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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.webWeb.com Group, Inc.web.comView
18(a). Describe the mission⁄purpose of your proposed gTLD.

Web.com Group, Inc (“Web.com”) has been in the business of helping our customers establish their online presence for over 15 years. Following our acquisition of Register.com in July 2010 and the subsequent acquisition of Network Solutions, LLC, the oldest ICANN accredited registrar, in October 2011, we have become one of the largest domain name registrars in the world with approximately 3 million customers. Web.com offers a variety of TLDs and a full suite of domain-name services, including registration, management, renewal, expiration protection and privacy services.

The creation of a .web gTLD will help to fulfill ICANNʹs mission of providing more competition in the online marketplace and Web.com is the perfect candidate for operating .web given its experience, global reach, and brand recognition.

Why .web?

Web.com knows from years of experience that the .com gTLD has played a revolutionary role in the advancement of global commerce and culture. In addition, the .com gTLD has had a powerful and democratizing impact, providing avenues for anyone to participate in online discourse and a growing market. There are, however, a finite number of useful second-level domains that can be applied for in .com, as ICANN knows and understands. Often other gTLDs, such as .org, .info, .biz and others either are unavailable or are not a good fit for a potential second-level domain.

In looking to expand the gTLD landscape beyond the existing robustness of gTLD offerings, an easy-to-remember and intuitively logical gTLD such as .web is a relevant addition. Consumers will instantly understand that a .web domain is an Internet website thereby ensuring quick adoption by users. Due to its ubiquitous nature, .web will compete directly with all gTLDs, both existing ones and others to be approved by ICANN. It has universal appeal to anyone looking to operate on the World Wide Web. Not only will .web introduce a new and previously unavailable range of domain choices to businesses and individuals around the world but it could also serve as a platform for a number of innovative domain-based services.

The .web gTLD will help customers launch and leverage their presence on the Internet. As a leading global provider of online marketing services to small businesses, Web.com recognizes that finding a relevant and memorable domain name can be challenging. Since many keywords and descriptive phrases associated with existing TLDs have already been registered, it is often difficult to pinpoint a domain name which contains an acceptable number of characters. Consequently, prospective registrants are many times unable to secure a unique and adequate name.

The availability of .web domains will spark competition across all industries engaging customers online by providing more opportunities for registrants to secure easily found domains. Consumer choice will increase, and in doing so, online operators will seek ways to differentiate themselves from their competition with proactive steps to build consumer trust and confidence.

Introducing .web as a gTLD choice also will inject additional inventory into the domain name marketplace. As such, it will increase competition within the Internet registry space, as well as provide avenues for increased registrar competition.

Why Web.com?

As the sole owner of the Web.com® Trademark--issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office-- Web.com seeks to be the sole registry operator for the .web gTLD. Historically, Web.com has offered and will continue to provide pre-registration service for the .web gTLD through www.register.web.com. We remain committed to promoting .web as a new gTLD and to expanding the competitive landscape that permeates the Internet.

Founded in 1997 as Atlantic Teleservices, Web.com has evolved to become a leading provider of Internet services for small- to medium-sized businesses (“SMBs”). Web.com is the parent company of two global domain name registrars, and further meets the Internet needs of consumers and businesses throughout their lifecycle with affordable value-added services. These services include domain-name registration; website design; search engine optimization; search engine marketing; social media and mobile products; local sales leads; ecommerce solutions; and call center services.

Headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, USA, Web.com is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: WWWW) serving nearly three million customers, with more than 1,700 global employees in fourteen locations in North America, South America and the United Kingdom. In recognition of its rapid progress, Web.com has appeared on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ list in each of the past two years.

One of our primary corporate goals is to provide a broad range of online services and products that enable SMBs to establish, maintain, promote, and optimize their web presence. By providing a comprehensive and best-in-class suite of services, we are able to deliver solutions that enable small and medium-sized businesses to compete and succeed online. Customers can choose to purchase ‘a la carte’ solutions for specific issues, or subscribe to bundled products that meet a variety of needs.

Web.com brings a wealth of experience in providing a seamless process for customers from the first point of registration through the growth of their Internet properties. Following our acquisition of Register.com in July 2010 and the subsequent acquisition of Network Solutions in October 2011, we have become one of the largest domain name registrars in the world. Web.com offers a variety of TLDs and a full suite of domain-name services, including registration, management, renewal, expiration protection and privacy services. Web.com is also a prominent player in the Internet community through participation in numerous working groups and organizations including the Certificate Authentication Board, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet standards development community.

Additionally, since the .web gTLD mirrors the Web.com brand, trademarks, and the character string associated with our corporate website address (www.web.com), we believe that Web.com should be the sole operator and administrator of the .web gTLD. The issuance of the .web gTLD to anyone other than Web.com would infringe on the trademark rights in Web.com and be confusingly similar to domains currently in use by Web.com such as www.register.web.com and www.dot.web.com.

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.videoLone Tigers, 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.