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20(c) Provide a description of the community-based purpose of the applied-for gTLD

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.islamAsia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti.nsline.comView
• Intended registrants in the TLD.

The .Islam gTLD is intended for Muslim faithful who wish to promote, participate or learn about Islam and its various facets, its affect on the daily life of the people around the word, its history, its law and jurisprudence and the rich and diverse culture that surrounds it. Thus, any well-intentioned Muslim who wants to supply such content, or do business based around it, will be able to operate a domain under the .ISLAM gTLD.

• Intended end-users of the TLD.


For a fifth of the worldʹs population, Islam is both a religion and a complete way of life. Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy, and forgiveness - and the majority have nothing to do with the extremely grave events which have come to be associated with their faith. Every Muslim, and indeed a great many non-Muslims, in the world can benefit from .ISLAM websites and the wealth of information and services that it is anticipated will offered by them. The diversity of the .ISLAM gTLD’s offering would be wide enough to cover almost all audiences and their Islam-related needs, considering that all .ISLAM websites will be promoting Islam in some form.

Within all of these populations, the specific intended end users of the .ISLAM gTLD are manifold, and include:

People with ties to Islamic heritage: This includes a significant percentage of both the population of Muslim countries and also with other nations.
Individual Muslims: As demonstrated above, this includes hundreds of millions of individuals around the world.
Students: Those learning about different aspects of Islam, its concepts, its laws, its culture and heritage and its many other facets would benefit from increased resources online that would help them to learn and develop.
Islamic businesses: as in every community, Muslims undertake a great deal of business both within their community and also with external groups. The ability to link their business to the word Islam will therefore be of significant importance to Muslim businesses, both to denote a Muslim-based business and also as a source of pride in being known as such. Indeed, the word Islam is already exceptionally popular within online business – and the word alone yields more than 500 million hits when searched.
All sects: As described above, the main two sects of the Muslim community are Sunnis and Shias – both of whom will be welcome to operate under the .ISLAM gTLD, alongside all other Muslim sects.

It is hoped that not only will these intended users derive individual benefit from the existence of a .ISLAM community, but that they will also contribute in turn. This should create a group benefit, which will in turn feed back in to individual benefits – establishing a beneficial cycle.


• Related activities the applicant has carried out or intends to carry out in service of this purpose.

Anticipating the diversification of TLDs now being realized, and the consequent introduction of an Islamic-specific online space, AGITSys has been working with a wide variety of related parties for several years in preparation, and will continue to do so going forward. A key element for the success of the .ISLAM gTLD is a strong and interactive community, which Muslims around the world are proud to associate with and keen to contribute to. To ensure this, AGITSys will sponsor community outreach and marketing, in order to raise awareness of the forthcoming possibilities. These possibilities are also highly appealing for Islamic businesses, and as such AGITSys will engage in dialogue with those businesses, and industry chiefs, regarding their ideas for how the .ISLAM gTLD will take shape, and what they intend to subsequently give back to it.
Quality content will also be fundamental to a thriving .ISLAM community, especially because AGITSys is committed to ensuring that .ISLAM is populated by quality second-level domain offerings. With this in mind, AGITSys will be talking with those most likely to contribute quality content, from news and media agencies to academics and libraries (who will be able to digitize Islamic materials and then distribute them online comprehensively for the first time) about how they can and will contribute, and what AGITSys can do to facilitate this process.
Ultimately, however, religion will always be the most important element for a successful .ISLAM community online. The entire gTLD concept is designed as a place of online respect; almost worship, for those of Islamic faith. As such, the involvement, blessing and feedback of the Islamic religious community is fundamentally important. Aware of this, AGITSys has been in prolonged and continued contact with important religious figures – asking them what they want to see and how they would like to see it done, whilst also encouraging them to spread the word and prepare themselves. This should mean that when the .ISLAM gTLD comes online, there will be a large swathe of information posted almost immediately – therefore instantly creating a rewarding user experience.

• Explanation of how the purpose is of a lasting nature.

The community that will be served by .ISLAM--growing as it has out of the Muslims community--has thrived and grown for more than a millennium. Remarkably, it has done so largely without the level of connection online found within Western cultures. This existing community interconnection speaks to the cultural staying power of the Islamic community and the many ways it enriches world culture.

With the adoption of a .ISLAM community, this robust group will be further empowered to interconnect and grow, allowing it to take its equal place on the Internet stage. The community thrives now, but will reach new heights through the .ISLAM gTLD.

