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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.sakuraSAKURA Internet Inc.sakura.ad.jpView
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.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.flowersFern Willow, LLCdonuts.coView
Q18A CHAR: 7985

ABOUT DONUTS
Donuts Inc. is the parent applicant for this and multiple other TLDs. The company intends to increase competition and consumer choice at the top level. It will operate these carefully selected TLDs safely and securely in a shared resources business model. To achieve its objectives, Donuts has recruited seasoned executive management with proven track records of excellence in the industry. In addition to this business and operational experience, the Donuts team also has contributed broadly to industry policymaking and regulation, successfully launched TLDs, built industry-leading companies from the ground up, and brought innovation, value and choice to the domain name marketplace.

DONUTS’ PLACE WITHIN ICANN’S MISSION
ICANN and the new TLD program share the following purposes:
1. to make sure that the Internet remains as safe, stable and secure as possible, while
2. helping to ensure there is a vibrant competitive marketplace to efficiently bring the benefits of the namespace to registrants and users alike.

ICANN harnesses the power of private enterprise to bring forth these public benefits. While pursuing its interests, Donuts helps ICANN accomplish its objectives by:

1. Significantly widening competition and choice in Internet identities with hundreds of new top-level domain choices;
2. Providing innovative, robust, and easy-to-use new services, names and tools for users, registrants, registrars, and registries while at the same time safeguarding the rights of others;
3. Designing, launching, and securely operating carefully selected TLDs in multiple languages and character sets; and
4. Providing a financially robust corporate umbrella under which its new TLDs will be protected and can thrive.

ABOUT DONUTS’ RESOURCES
Donuts’ financial resources are extensive. The company has raised more than US$100 million from a number of capital sources including multiple multi-billion dollar venture capital and private equity funds, a top-tier bank, and other well-capitalized investors. Should circumstances warrant, Donuts is prepared to raise additional funding from current or new investors. Donuts also has in place pre-funded, Continued Operations Instruments to protect future registrants. These resource commitments mean Donuts has the capability and intent to launch, expand and operate its TLDs in a secure manner, and to properly protect Internet users and rights-holders from potential abuse.

Donuts firmly believes a capable and skilled organization will operate multiple TLDs and benefit Internet users by:

1. Providing the operational and financial stability necessary for TLDs of all sizes, but particularly for those with smaller volume (which are more likely to succeed within a shared resources and shared services model);
2. Competing more powerfully against incumbent gTLDs; and
3. More thoroughly and uniformly executing consumer and rights holder protections.

THIS TLD
This TLD is attractive and useful to end-users as it better facilitates search, self-expression, information sharing and the provision of legitimate goods and services. Along with the other TLDs in the Donuts family, this TLD will provide Internet users with opportunities for online identities and expression that do not currently exist. In doing so, the TLD will introduce significant consumer choice and competition to the Internet namespace – the very purpose of ICANN’s new TLD program.

This TLD is a generic term and its second level names will be attractive to a variety of Internet users. Making this TLD available to a broad audience of registrants is consistent with the competition goals of the New TLD expansion program, and consistent with ICANN’s objective of maximizing Internet participation. Donuts believes in an open Internet and, accordingly, we will encourage inclusiveness in the registration policies for this TLD. In order to avoid harm to legitimate registrants, Donuts will not artificially deny access, on the basis of identity alone (without legal cause), to a TLD that represents a generic form of activity and expression.

DONUTS’ APPROACH TO PROTECTIONS
No entity, or group of entities, has exclusive rights to own or register second level names in this TLD. There are superior ways to minimize the potential abuse of second level names, and in this application Donuts will describe and commit to an extensive array of protections against abuse, including protections against the abuse of trademark rights.

We recognize some applicants seek to address harms by constraining access to the registration of second level names. However, we believe attempts to limit abuse by limiting registrant eligibility is unnecessarily restrictive and harms users by denying access to many legitimate registrants. Restrictions on second level domain eligibility would prevent law-abiding individuals and organizations from participating in a space to which they are legitimately connected, and would inhibit the sort of positive innovation we intend to see in this TLD. As detailed throughout this application, we have struck the correct balance between consumer and business safety, and open access to second level names.

By applying our array of protection mechanisms, Donuts will make this TLD a place for Internet users that is far safer than existing TLDs. Donuts will strive to operate this TLD with fewer incidences of fraud and abuse than occur in incumbent TLDs. In addition, Donuts commits to work toward a downward trend in such incidents.

OUR PROTECTIONS
Donuts has consulted with and evaluated the ideas of international law enforcement, consumer privacy advocacy organizations, intellectual property interests and other Internet industry groups to create a set of protections that far exceed those in existing TLDs, and bring to the Internet namespace nearly two dozen new rights and protection mechanisms to raise user safety and protection to a new level.

These include eight, innovative and forceful mechanisms and resources that far exceed the already powerful protections in the applicant guidebook. These are:

1. Periodic audit of WhoIs data for accuracy;
2. Remediation of inaccurate Whois data, including takedown, if warranted;
3. A new Domain Protected Marks List (DPML) product for trademark protection;
4. A new Claims Plus product for trademark protection;
5. Terms of use that prohibit illegal or abusive activity;
6. Limitations on domain proxy and privacy service;
7. Published policies and procedures that define abusive activity; and
8. Proper resourcing for all of the functions above.

They also include fourteen new measures that were developed specifically by ICANN for the new TLD process. These are:

1. Controls to ensure proper access to domain management functions;
2. 24⁄7⁄365 abuse point of contact at registry;
3. Procedures for handling complaints of illegal or abusive activity, including remediation and takedown processes;
4. Thick WhoIs;
5. Use of the Trademark Clearinghouse;
6. A Sunrise process;
7. A Trademark Claims process;
8. Adherence to the Uniform Rapid Suspension system;
9. Adherence to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy;
10. Adherence to the Post Delegation Dispute Resolution Policy;
11. Detailed security policies and procedures;
12. Strong security controls for access, threat analysis and audit;
13. Implementation DNSSEC; and
14. Measures for the prevention of orphan glue records.

DONUTS’ INTENTION FOR THIS TLD
As a senior government authority has recently said, “a successful applicant is entrusted with operating a critical piece of global Internet infrastructure.” Donuts’ plan and intent is for this TLD to serve the international community by bringing new users online through opportunities for economic growth, increased productivity, the exchange of ideas and information and greater self-expression.