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18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.buydot Buy Limitedfamousfourmedia.comView
Q18A
Mission and Purpose of .buy?
The Applicant’s mission and purpose is to create an environment where individuals and companies can interact and express themselves in ways never before seen on the Internet, in a more targeted, secure and stable environment. Its aim is to become the premier online destination for such creators and their wide range of users. The Applicant will create an Internet space whose central function is to provide a platform for creating, producing and disseminating informative, creative and innovative content that is easily recognizable as pertaining to its stakeholder group. The Applicant is acutely aware of the importance of ICANN’s mission in coordinating the global Internetʹs systems of unique identifiers and ensuring their secure and stable operation. The Applicant’s core focus is to create a secure, sustainable, and specialized gTLD, thus supporting ICANN’s primary goals for this program in promoting consumer trust, consumer choice, competition and innovation.

Why .buy?
Buying products or services online is very popular with internet users. There is a sense that shopping is something to look forward to, a treat or reward. Not only is this sense achieved through the goods themselves, but also the act of exploring and purchasing them. Therefore, the aim of .buy is to enhance and develop the consumer experiences of online shopping.

Since its inception the internet has revolutionized the way we communicate, empowered hundreds of millions with knowledge and created a platform where global commerce can thrive. However, access to the countless benefits and opportunities which the internet offers can often be hindered when navigating the ever-expanding sea of irrelevant and sometimes malicious content which also exists.

Thus, the aim of .buy is to create a blank canvas for the online shopping sector set within a secure environment. The Applicant will achieve this by creating a consolidated, versatile and dedicated space for the shopping sector. As the new space is dedicated to those within this affinity group the Applicant will ensure that consumer trust is promoted. Consequently consumer choice will be augmented as there will be a ready marketplace specifically for enterprises to provide their goods and services. All stakeholders within the sector will be able to sample reactions to new ideas, or gather thoughts on the improvements of established ones. This will drive innovation and competition within the shopping sector as there will be new channels available not yet fulfilled by current market offerings. This new environment will cause registrants to seek new ways to separate themselves from the competition.

How will .buy take shape?
The Applicant believes that the success of the gTLD will be determined largely by the sector’s key global stakeholders. These stakeholders will be interested in registering a domain and additionally be motivated to protect their sector from detrimental practices. The Applicant believes that stakeholders should have the opportunity to influence the gTLD and the way it is governed. Accordingly, the Applicant is establishing a Governance Council (“GC”), consisting of key stakeholders that will serve as an advisory body.

Why Applicant?
The Applicant has substantial combined experience amongst its team in managing global businesses from a financial, legal and operational perspective and an exceptionally strong financial position. The Applicant’s Team has previous experience with the entire gTLD life-cycle significantly lowering any launch and ongoing operational risks associated with this application. The Applicant has engaged a world-class Registry services provider to manage the technical infrastructure of the .buy gTLD. The Applicant is further advised by the leading sector experts in all other areas required to ensure a responsible and successful launch and ongoing management of the gTLD to the benefit of all stakeholders in the ICANN community.

Information for future studies and reviews
The Applicant recognizes the connection of the new gTLD application to the Affirmation of Commitments (“AoC”). To gauge the success of the new gTLD program, the Applicant recognizes that an AoC Review Team will be formed one year after the first delegation. To prepare for this, the ICANN Board resolved the creation of a Working Group to formulate definitions of competition, consumer trust and consumer choice and possible metrics for the future AoC team to consider in its gTLD review. The Applicant understands this effort has not been adopted by the ICANN Board, but many of the proposed metrics may be used to gauge the Applicant’s gTLD effectiveness and the gTLD program. The Applicant intends to track costs and benefit metrics to inform future studies and reviews. Proposed definitions are:
- Consumer Trust is defined as the confidence registrants and users have in the consistency of name resolution and the degree of confidence among registrants and users that a TLD Registry operator is fulfilling its proposed purpose and is complying with ICANN policies and applicable national laws.
- Consumer Choice is defined as the range of options available to registrants and users for domain scripts and languages, and for TLDs that offer choices as to the proposed purpose and integrity of their domain name registrants.
- Competition is defined as the quantity, diversity, and the potential for market rivalry of TLDs, TLD Registry operators, and Registrars.

