18.1 Mission and Purpose of .ALLSTATE
The content of this Answer to Question 18 set forth below describing the plans for Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company’s (“AFCIC”) registry constitutes the “purpose” of the registry as that term is used in Paragraph 1.b. of Specification 9 of the Draft New gTLD Registry Agreement found in Module 5 of the Applicant Guidebook dated January 11, 2012 (“the Purpose”). AFCIC will publish its Charter and its policies, guidelines, and other supporting documentation related to the implementation of the registry consistent with the Purpose, all prior to launch. All second-level domain names registered by AFCIC on behalf of itself or an affiliate will be registered through an ICANN-accredited registrar and will be consistent with the Purpose.
The .ALLSTATE gTLD registry will be a standard, not a community-based, registry. The .ALLSTATE gTLD registry will be a standard registry restricted to AFCIC and its qualified subsidiaries, affiliates, or business partners having the Required License (as defined below). For the avoidance of a doubt, the registry will be closed to registrants who do not have a formal, written trademark license agreement from AFCIC’s affiliate, Allstate Insurance Company, specifically allowing the registration of a second-level domain name in the .ALLSTATE gTLD registry (the “Required License”). There will be no market for second-level registrations outside of registrants that are affiliated with AFCIC and⁄or that have the Required License.
The Allstate Corporation and their affiliated companies (collectively, “the Allstate Family” or “Allstate”) comprise a leading insurance group that provides insurance products for autos, apartments, homes, recreational vehicles, motorcycles, boats, personal property, lives and businesses across the country (http:⁄⁄www.allstate.com⁄about.aspx). Allstate is the largest publicly-held personal lines property and casualty insurance group in America with 12,000 agents and operations throughout the United States, Canada, and in the UK. Affiliates of Allstate include, but are not limited to Esurance and Answer Financial.
Recognizing the potential dynamic evolution of a .ALLSTATE gTLD as a trusted brand namespace, Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company, (“AFCIC”) is filing this application to bring the .ALLSTATE gTLD to the Internet. AFCIC is a large insurer writing property and casualty insurance in virtually all states of the United States. Although AFCIC is committed to moving forward with a .ALLSTATE gTLD application, it has not, at the time of filing this application, been able to fully vet and analyze all potential use case options.
The intended future mission of the .ALLSTATE gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace for AFCIC and potentially its qualified subsidiaries, affiliates, or business partners having the Required License, all with the goal of advancing Allstate’s business interests and ability to effectively compete globally.
AFCIC intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .ALLSTATE gTLD to qualified member companies within Allstate. This initial limited use will allow AFCIC to establish its operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution, coupled with its Purpose and the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the Draft New gTLD Registry Agreement, is intended to exempt AFCIC from any annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
AFCIC will be analyzing and evaluating other .BRAND gTLD applications as well as general market adoption to determine meaningful use case options to most effectively serve and enhance Allstate’s online strategy as a leading insurance provider with operations in a variety of segments.
AFCIC currently plans a three-stage rollout for the .ALLSTATE gTLD:
1. Stage One
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve Allstate registering a limited number of .ALLSTATE second-level domain names. This initial use will provide Allstate’s IT and security personnel the time to ensure seamless and secure access using the .ALLSTATE gTLD domain names and interoperability with various software and Web-based applications. This stage will also allow the appropriate Allstate staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the application, delegation, and setup phases of the .ALLSTATE gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.
2. Stage Two
Once all testing has been successfully completed, AFCIC may begin allocating domain names in .ALLSTATE for more widespread corporate use. During this same period of time, AFCIC will begin evaluating strategies to potentially migrate traffic away from Allstate’s current patchwork network of second-level domain names, which are registered in a variety of gTLDs and ccTLDs, to .ALLSTATE.
It is in Stage Two that AFCIC will evaluate expanding the operations of the .ALLSTATE gTLD to permit registration by third parties such as licensees or other strategic partners. Should an assessment of its expansion strategy lead to a decision to extend registration rights to other licensed business partners, this expansion is currently planned to take place during Stage Three, and likely after the first three years of operation.
However, any expansion would be consistent with the Purpose and conditioned upon a review of Specification 9 (Registry Code of Conduct) set forth in the template Registry Agreement to ensure compliance with AFCIC’s business model.
3. Stage Three
Depending upon the analysis of the evaluations undertaken in Stage Two, AFCIC may begin to implement the permanent migration of Internet traffic away from the gTLDs in which Allstate’s domain names are currently registered, and toward the new gTLD. It is in this stage that AFCIC also may implement its decision to extend registration rights to third parties such as licensees or other strategic partners having the Required License, consistent with the Purpose and in compliance with Specification 9 as noted above. The dates of such expansion are subject to change depending upon business, strategic, and industry factors at the time.
After consideration of the following factors: analysis of Allstate’s existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that AFCIC will have full control over the number of registrations in the .ALLSTATE gTLD namespace, AFCIC is confident that the number of domain name registrations will not exceed 10,000 in the first year, nor will registrations exceed 50,000 at the end of Year 5.
Based on its experience to the end of Year 5, and based on its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage Three, AFCIC will assess whether its business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to a broader class of licensees and other third parties, such as customers of Allstate. It is anticipated by Allstate that changes to the domain name industry, and particularly the impact of .BRAND gTLDs, will take at least five years to be realized and assessed. Any decision to allow registrations by such third parties will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion and Allstate’s future business strategies, which in part are identified in the relevant annual report and investor filings, see http:⁄⁄www.allstateinvestors.com⁄.
Utilizing current projections based upon Allstate’s existing businesses, future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, AFCIC estimates second-level domain name registrations to be in line with the projections set forth in the financial template provided in Answer 46. |