18.1 Mission and Purpose of .AUTOINSURANCE
The content of this Answer to Question 18 set forth below describing the plans for Allstate Fire & 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 .AUTOINSURANCE gTLD registry will be a standard, not a community-based, registry. The .AUTOINSURANCE gTLD registry will be a standard registry restricted to AFCIC and its qualified subsidiaries, affiliates, business partners, or others having the Required Agreement. The registry will be closed to registrants who do not have a formal, written agreement from AFCIC or an affiliate of AFCIC, specifically allowing the registration of a second-level domain name in the .AUTOINSURANCE gTLD registry (the “Required Agreement”). There will be no market for second-level registrations outside of registrants that are affiliated with AFCIC and⁄or that have the Required Agreement.
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 in numerous States and provinces throughout the United States, Canada and in the UK. Affiliates of Allstate include, but are not limited to, Esurance and Answer Financial.
The intended future mission of the .AUTOINSURANCE gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace, provided by AFCIC for Allstate and potentially its qualified subsidiaries affiliates , business partners and others having the Required Agreement, as well as for Allstate customers and Internet users in general.
AFCIC has analyzed potential use case options for the type of domain names that will be permitted to be registered and by whom. AFCIC is leveraging Allstate’s experience of bringing critical auto insurance-related information, products, and services to its policyholders in a safer and more trusted environment through a diverse range of media outlets as well as brick-and-mortar agency offices.
The current best thinking involves a business model in which certain generic and geographic domain names would initially be reserved for⁄allocated to Allstate, and potentially its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates, including Allstate agents. This initial limited use will allow Allstate to establish its operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution, coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement, is intended to exempt AFCIC from any annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
AFCIC currently plans a three-stage rollout for the .AUTOINSURANCE gTLD:
1. Stage One
The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve Allstate registering a limited number of .AUTOINSURANCE 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 .AUTOINSURANCE 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 .AUTOINSURANCE 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 .AUTOINSURANCE 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, to .AUTOINSURANCE.
It is in Stage Two that AFCIC will evaluate expanding the operations of the .AUTOINSURANCE 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 business partners having the Required Agreement, 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 Agreement, 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 .AUTOINSURANCE gTLD namespace, AFCIC is confident that while the number of domain name registrations will exceed 10,000 in the first year, registrations will not exceed 100,000 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 the new gTLDs, will take at least five years to be realized and assessed. Any decision to allow registrations by such 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 the response to Question 46. |