| Application ID |
1-2101-67873 |
| Status |
IE Pass |
| Prioritization Number |
106 |
| TLD (#13) |
网站 |
| IDN Translation (#14b) |
Website. Registry wishes to apply .网 (.wang) but current rules disallow 1 char IDN TLD & GNSO policy advises against ASCII squatting (.wang would be ASCII squatting as 1 char IDN TLDs are not allowed) |
| Applicant (#1) |
Global Website TLD Asia Limited |
| Website (#5) |
|
| Application Type |
| Type |
Standard |
| Contested |
yes |
| Contested Numbers |
1 |
| GAC Early Warning |
no |
| Cultural, Linguistic or Religious |
no |
| dotBrand |
no |
| Trademark Class A |
class 41 (education, entertainment, sporting, cultural) |
| Trademark Class B |
class 35 (advertising, business admin, consultancy) |
| Trademark Class C |
|
| Industry Keyword |
generic |
| Remark |
The introduction of a fully generic Chinese IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) TLD also provides an opportunity for global businesses to open a window into the rapidly growing Chinese Internet marketplace. Businesses and initiatives around the world can better communicate and express themselves with a more friendly and memorable online identity to the audience in China. |
| Availability Data |
| Sunrise Period: |
fromunknown tounknown |
| Landrush Period: |
fromunknown tounknown |
| GoLive: |
unknown |
| Registration Policy |
| Restricted |
no |
| Restrictions |
|
| Backend Provider |
ARI Registry Services |
| Registry Website |
|
| Keyword |
| Keyword |
yes |
| English Meaning |
Website. Registry wishes to apply ._ (.wang) but current rules disallow 1 char IDN TLD & GNSO policy advises against ASCII squatting (.wang would be ASCII squatting as 1 char IDN TLDs are not allowed) |
| Appeal Ranking |
5 |
| Appeal Remark |
Most application in Chinese characters. Highly desired for Chinese market. |
| English |
no |
| Spanish |
no |
| Portuguese |
no |
| French |
no |
| Italian |
no |
| German |
no |
| Dutch |
no |
| Swedish |
no |
| Danish |
no |
| Mandarin |
yes |
| Russian |
no |
| Location |
| Region |
Asia Pacific |
| Country |
Hong Kong |
| Community (#19) |
-- |
| Geographic (#21a) |
-- |
| Geographic Category |
-- |
| IDN |
| IDN (#14) |
Yes |
| A-label (#14a) |
xn--5tzm5g |
| Translation (#14b) |
Website. Registry wishes to apply .网 (.wang) but current rules disallow 1 char IDN TLD & GNSO policy advises against ASCII squatting (.wang would be ASCII squatting as 1 char IDN TLDs are not allowed) |
| Script Code (#14d) |
Hani |
| Allows ASCII |
|
| Applicant |
| Applicant (#1) |
Global Website TLD Asia Limited |
| Website (#5) |
|
| Applicant Address (#2) |
15⁄F, 6 Knutsford Terrace, Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong HK
Hong Kong [HK] |
| Applicant Phone (#3) |
+852 3520 2635 |
| Applicant Fax (#4) |
+852 3520 2634 |
| Legal Form (#8) |
corporation |
| Exchange Symbol (#9a) |
|
| Parent Company (#9b) |
Global Website Asia Limited |
| Joint Venture Partners (#9c) |
|
| Primary Contact |
| Name (#6) |
Ms. Rebecca Yuk Ying Chan |
| Title (#6) |
Secretary |
| e-mail (#6) |
globalwebsiteasia@namesphere.asia |
| Secondary Contact |
| Name (#7) |
Mr. Simon Phillip Delzoppo |
| Title (#7) |
Director Representative |
| e-mail (#7) |
simon@ausregistry.com |
| Mission / Purpose (#18a) |
With close to 500 million users online, China is already the country with the most Internet users. However, with a population of over 1.3 billion people, that represents only a penetration rate of around 36%. Part of the challenge for the hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users who have yet to be connected is the ability to navigate the Internet with domain names in their own language. The ability to have complete domain names in Chinese script is seen as providing significant opportunity to these people, as well as offering tremendous value and benefit to the current online users.