Promoting Competition
Given the proposed definition for competition, the Applicant will attain this by contributing to the quantity and diversity within the Registry Operator space. The Applicant is a new entrant enhancing competition among the providers. The Applicant will promote competition for Registrants by amongst other things:
- Building a healthy growth trend of domain registrations
- Measure migration of content from other TLDs
- Maintain competitive pricing of domains

Promoting consumer trust
.buy will be developed with consumer trust and satisfaction in mind. After 2 years of operations, the Applicant will conduct a survey to measure consumer trust and consumer satisfaction. This will be used to improve the service. The Applicant will among other things measure the following:
- Service Availability of Critical Registry Systems
- Abuse and Takedown incidents
- Rights protection incidents
- WHOIS data accuracy

Promoting consumer choice
The Applicant intends to promote consumer choice by achieving the following:
- Display of registration requirements and restrictions in the gTLD
- Highly available and geographically diverse Registrar channel
- Effective sunrise and trademark services

Domain names will be available globally, although the Applicant’s initial marketing efforts will be predominately directed to potential Registrants represented by the six (6) official languages of the United Nations (“UN Languages”), Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian and Spanish.
After the initial 2 years it is the Applicant’s aim that:
- Registrants globally should have access to Registrar services for the gTLD in at least the six UN Languages
- The gTLD is offered by Registrars covering at least 40 Countries and territories globally

Information on the effectiveness of safeguards
The Applicant takes rights protection and abuse prevention and mitigation very seriously and has developed policies accordingly. Amongst others, the Applicant will collect and evaluate data regarding:
- Effectiveness of the Sunrise process in limiting abusive registration practices
- Effectiveness of the additional Abuse Prevention and Mitigation (ʺAPMʺ)and Rights Protection Mechanisms (ʺRPMʺ)in limiting abusive registration practices
- Effectiveness of the mandatory APMs and RPMs
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gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.sydneyState of New South Wales, Department of Premier and Cabinetdpc.nsw.gov.auView
The mission and purpose of the new .sydney gTLD is to promote the city of Sydney, including its residents, culture, events, commerce, institutions and landmarks by creating a dedicated, authoritative online space that extends and strengthens in the online environment the City of Sydney pride and brand.

The .sydney gTLD will create a new generation gTLD serving the interests of residents of Sydney and the State of New South Wales (NSW) and internet users in general looking for products, services and information relating to Sydney, NSW, Australia. The .sydney gTLD will be a domain space specifically dedicated to information with a direct relevance and connection to the city of Sydney. It will provide a unique internet space that supports businesses, residents, community groups, local and state government bodies and the visitor economy in NSW. The .sydney gTLD will offer these potential registrants innovative marketing opportunities and a new channel of communication focused on their local area. Internet users will also benefit from the .sydney gTLD through increased quantity of reliable and customer-focused, locality-specific content.

As the applicant for the .sydney gTLD, the State Government of NSW, through its Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC), aims to invest in the future of Sydney by promoting Sydney as a great place to live, work, invest, visit and learn, leveraging pride of place and the strength of the Sydney brand. This application for the .sydney gTLD by the DPC has the full support of the Government of NSW and City of Sydney government.

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the capital of Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales. The greater metropolitan area of Sydney’s 38 Local Government Areas (LGAs), including the City of Sydney, has over 4.5 million inhabitants. In 2010, Sydney was ranked 7th in Asia and 28th globally for economic innovation in the ‘Innovation Cities Top 100 Index’ by Innovation Agency 2thinknow (www.innovation-cities.com⁄innovation-cities-top-100-index-top-cities⁄). Sydney was also ranked 11th in Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s 2011 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey (www.mercer.com⁄press-releases⁄quality-of-living-report-2011#Asia-Pac).

