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

Prototypical answer:

This gTLD is a volume related top-level domain that will sell names at the second-level.

It will reserve some names at the second-level for public-facing entities or entities that perform services for the public, including but not exclusively governmental bodies, and populate the related third-level free of cost.

FAITID is applying for two related but independent strings: .MOSCOW and the Cyrillic version of .MOSCOW (.МОСКВА). These strings are economically independent and separate financial modeling and projections have been developed for each string. Conceptually, the two strings are related to the extent that they relate to the same word expressed in English and in Cyrillic.

Mission

Creation of opportunity and content: the new gTLD will provide new opportunities for Internet users to create Moscow-associated content.

Branding for Moscow: the gTLD will make the city more visible on the Internet and help to create its online brand.

Example to others: as the first city domain in Russia, the gTLD will serve as an example for other Russian cities. Other Russian cities have already expressed their potential interest in emulating this model to create their own city gTLD.

Mission In Context

ICANN has set out a number of goals regarding the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Among the most important of these are the following:
o the need to maintain the Internetʹs stability, and especially the protection of domain name holders from the effects of registry or registration system failure;
o the extent to which approval of the application would lead to an effective proof of concept concerning the expansion of the number of top-level domains including:
- the diversity the proposed TLD would bring to the top-level of the Internet to include fully open top-level domains, restricted and chartered domains with limited scope, commercial domains and personal domains;
- support of a variety of business models and geographic locations.
o the enhancement of competition for registration services at the registry and registrar level;
o the enhancement of the utility of the DNS;
o the extent to which the proposal would meet previously unmet needs;
o the importance of appropriate protections of the rights of others, including intellectual property rights in connection with the operation of the TLD, especially during the start-up phases.

Purpose

The purpose of this TLD is to:
o advance the goals of ICANN as set out above;
o fulfill the TLDʹs mission as stated above.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)