The growth of the .ISLAM gTLD will be driven by what economists refer to as the network effect. A network effect occurs when a service becomes more popular as more individuals adopt it. A significant portion of the serviceʹs value stems directly from the increased adoption and usage of the service. Historically the network effect is most powerful in tools of interconnection. The telegraph and telephone were technologies that grew exponentially due to the network effect. The Internet itself is an example of that phenomenon, as seen by the rapid upward growth curve of Internet penetration, broadband speeds, and web site creation. ICANNʹs data on the growth of .COM is an example of the network effect, and now it is seen in social-media platforms atop the Internet, such as Facebook and Twitter.

As more sites offer information, services, and opportunities for interconnection to the .ISLAM community as a whole, more members of the community will navigate to those sites. Many of those will provide their own content, and their activity there will spark further growth of second-level .ISLAM domains. At some point, information and service providers currently not offering sites will see the demand for .ISLAM-related content and will migrate their offerings to .ISLAM sites as well, furthering the offerings to the community and further driving community members to .ISLAM sites. The future benefits of interlinking this diverse and global community are incalculable but immense.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.SHOPGMO Registry, Inc.gmoregistry.comView
The main purpose of applying for the TLD as a community-based application is to establish a clear, unambiguous and easy to remember online identity for the community and promote a defined, meaningful, and secure namespace in order to contribute to the further development of the community and the (commercial) activities of its members.

Therefore, the community-based character of the .SHOP TLD is closely linked to the requirements ICANN has defined in the Applicant Guidebook for community-based applications:

1) commitment from the Registry Operator to abide by the rules established with the assistance and support of the community and its representatives including European Multi-channel and Online Trade Association (EMOTA) and other industry associations;
2) establishment of eligibility requirements for .SHOP domain name registrants and establishment of usage, name selection and WHOIS accuracy requirements, in order to establish trust between the registrants and consumers;
3) support from various members of the community, who intend to use the .SHOP TLD as a platform that is based on international standards where they can engage with consumers.

In this respect, the .SHOP gTLD will have a number of benefits, not only for registrants, but also for the users of .SHOP websites.

First, it is not only in the common interest of the targeted registrants, but for the Internet community at large to have a safe, secure and reliable namespace within which they can engage in commercial transactions.

Second, the technical infrastructure of the .SHOP registry, as well as the terms and conditions that will govern the registration and use of .SHOP domain names will encourage and support the establishment of relationships that are based on trust (Whois review, verification of eligibility requirements, security tools and methodologies, etc.).


● Intended registrants in the TLD:

The intended registrants in the .SHOP TLD are business entities or organizations that deploy commercial activities in an online or offline environment or provide information in relation thereto over the internet.

Basically, the intended registrants are business entities or organizations on the supply side of commerce.


● Intended end-users of the TLD:

The end-users of .SHOP domain names are any individual, business entity or organization that is looking for trustworthy and genuine information, products and services on the Internet.

These individuals, business entities or organizations are generally on the demand side.


● Related activities the applicant has carried out or intends to carry out in service of this purpose:

The Applicant provides backend operation for the .SO and .ID ccTLDs and makes every effort to ensure a safe and secure namespace. Also, GMO has been serving the ecommerce community in Japan and other countries since the dawn of the industry. The group provides all the tools required to operate on the Internet including domain names and web hosting services as well as tools specifically required to operate online stores including shopping carts, payment gateway solutions and SSL security. The Group strives to achieve the same mission and objectives through the provision of these services.


● Explanation of how the purpose is of a lasting nature

Any current or future Internet user will have a genuine interest in having a safe and secure experience when browsing for information, products or services online. The Applicant will encourage usage of .SHOP in ways that support a safe, secure and trustworthy experience for Internet users when looking for genuine information, products and services, by imposing detailed guidelines and policies upon domain name registrants, and offering tools, methodologies and techniques.

The community that .SHOP will serve engages in activities such as retail, trading and commerce, which are basic activities that transcend societies, cultures, and time. Both the online and physical forms of such activities are expected to last, or even experience a significant growth, into the foreseeable future.

Commerce and business activities are a major driving force in the growth and evolution of the Internet. As Internet users grow more reliant on the Internet to conduct business and commerce, and as businesses increase their online offering in order to harness the benefits of the Internet and to augment their physical counterpart, the role that .SHOP plays in the ecosystem will be ever more important.