gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.MAIL	GMO Registry, Inc.	gmoregistry.com	View

i. What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

Specialty
.MAIL provides a unique TLD choice that is unavailable in the current spread of gTLDs. The term “mail” is immediately recognizable, universal and memorable, and is commonly associated with email when applied to an online context.

The current new gTLD program offers unprecedented levels of protection to rights owners. Rights protection mechanisms embedded within the program rules are a culmination of years of community efforts and bottom-up consensus processes developed at ICANN. This alone means .MAIL, as a gTLD that is compliant with the current new gTLD requirements, offers significant advantages compared to legacy gTLDs.

Service Levels
Recognizing that email is a critical service that is expected to be highly available and reliable, the Applicant is committed to providing industry leading service levels in order to maintain an impeccable reputation for security, reliability and availability.

The Applicant aims to operate the .MAIL TLD in a secure and stable manner, adopting industry best practices where applicable. The Applicant’s operational goals are to have DNS load dispersion that is resilient to DDoS attacks, industry-leading level of Whois information change and DNS record change reflection time, substantial registrar support, and abuse window operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Applicant will also implement proven security measures at every level of business and technical operation in order to provide maximum protection for its stakeholders. This includes stringent security policies and procedures, as well as comprehensive abuse handling mechanisms to mitigate security threats to the TLD. In addition, the Applicant will strive to provide an outstanding level of technical and operational support to registrars.

Reputation
The Applicant aims to achieve a reputation for .mail as a secure and reliable namespace. Its unique concept is coupled with industry leading service levels, proven track record by GMO Registry, its parent organization GMO Internet, and the GMO Internet Group. The Group also comprises globally trusted online security brand, GlobalSign, and some of the longest established ISP service brands in Japan meaning the Applicant is uniquely positioned to understand the needs of ISPs, one of the intended markets. The Applicant believes that it will earn the trust of registrants and users, amass a strong database of domain names with quality and relevant contents and services, and establish a highly trusted namespace.


ii. What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

.MAIL will expand choice in the current gTLD space by offering a unique TLD with high quality, relevant content. Because email and related online communications tools are used by most Internet users regardless of gender, nationality, or age, the target audience of .MAIL will have significant overlap with registrants of other TLDs. As such, the Applicant anticipates being in direct competition with current and new TLDs.

.MAIL is unique because it provides a clearly defined context for registered domain names. This affords registrants a more powerful and expressive online brand and identity when compared to existing, broadly defined gTLDs. Being a new gTLD with a specific meaning and purpose, the .MAIL namespace will likely be less cluttered than current TLDs, and therefore provide more opportunities for registrants to adopt a direct and meaningful online identity.

.MAIL aims to be a pervasive name space for innovative online communication products and services. For example, introduction of smartphones helped create a ubiquitous network society that spurred innovations in messaging; by using certain applications, smartphone users can text and call one another for free. Although the importance of phone numbers has diminished, that of email accounts has only increased; Android, the most widely used smartphone operating system, requires users to register an email account during initial setup. According to comScore Reports, “82.2 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in July 2011, up 10 percent from the preceding three month period.” (comScore Reports July 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share) Usage of devices that require email accounts is growing rapidly, and the Applicant believes that .MAIL will contribute value to the Internet namespace as email platforms and methods of online communication continue to evolve.


iii. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

The Applicant will endeavor to achieve the following goals relating to user experience;
• Users find that the services and contents associated with .MAIL are relevant, and of high quality;
• Users do not experience performance or reliability issues with regards to the registry services that .MAIL provides;
• Users are not exposed to abusive or malicious content.

iv. Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

In order to achieve the goals stated above, the plans for .MAIL domain name registration policies are as follows. All .MAIL TLD registrars are required to include policies and restrictions in the registration agreements with their customers, including but not limited to, the following, and registrants must agree to comply.

Draft Abusive Use Policy
The Applicant defines abuse as any activity that may harm the stability and security of the DNS and Internet, including, but not limited to:

- Illegal or fraudulent activities;
- Phishing;
- Pharming;
- Using or distributing malicious software (malware);
- Sending unsolicited bulk messages (spam);
- Posting, trading, or exchanging information that harms minors;
- Posting, trading, or exchanging child pornography;
- Posting information that encourages illegal acts, crimes, murders, or suicides; and
- Posting information that is offensive to public order or morals.

The Applicant reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name on lock, hold or similar status, at its sole discretion, to enforce the policy.

In addition, the Applicant intends to set up an abuse support service (abuse report form and abuse support window) that will be operated 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

In case an abuse use is reported, the Applicant will take appropriate measures in accordance with the suspension flow provided separately (Please refer to Question 28).

2. Accuracy of Registration Information
In order to ensure that Internet users can interact with the .MAIL namespace with confidence, registration data associated with domain names must be appropriate and accurate, and there should be no fraudulent registration or usage. For this reason .MAIL registrants are obligated to provide and maintain correct, complete, and current registration information (Whois information).

