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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.dealerDealer Dot Com, Inc.dealer.comView
18.1.1 Dealer.com

Dealer.com’s mission is to be the most sought after automotive web solutions provider in the world. Dealer.com pursues this mission with the highest degree of integrity and a focus on creating superior products, satisfied clients and empowered employees - all with minimal impact on the environment.

Dealer.com’s solutions include those for franchise automotive dealers, independent auto dealers, dealer groups, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and advertising agencies. Its proprietary platform is a customizable, multilayered software application that not only creates SEO-friendly websites but also features a completely integrated toolkit for dealerships both large and small.

This integrated platform has been engineered for maximum efficiency and performance to empower its customers’ connections with consumers. Built from the ground up and using the latest technology, Dealer.com offers the most powerful digital marketing platform in the industry, aggregating the following solutions:

Online Advertising: Paid search management, email marketing, search engine optimization, social media & blogging;

Dealer Websites: Inventory integration, merchandising tools, mobile sites, custom branding;

Inventory Marketing: Video, incentives and specials, eBrochures, window stickers;

Lead Management: Contacts, leads, auto-responder management, lead life cycle and sales process; and

Performance Analytics: Call tracking, site activity and lead tracking, merchandising tracking, pay-per-click and advertising tracking.

Dealer.com also offers an array of Digital Marketing services that involve strategy, project management, consulting, training and regular maintenance to achieve maximum results for its customers. Dealer.com solutions also include Managed Services, training and award-winning customer service to complement its innovative platform.

18.1.2 Mission and Purpose

The intended mission and purpose of the .DEALER gTLD is to serve as a trusted and intuitive namespace for the benefit of Dealer.com, its qualified subsidiaries’, affiliates’ customers and other Internet users. The .DEALER gTLD will deepen and broaden these entities’ relationships with those audiences.

The .DEALER gTLD may be thought of most appropriately as a “Brand TLD” in that it serves primarily to provide a trusted, hierarchical and intuitive namespace for businesses that use Dealer.com’s broad range of online dealership products and services. Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a Brand TLD category, such as the .DEALER gTLD, in the current round, it is widely anticipated in the brand community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs. The .DEALER gTLD is planned to protect Dealer.com’s online presence and identity, expand its marketing and promotion efforts, provide a secure channel for online products and services, and offer a platform through which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of Dealer.com.

Dealer.com intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .DEALER gTLD to Dealer.com and its qualified partners and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow Dealer.com to establish .DEALERʹs operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement is intended to exempt Dealer.com from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.

After the initial stages of operation, Dealer.com will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through fee-based registrations to parties other than Dealer.com and its qualified partners and affiliates.

1. Stage One

The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve the .DEALER gTLD registering a limited number of .DEALER second-level domain names. This stage is designed to meet Dealer.com’s existing corporate requirements for use of domains including:

(1) Testing by Dealer.com’s IT to ensure full administrative and technical access to the domain names.
(2) Testing by Dealer.com’s security personnel to ensure unbroken and secure use of all names.
(3) Testing by IT personnel and users to ensure interoperability with various software and web-based applications.

2. Stage Two

Once all testing has been successfully completed, Dealer.com will begin allocating domain names in the .DEALER gTLD for more widespread corporate use. During this same period of time, Dealer.com may begin evaluating strategies to migrate traffic away from its existing second-level domain name, to Dealer.com’s new .DEALER gTLD.
It is in Stage Two, that Dealer.com will also evaluate and potentially expand the operations of the .DEALER gTLD to permit registration by other registrants such as licensees or other strategic partners. The dates of such expansion are subject to change depending upon business, strategic and industry factors at the time.

3. Stage Three

The third stage may potentially involve the migration of Internet traffic away from the gTLDs in which Dealer.com’s domain names are currently registered, and toward the new Dealer.com branded gTLD, if Dealer.com has not already executed on this strategy earlier. Based on its experience in the initial stages, Dealer.com will assess whether its business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to third parties beyond licensees and⁄or strategic partners. It is anticipated by Dealer.com that changes to the domain name industry, and particularly the impact of the .DEALER gTLD, will take a number of years to be felt and assessed. Any decision to expand the gTLD beyond corporate, partner and licensee use and permanently migrate traffic away from existing gTLDs will take into effect this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.

Utilizing current projections based upon Dealer.com’s existing and future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, Dealer.com estimates second-level domain name registrations to be in line with the projections set forth in the financial template provided in the response to Question 46 of this application.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.MSDMSD Registry Holdings, Inc.fairwindspartners.comView
18.1 Mission and Purpose of .MSD

MSD Registry Holdings, Incorporatedʹs (“MSDRH”) parent company, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Corp. (“MSD”), is a leading healthcare company serving the wide-ranging needs of end-users and providers around the world, with approximately 86,000 employees in more than 140 countries. MSD serves a variety of retailers, physicians, veterinarians, managed health care providers, food chain and mass merchandiser outlets, hospitals, and government agencies. MSD’s stated mission is to discover, develop, and provide innovative products and services that save and improve lives.

