group) 112 withdrawn applications to date 518 applications received Government Early Warnings Industry player seeking to own industry term (Open vs. Closed) Domain relates to regulated market sector 26
New gtld Issues for TM Owners At the Top Level Permanent string preclusion Commercial disadvantage: competitors leave you behind Uncertainty over the Objection process At the Second Level Policing abusive registrations The cost of defensive registrations New opportunities for malicious behaviors (e.g., phishing) Monitoring registrations in IDN registries Plus, for some, if, when & how to apply 27
What next for applicants * These dates are an estimation only and are dependent on ICANN meeting their internal deadlines. 28
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Imagining the future New gtlds to run in parallel with.coms (not to replace) Education of consumers that dot Brand is a safe environment Business of search to change in age of mobile, social, apps Second & third rounds like dot com boom: 100,000+ new gtld registries in a decade as major brands move away from.com and cctlds The internet address for significant global business Domains not seen as addresses or signposts to content but trusted zones Internet of things: domains embedded Brands in charge of their infrastructure: privatisation of internet 32
Thank you very much for your attention Hector A. Manoff amanoff@vmf.com.ar International Law Firm Buenos Aires - Argentina Tel: +54 11 4371-6100 www.vmf.com.ar The main source of this information is COMLAUDE at http://www.comlaude.com/ 33