On January 12th 2012, the internet “real estate” is set to change with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will start taking applications for it’s “top-level domain program” which initially resulted in what we today know as .com, .org, .net, .uk, .ip, etc.
In January, any brand name itself could become a generic top-level down domain extension, supported by an application fee of $185,000, a sufficient justification to have a brand name domain extension the ICANN claims.
The ICANN claims that “dobranding introduces a whole new way to surf the web, enhancing companies’ SEO strategy, heightening protection against interlopers and cybersquatters, and letting brand names serve as web addresses with the potential for a variety of sub-domains.” Marketing Week in the UK has suggested that Deloitte, Canon, Hitachi, Motorola, and Unicef are applying for .brand web addresses.
The website quotes ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom: “ while his organization has established the guidelines and will handle the application process, it is companies’ responsibility to educate consumers about usage. The introduction of a .brand domain is almost like a logo change, and new marketing will need to be done. But I think word will spread pretty fast. You are talking about some pretty major entities in the world that will have their name after the dot and their collective marketing power greatly exceeds that of Icann.”
Fiona Graham from the BBC Technology News also reports that the suffixes such as .car, .think, .coke and .canon don’t have to be roman letters, so for example, they could also be Chinese characters. Some rules do apply - for instance, they must have at least three letters (Icann is holding onto the remaining two letter domains in case new countries are created and require a two letter abridged version).
Dr Jonathan Freeman, a lecturer of psychology at Goldsmiths University in London said that perception will have a lot to do with the dotbrand’s success: "Reassuring consumers is going to enhance the online behaviours and transactions. They'll feel a lot more happy dealing [with] it." Despite this, he anticipates consumers will not immediately take to the new naming conventions.
Understandably, smaller brands are uneasy due to the high price barrier to entry. The entire domain system will also have to advance from its current 200 million names to support 2 billion names in the future. It will be interesting to see how brands will use this to build on equity and how consumers will adapt to changing the way in which they search.
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/10/21/gTLD-Dot-Branding-Deloitte-Canon-Motorola-102111.aspx
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On June 13th, ICANN unveiled 1410 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Prior to this announcement, there were 280 ccTLDs or country code top level domain names, and only 22 “generics” in existence. During the recent gTLD application period, open from January 12th to May 30th of this year, 1930 candidates entered the pool - 751 names were duplicated by 231 applicants (.app, .cloud, .deals, .family to name a few). Many companies applied to register their brands (.google, .deloitte) or community (.halal, .ngo), some in several languages including non-latin scripts. For complete list of strings applied for, see http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/application-results/strings-1200utc-13jun12-en .
There are varying views regarding the introduction of the new “generics.” Some businesses feel pressure to apply for gTLDs despite having zero interest in running a domain registry. Other companies see it as a big opportunity to make money – Google has applied for over 100 lower-level names, for example, as buyers into the standard model for registries. There are parties who prefer only an exclusive number of companies being granted a particular gTLD to convey legitimacy to users. While there are some who do not think that domain names should be sold at all.
ICANN insists that they have “extensive intellectual-property protections” in place in an effort to prevent trademark infringements. There is also a high cost to apply - $ 185,000, $25,000 per year if accepted. ICANN, however, does not have any say over registries once gTLDs are granted.
In all, I think the Economist sums it up pretty well: “the .net will .never be the same again.”
http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/video/overview-en
http://www.economist.com/node/21556994
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