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

Prototypical answer:

It was the 4th century when modern Bazaars first evolved in the Middle East. Commerce centers quickly rose to vast centers of exchange such as the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, the Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg, and the Burlington Arcade in London, and eventually, to the modern shopping malls of today. The birth of centers of exchange and their countless shops evolved from a need for efficiency through centralization. People and businesses alike needing to purchase or sell goods could find an assured concentration of opportunity and competition without having to travel far and wide to attain a variety of different goods.

It has taken centuries to evolve physical centers of exchange and commerce (bazars, markets, malls); each with their own established reputations and credibility (or in some cases lack thereof). The greatest limit of these commerce centers is the need to be present in person to assess products and negotiate competitive pricing. While centralized shopping evolved to reduce this effort, in the face of busy hectic lives of consumers, there was room for even greater efficiency.

Hence, when the Internet became more user friendly with graphical interfaces, we quickly saw electronic commerce (e-commerce) spring into existence. Early e-commerce was seen from specialized businesses like Pizza Hut, to broader Internet store fronts like Ebay and Amazon. Many consumers that struggled with physically shopping quickly embraced the ease of online buying. However, as fast as the Internet grew from that point on, the associated commerce services have grown in lockstep and today it’s a mind boggling potpourri of websites - selling an even greater number of products. Every open gTLD represents a vast collection of web services, much of them focused on shopping sites and services. However, even with the help of search engines, online shopping networks, and other secondary services, it is growing increasingly more difficult for consumers to quickly identify what are actual shopping sites versus content or informational services. When you walk into an open-air market in the Middle East, you know the vendors are there to sell their product. Similarly, we seek to create a domain space where the Internet user is immersed in a global on-line bazaar, able to easily find goods, obtain deals and shop with confidence.

The mission⁄purpose of .Store is to facilitate business-to-consumer (B2C) shopping on the Internet by creating a virtual theme around a defined domain space. The .Store extension is intended to provide the registrant an immediately recognized domain name that tells customers the registrant’s products or services can be purchased online. It is a TLD string with the empirical meaning of commerce that will self-select⁄associate registrants. Each registrant will be responsible for developing their unique shopping experience based upon their products, services and market. The goal of the .Store brand is to provide registrants a domain extension that clearly informs consumers that they can shop here.

The Mission and purpose of our TLD is also to contribute to the Internet Namespace in the following ways:

1.1 ENHANCE REGISTRANT CHOICE

To create a namespace that provides registrants greater choice to represent themselves online in the manner they please. Due to the saturated nature of the existing gTLD space, many Internet users have to opt for a name that does not suit their needs best. Our Registry will provide Registrants a higher probability of obtaining their desired name.

1.2 CREATE A CLEANER INTERNET SPACE

To create a cleaner internet experience for end users by implementing pioneering registration policies, content and usage policies, and abuse mitigation processes.

1.3 CREATE A STABLE AND RESILIENT INTERNET SPACE

To deliver a stable and resilient internet experience to registrants and end-users by going above and beyond the ICANN mandated SLAs and delivering 100% resolution uptime

Welcome to the global, on-line bazar, where every vendor stall is a website, the market is open all hours of the day and a deal is just a quick response code away. Welcome to the .Store registry – your virtual global market.

This completes our answer to Q18(a)

Similar gTLD applications: (1)