The registration of second level domain names within the .sydney domain space will only be available to businesses registered in NSW, visitor economy service providers registered with the NSW Government, local government, community groups and residents with a NSW, Australia address. These criteria for registration are imposed to ensure that the .sydney gTLD presents reliable and trustworthy information relevant to activities, businesses, community groups, organisations and government bodies with a connection to Sydney. The .sydney gTLD will be an online space where eligible registrants are required to use domain names in a manner that is not illegitimate or inconsistent with the mission and purpose of the .sydney gTLD. The .sydney gTLD is intended to encourage business viability and growth by providing a dedicated and targeted online geo-distinctive presence and innovative marketing opportunities. This will benefit internet users and promote competition in the marketplace.

The internet has created a means for global communication and interaction, allowing for greater levels of information exchange, as well as facilitating efficient business transactions. Information about Sydney is widely available on the internet, allowing internet users worldwide to easily access online information regarding work, life, entertainment or tourism in Sydney. A dedicated .sydney gTLD will, however, provide a clearly labelled and relevant resource for internet users, including visitors to Sydney and NSW, bringing together and giving easier access to information about events, businesses, communities, government bodies, landmarks, and organisations in or related to Sydney. The .sydney gTLD will meet the need for a specific online space to target NSW residents and businesses and will enhance the strength, pride and value of the Sydney brand. The number of registrations in the .sydney TLD by the end of year three is projected to be 36,122 domain names.

The mission and purpose of the proposed new gTLD share ICANN’s initiatives to promote public interest. DPC is committed to contribute towards achieving such initiatives in line with ICANN’s Affirmation of Commitments, which includes:
– consumer trust: the .sydney gTLD registry will operate as a registry where only visitor economy service providers registered with the State Government of NSW, local government bodies and NSW resident individuals, businesses and community groups will be able to register domain names, as set out in the .sydney registration policy. All domain names will be registered at the second level. Consumers will be able to have greater confidence in the information provided under the .sydney gTLD knowing that the information is provided by businesses, government bodies or NSW residents or groups that meet the eligibility criteria. As domain names within .sydney will be subject to registration standards, policies and procedures, the incidence of abuse and cybersquatting (through adequate protection of trademark holders) will be significantly lower than in open TLD spaces;
– competition: the .sydney gTLD will contribute to the initiatives of competition and consumer choice through its operation focused on promoting consumer trust and convenience as well as providing an alternative domain name space to registrations in other TLDs. The .sydney gTLD will provide more choice for registrants to clearly distinguish themselves in the online environment by demonstrating their direct connection to Sydney, the capital of NSW, Australia. Increased trust in the .sydney gTLD will drive existing and new top level domain (TLD) registry operators to make improvements in mechanisms to improve consumer trust of their TLDs; and
– consumer choice: the proposed new gTLD will enable user-driven improvements promoting the Sydney brand, with second level domains to be registered only by eligible registrants. This will allow consumers more choice and options to register domain names. It will also enable more and easier interaction with local government bodies, community groups, businesses and organisations, as well as encourage competition between these potential registrant groups to best interact with such consumers. The .sydney gTLD will operate a registration policy to have effective and well-balanced oversight over registration and use of the domain names, which will also contribute towards general service innovations on the internet.

In its endeavour to promote and expand the .sydney gTLD, as well as maintain consumer trust and the stability of the internet, DPC will comply with all operational, technical and policy requirements. DPC will keep ICANN reasonably informed of any material developments relating to .sydney gTLD including compliance with the continued operations instrument obligations as set out in Specification 8 of the Registry Agreement.

DPC does not initially intend to utilise Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). However, as the use of the .sydney gTLD evolves, it is anticipated that DPC may decide to utilise IDNs within the .sydney domain space to allow internet users to engage with .sydney in their native language and via their local website, creating a more positive user experience and encouraging diversity. In accordance with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, and as specified in the response to Question 22, geographic names will not be available for registration without prior agreement from the relevant government or review and approval by the GAC.