MSD has operations in several main business segments:

-PHARMACEUTICAL: MSD’s Pharmaceutical segment offers therapeutic and preventive agents for the treatment of human disorders in the areas of bone, respiratory, immunology, dermatology, cardiovascular, diabetes and obesity, oncology, infectious diseases, etc. The unit also offers preventive vaccines for children, adolescents, and adults.
-ANIMAL HEALTH: MSD’s Animal Health segment provides antibiotics, anti-inflammatory products, vaccines, and parasiticides for a variety of animals including cats, dogs, cattle, horses, and fish.
-CONSUMER CARE: In addition, MSD offers a wide range of over-the-counter products such as antihistamines, foot and skin care lotions, heartburn medication, and constipation relief treatments.
-ALLIANCES: MSD partners with a variety of corporations, organizations and educational institutions in product development and research efforts across the world.

The potential use of the .MSD gTLD by these or other business segments will primarily be driven by MSD’s future business strategies as identified in its annual report and investor filings, see http:⁄⁄www.merck.com⁄investors⁄home.html.

The intended future mission and purpose of the .MSD gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace for MSD and end-users, and potentially MSD’s qualified subsidiaries and affiliates and potentially its licensees and other strategic parties.

Recognizing the potential dynamic evolution of the .MSD gTLD as a trusted brand namespace, MSD has decided to utilize a wholly owned subsidiary, MSDRH, as the entity to file this application and bring the .MSD gTLD to market. Although MSDRH is committed to moving forward with the .MSD gTLD application, it has not at the time of filing this application been able to fully vet and analyze all potential use case options.

Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a .BRAND gTLD specification in the current gTLD application round, it is widely anticipated in the brand owner community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs.

.MSD is intended to be one of those .BRAND gTLDs, with the goal of protecting MSD’s online presence and identity, expanding its marketing and promotion efforts, providing a secure channel for online products and services, and offering a platform through which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of MSD.

MSDRH intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .MSD gTLD to MSD and potentially its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow MSD to establish its operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution, coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement, is intended to exempt MSD from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.

After Stage 3 (see below), MSD and MSDRH will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the .MSD gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through registrations that may or may not be fee-based to parties other than MSD and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates.

MSDRH currently plans a four-stage rollout for the .MSD gTLD:

1. Stage One

The initial stage of implementation of the gTLD will involve MSDRH registering a limited number of .MSD second-level domain names.

This initial use will provide MSDʹs IT and security personnel the time to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access using the .MSD gTLD domain names, interoperability with various software and Web-based applications, and unbroken and secure use of all names. This initial allocation will also allow the appropriate MSDRH staff to coordinate with the internal and external staff responsible for the delegation and setup phases of the .MSD gTLD to ensure a proper transition from delegation to full operation.

2. Stage Two

Once all testing has been successfully completed, MSDRH will begin allocating domain names in .MSD for more widespread internal corporate use.

It is in Stage Two that MSDRH will evaluate expanding the operations of the .MSD gTLD to permit registration by other registrants, such as licensees of MSD or other strategic parties. Should an assessment of its expansion strategy lead to a decision to extend registration rights to other parties, this expansion is currently planned to take place during Stage Three.

However, any expansion would be conditioned upon a review of Specification 9 (Registry Code of Conduct) set forth in the template Registry Agreement to ensure compliance with MSDRH’s business model.

3. Stage Three

It is in this stage that MSDRH may implement its decision to extend registration rights to MSD licensees or strategic parties, depending upon compliance with Specification 9 as noted above. The dates of such expansion are subject to change depending upon business, strategic, and industry factors at the time.

After consideration of the following factors: analysis of MSDʹs existing domain name portfolio; internal analysis of marketing initiatives; and the fact that MSDRH will have full control over the number of registrations in the .MSD gTLD namespace, MSDRH is confident that the number of domain name registrations will be less than 10,000 in the first five years of operation.

4. Stage Four

Based on its experience to the end of Year 5, and based on its experience with any expansion implemented in Stage Three, MSDRH will assess whether its business plan and expansion strategy should be augmented by extending registration rights to a broader class of licensees and strategic parties. It is anticipated by MSD that changes to the domain name industry, and particularly the impact of .BRAND gTLDs, will take a number of years to be realized and assessed. Any decision to expand the gTLDs beyond corporate use, and potentially use by qualified subsidiaries, affiliates, licensees, and strategic parties, will take into account this experience as well as the technical analysis of potential expansion.

Utilizing current projections based upon MSDʹs existing businesses, future business plans, current domain name portfolio, and other strategic factors, MSDRH estimates second-level domain name registrations to be in line with the projections set forth in the financial template provided in the response to Question 46 of this application.