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

Prototypical answer:

18.1. DEFINITION
For the purpose of this answer, we have defined the following in the alphabetical order:

Critical Registry Functions:
Functions that are critical to the operation of a gTLD registry:
1) Domain Name System (DNS) Resolution
2) Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC)
3) Shared Registration System (SRS) by means of the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
4) Registration Data Publication Service by means of the WHOIS protocol
5) Registry Data Escrow

Domain Name Users:
The users of ʺ.sakura:ʺ SAKURA Internet will be the users of the gTLD.

SAKURA:
Japanese Cherry Blossoms

SAKURA Internet:
SAKURA Internet Inc. (Tokyo Stock Exchange MOTHERS:3778)

.sakura Registrant:
The registrant of ʺ.sakura:ʺ SAKURA Internet Inc. is the sole registrant of the gTLD.

.sakura Registrar:
An ICANN accredited Registrar for .sakura:SAKURA Internet will designate the registrar.

.sakura Registry Operator:
The registry operator which will operate the front and back-end registry services and necessary operations to support those services:SAKURA Internet intends to outsource the registry operation to a particular third party.

SLD (s) :
The Second Level Domain (s)

18.2. OUR MISSION
SAKURA Internet Inc. (ʺSAKURA Internetʺ) was established on August 17, 1999, and in just 6 years of rapid growth, we became a public company on October 12, 2005, listed under Tokyo Stock Exchange MOTHERS (Market Of The High-growth and EmeRging Stocks) :Code 3778. Since the IPO, our business has maintained a steady performance and growth by carrying out our services with a company motif, ʺSAKURA,ʺ which has attracted widespread popularity, and we have become one of Japanʹs leading IT companies. While we have been considered as a blue-chip company, securing investorʹs confidence for a long period of time, SAKURA Internet has been selected as one of the 15 component stocks of ʺTokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Core Index.ʺ

SAKURA Internet is a datacenter services provider, and our core businesses are comprised of FIVE service operations: (1) the Colocation services; (2) the Shared Hosting services; (3) the Dedicated Hosting services; (4) the Virtual Private Server (VPS) services; and our most recent business development (5) IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) Cloud Computing services.

We have launched our internet hosting services in December of 1996, prior to the incorporation, and we have been growing the number of users successfully since then.
As of March 2012, we are one of Japanʹs top-class independent data center services providers, and proud of the number of zones delegated by sakura.ne.jp in use that has grown up to approximately 500,000.

The proposed concept (goals) of the ʺ.sakura Initiativesʺ encompass several ideas: (A) protecting the momentum of our business growth and 16 years worth of our penetration with the ʺSAKURAʺ Internet brand, by applying ICANN for ʺ.sakura;ʺ (B) leveraging ʺ.sakuraʺ effectively to achieve advanced user-friendliness and to gain the loyalty of our customers for the purposes of consumer trust and choice; (C) taking advantages of a safer and more secure domain name environment by providing ʺ.sakuraʺ for the purposes of creating new projects and conducting various research and studies; and (D) implementing an environment where we plan =〉 develop =〉 commercialize new features to establish an optimized and most advanced ʺservice value chain,ʺ by adopting ʺ.sakuraʺ for the purpose of promoting robust competition.

ʺ.sakuraʺ is a significant opportunity for SAKURA Internet, which is currently in practice to operate and manage all the data center services on a one integrated platform. For instance, by consolidating the SAKURA Internet domain name environments, we will attain the opportunity to directly contribute to improve service levels, user experiences and brand awareness. Furthermore, since SAKURA Internet has been conventionally user oriented in practicing research and preventive management for the countermeasures against abusive uses and fraudulent activities, by implementing the new gTLD we will be able to enhance our capabilities to research and plan for a safer and more secure environment for the use of internet. Consequently, along with the price reduction achieved by our economies of scale, our capabilities will lead to a healthier and robust competitive services market.
We feel certain that this process of enhancement will contribute to our innovative future goal of ʺexporting the Japanese data center services in overseas,ʺ and to the further penetration of and fulfilling the needs for the use of domain names.

18.3. OUR PREMISE

(1) We intend to utilize .sakura effectively for improving the vital use, promoting, expanding and growing the new gTLD as well as our existing TLDs.

(2) SAKURA Internet will be the sole Registrant of the proposed .sakura, and we will primarily control the use of the SLDs by our own registration policies and through a process of qualification, restricting the use within ourselves. Therefore, as an assumption, we expect no multiple domain name applications for the same name space. Example of the SLDs:rentalservername.sakura, r&dprojectname.sakura

(3) As we have the liberty of selecting a Registrar for .sakura at our discretion from the existing ICANN Accredited Registrars, we plan to identify and appoint a Registrar of our choice, and outsource our entire Registry operations for the proposed .sakura Registry Services are further explained in the answer for #23 (Registry Services).

(4) SAKURA Internet will offer initial domain name registration for a period of 1 to 10 years, complying with the Registry Agreement. We do not intend to charge for the .sakura registrations. However, should we decide to charge fees for the registrations then we will notify the Registrar in advance, as per the Registry Agreement.

(5) Our measures to protect the privacy and confidential information of the .sakura users are explained in the answers for #30 (Security).

(6) As per the cost benefits of .sakura, we anticipate the most impact on our core business domain⁄market. We will take full and direct advantage in maintaining our branded business momentum. Meanwhile, by using .sakura proactively, we will encourage the domain name markets to expand the new gTLD and the existing TLDs. Consequently, we anticipate the impacts and influences in ʺcreating future valuesʺ by improving the vital use and expanding the scale of the domain name usage.

(7) In terms of the benefits offered to the customer market, .sakura will promote customer trust and choice (for both business and consumer) by simplified domain names and easier internet search and access, and by exclusive and authenticated access to the correct and desired information (by more direct keyword ʺgTLDstringʺ search). For specific descriptions of the purposes and benefits, please see #18.7 (OUR OBJECTIVES & PURPOSES).

(8) As described in #18.9 (OUR EFFORTS ON .sakura EXPANSION), we believe our proposed marketing and public relations activities, as well as our communications outreach, are efficient and effective measures to achieve our projected benefits.

(9) SAKURA Internet projects the number of .sakura SLD registrations, based on the existing services offered, to be around 10 during the initial year, 20 during the second year, and 100 in the third year. Even with a maximum estimation, the numbers may increase up to no more than 1000 during the planned three years.

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