The meaning of the TLD string “网站” roughly translates to ‘website’ in English. The purpose of the TLD is therefore to support the development of Chinese websites around the world. Furthermore, the Registry aspires to become a breeding ground for innovation and development for the global Chinese Internet community as a generic Chinese IDN TLD.
The introduction of a fully generic Chinese IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) TLD also provides an opportunity for global businesses to open a window into the rapidly growing Chinese Internet marketplace. Businesses and initiatives around the world can better communicate and express themselves with a more friendly and memorable online identity to the audience in China.
The vision of the .网站 TLD is that through the development of an open generic namespace supporting full Chinese IDNs, it could become a nucleus for Internet activities from and for the Chinese community, and become a driver of economic and social value for Chinese users around the world.
The mission and purposes of the .网站 TLD are:
1. To develop a namespace that is meaningful to the Chinese language community and is globally recognized as a prime Chinese IDN gTLD;
2. To operate a secure, stable and trusted Chinese IDN gTLD with a reputation as a reliable online destination on the Internet;
3. To foster the sense of connection and ownership from the Chinese language community to the Internet, especially to engage participation in global Internet governance;
4. To promote the accessibility of the Internet to the majority of Chinese users whose primary spoken and written language is Chinese; and,
5. To serve the global Chinese language community with an open generic namespace supporting a full Chinese IDN experience.
Based on the broad generic nature of the .网站 TLD, Global Website TLD Asia Limited (the ‘Registry’) aspires to become the domain of choice for individuals and companies developing websites serving the Chinese language community.
In addition to its mission and vision as a new gTLD, the Registry believes in its responsibility as a responsible industry participant to advance competition, enhance consumer trust and promote consumer choice with the development of the TLD:
A. Advance Constructive Competition
The release of IDN TLDs in this new gTLD round is expected to add a significant level of overall competition to the market for domain registrations by introducing an option to register full Chinese domain names based on a Chinese IDN gTLD. The .网站 TLD seeks to especially target to capture the segment of the market that is not yet online, especially those that could find English alphanumeric TLDs to be difficult to manage.
This is important, as it is expected that a number of proposed new TLDs will enhance competition by targeting existing domain registrations and penetrating into the existing marketplace with aims to switch away from or add to their existing domains. As a broad generic IDN gTLD, .网站 aspires to attract a good portion of registrations from amongst new Internet users such as Chinese SMEs that are just about to get online, and be unique to the TLD, rather than primarily being alternative registrations across multiple TLDs.
B. Enhance Consumer Trust
Based on expert studies, Internet users have more trust for domain names that exactly match what they are looking for. Today, Chinese Internet users may still be using English alphanumeric domains because those already online may be more familiar with English. Even so, an absolute majority searches online in their native language: Chinese. A full Chinese IDN is therefore one of the best ways for companies from China or looking to enter the China market, to speak to and be found by the target audience.
The value of the TLD name in itself is therefore a core part of the value and of building consumer trust. Companies can establish their own dedicated domain for videos introducing their company or for online customer support via video instead of using other platforms.
Furthermore, appropriate Abuse Prevention & Mitigation (APM) as well as Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPM) are also important to ensuring a trusted domain space. Further details of APM and RPM beyond the basic ICANN requirements are discussed in response to Question 28 and Question 29.
C. Promote Consumer Choice
The Registry believes that a broadly generic full Chinese IDN TLD promotes choice for registrants to better express their offline identity online without being diluted by the “.ascii” restriction (or be boxed-in to a country code).
Based on recent studies, the majority of the Asian online population is under the age of 30. This young crowd is energetically engaged in social media, with a growing social networking population which surpassed 250 million (the entire Internet population in the US is estimated at 245M) in 2011. Already half of China’s online population is microblogging on Twitter-like services, and that percentage is expected to rise to two-thirds by 2014. The significance of this is that the user generated content is almost exclusively in Chinese language, and therefore it is only natural that the choice of web addresses used should be Chinese. Furthermore, the microblogging scene is not just about teenagers. Companies are scrambling to join this Chinese conversation to promote their brands on the major microblogging platforms as consumers continue flocking to them.
Riding the creative explosion of the Chinese Internet users, the .网站 TLD promotes consumer choice by providing an option for users, including individuals and companies, to utilize different microblogging platforms and integrate them onto their own website under their own domain, rather than to rely and depend on the platform. That also promotes user choice in helping users to regain control of their traffic and reduce the barrier for switching between providers. |