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

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.中信CITIC Group Corporationymail.comView
18 (a) Describe the mission⁄purpose of your proposed gTLD.

Approved by the State Council, CITIC Group has transformed into a wholly state-owned company through comprehensive restructuring and changed its name to CITIC Group Corporation (“CITIC Group”), with RMB 183.70263 billion as the registered capital and Mr. Chang Zhenming as the legal representative.
CITIC Group was established in 1979 by Comrade Rong Yiren with the initiation and support by Comrade Deng Xiaoping. Since its inception, CITIC Group Corporation has given full play to the role of a pilot of national economic reform and an important window on China’s opening to the outside world and made explorations and innovation in many business fields with remarkable success. It has blazed a new trail of development for China’s “Reform and Opening-up” as well as the “Modernization Drive” by attracting and utilizing foreign capital, introducing advanced technologies, and adopting advanced and scientific international practice in operation and management thus building up good reputation and image both home and abroad with a remarkable performance.
Up to now, CITIC Group has developed into a large state-owned multinational conglomerate with a balanced development of both financial and non-financial businesses. Its financial business covers a full range of services including commercial banking, investment banking, trust, insurance, fund management and asset management and its non-financial business includes real estate, engineering contracting, energy and resources, infrastructure construction, machinery manufacturing and IT industry with clear overall strength and great momentum of development.
At the end of 2010, CITIC Group’s total assets stood at RMB 2539.1 billion, net assets RMB 172.5 billion, operating income RMB 263.9 billion and net profit RMB 33.4 billion. CITIC Group was enlisted in the Fortune Global 500 for the third consecutive year in 2011, ranking the 221st.
On the financial services side, CITIC Group drove business collaboration among its financial affiliates and upgraded its shared information platform. Fully capitalizing on this synergy, the affiliates registered new progress in co-underwriting, cross product design and client information sharing, and the Group further secured its position as an integrated financial service provider. As of the end of 2010, total assets of CITIC Group’s financial services stood at RMB 2.0958 trillion (US$329 Billion), an increase of 16% year on year (yoy), and total profit RMB 34.5 billion (US$5.43 Billion).

With regards to the non-financial business side, total assets of CITIC Group’s non-financial business stood at RMB 410.2 billion (US$64.6 Billion), an increase of 23.9% yoy, operating income in 2010 RMB 191.7 billion (US$30.19 Billion), up 38.8% yoy, and total profit RMB 19.2 billion (US$3.02 Billion), up 62.1% yoy.

Globally, the headcount for CITIC Group, as of the end of 2010, stood at 140,028. Moving forward, CITIC Group will carry out the development agenda for the next five-year period, embracing a client-centered business philosophy, and promoting overarching restructuring. New models of management and control will be explored, and key investments and projects conducted. More efforts shall be made in business and investment management as well as risk control. Tapping into its comprehensive advantage and synergy, the Group is expected to breakthrough in scientific development, and will continue to strive to be a world-renowned conglomerate that enjoys prominent overall strength, excellence in various sectors and market competitiveness.

CITIC Group is applying for “.中信” Top Level Domain (“applied-for TLD”) which is the commonly known shortened English name for CITIC Group.

The vision for the applied for gTLD “.中信” is to become the online brand for this Global Fortune 500 conglomerate. Through this gTLD, CITIC Group will be able to protect its brand and deliver the right impression and message to the end users, thus becoming the brand protection and brand building mechanism that the conglomerate deserves to have in this modern age of the internet. Furthermore, “.中信” will have a multiplier effect on CITIC Group’s efforts to expand and promote its range of businesses globally.

Currently, CITIC Group has over 30 million clients worldwide, which would drive traffic and recognition of the “.中信” domain when it is launched globally. This would also help accelerate the acceptance of “.中信” domain, and create a new market for these users that would like to have their own “.中信” domain name if and when CITIC Group decides to open it up to them. By offering customized “.中信” personal domain names and services like homepages, email accounts and applications, its multitude of clients, internal employees and business partners, CITIC Group can increase and improve these relevant parties’ trust and relationship with itself. This creates a virtuous cycle whereby CITIC Group can observe that its brand equity will increase through the usage of “.中信” domain names. By the third year, CITIC Group expects “.中信” to have about 9800 domain names at a wholesale price of RMB 400 (US$63.56) per domain per year.

By consolidating all the domain names associated with CITIC Group and its subsidiaries, “.中信” will unify all of the conglomerate’s online related businesses, reposition them and create a solid foundation for the future. By doing so, CITIC Group can further increase the scope and range of its online related businesses while consolidating its position in the market. To fulfill this purpose and mission, CITIC Group will invest heavily on upgrading and improving the security and intelligence of its information technology backbone and architecture.

For the first time since the invention of the Internet, a company will have full ownership of a top level domain “brand” name. It is with this in mind that “.中信” term is first conceived. More importantly, with such leverage, CITIC Group, through “.中信”, can help to promote healthy competition from the registrars by dictating the level of service and quality expected that is consistent with the stature of such a Global Fortune 500 company.

Furthermore, this will increase the level of trust from the users as problems like phishing, domain redirection and domain parking will be eliminated. Users know that they can depend on such gTLDs that are the brand personification of the actual entity. At the same time, it is so much easier for users to remember instantly and search for such famous companies. The introduction of “.中信” in its IDN form will also greatly benefit the local users (500 million internet users alone in China) by providing better user experience and more choices for access.

Through the presence and increased access and usage of “.中信”, the online persona and brand of CITIC Group, “.中信” gTLD will benefit ICANN in successfully showcasing how a Global Fortune 500 company can effectively manage, protect and expand its online presence using a gTLD.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.bookDouble Bloom, 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.