Failure to comply with this policy may result in the domain name registration being denied, cancelled, or transferred; the Registry Operator shall also be entitled, in such cases, to delete any such domain names, or place them on lock, hold, or similar status.

3. ICANN Policies
The Applicant will adopt and comply with the Uniform Rapid Suspension System, Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, and all other mandatory ICANN consensus policies, regulations and rules (collectively the “ICANN policies”). All .MAIL domain name registration will be subject to the ICANN policies.

v. Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

.MAIL will comply with the applicable laws of Japan, as well as applicable ICANN consensus policies. As part of its responsibility as the registry operator of the .MAIL TLD, the Applicant will exercise due care to protect all information it receives from registrants or users through registrars, and will not disclose such information to any third party, with the exception of public Whois data.

The Applicant does not provide any additional measures beyond its obligation as a registry operator. The Applicant places no restrictions on the use of Whois proxy services, to the extent permissible by law.

Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

In order to achieve the projected benefits, .MAIL must gain substantial mindshare among Internet users. The Applicant believes that the primary method of increasing recognition and registration numbers in the TLD is to gain strong support from .mail registrars. For that reason, the Applicant intends to:
- Maintain regular communication with registrars;
- Attend ICANN meetings and domain name⁄Internet related events and have face to face meetings with registrars; and
- Organize events for registrars
Feedback from registrars will be then taken into account, and integrated into public relations and marketing activities that the Applicant organizes where appropriate.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.SHOP	GMO Registry, Inc.	gmoregistry.com	View

i. What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty,
service levels, or reputation?

Specialty
.SHOP is a domain for individuals, business entities or organizations that deploy or intend to deploy commercial activities in an online or offline environment. The goal of .SHOP in this respect is to build a quality, meaningful, safe and secure domain name space that can be trusted to complement the inherent advantages of .SHOP: that it is direct, simple, and intuitive. The Applicant strives to achieve the following characterizations by each of the following groups of .SHOP stakeholders:

.SHOP registrants: a namespace where registrants can effectively and efficiently provide information on goods and services offered.

Internet users: a namespace where Internet users can access and interact with their target audience in a safe and productive way, obtaining access to genuine contents, products and services. The .SHOP TLD is able to contribute to reducing the sale of counterfeit and pirated goods, as registrants will be identified and remain identifiable throughout the term during which the domain name is registered in the .SHOP TLD;

Others: a TLD that contributes to growth in the industry, and hence the economy.

Service Levels
Aims for the service levels of .SHOP are:

1. Registry Operation
The Applicant aims to operate the TLD in a secure and stable manner, adopting industry best practices where applicable. The Applicant’s operational goals are to have DNS load dispersion that is resistant to DDoS attacks, industry-leading level of Whois information change and DNS record change reflection time, substantial registrar support, and abuse window operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Applicant will also implement proven security measures at every level of the registry business and technical operation to provide maximum protection for its stakeholders. This includes stringent security policies and procedures, as well as comprehensive abuse handling mechanisms to mitigate security threats to the TLD. In addition, the Applicant will strive to provide an outstanding level of technical and operational support to the registrars.

2. High Quality Content
In order to maintain high quality content and provide a safe .SHOP namespace for Internet users, the Applicant will develop a set of abusive use policies and takedown processes to prevent and respond to abuse in an efficient manner. In addition, the Applicant will publish an information page on its website describing recommended ways to use the TLD. The information page will include best practices for web contents and a list of prohibited activities under the TLD. The Applicant believes that the information page will help registrants understand the purpose of the TLD, preserve the characteristics of the TLD and help mitigate abusive activities.

Reputation
The aims for the reputations of .SHOP are:
1. to become well recognized as a TLD for commercial activities;
2. to become a namespace that Internet users appreciate for its quality, meaningfulness, pleasure, safety, stability, and truthfulness; and
3. to provide various benefits to the target community and become regarded as a contributing factor to the expansion thereof.


ii. What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

The Applicant believes that .SHOP will promote competition, differentiation, and innovation for domain name registrants, Internet users, and business, considering that the .SHOP TLD is an Internet extension exclusively reserved for individuals, business entities and organizations that deploy commercial activities or provide information in relation thereto over the Internet.

However there is no TLD that is exclusively for commercial and related activities among the 22 gTLDs and sTLDs available for public registration. As a result, owners of such businesses are required to select domain names from the currently-available TLDs that are not necessary related to their business.

Being unlike currently existing or new TLDs with broad interpretations, the Applicant believes that the specificity of .SHOP will be welcomed by commerce traders. Since .SHOP also provides compelling marketing and branding value, the Applicant anticipates that a significant number of business owners who are currently operating under domain names registered in existing TLDs will switch to using a .SHOP domain name as their primary online identity. The Applicant also anticipates new businesses will select .SHOP, given that it is the only TLD that exactly represents the nature and identity of their businesses. New businesses will also be attracted by the advantages that .SHOP offers them as stated in part (a) of this question. The Applicant expects to infuse positive competition and differentiation in the current space.

Furthermore, .SHOP will be an additional choice for registrars to provide to customers. However, registrars will not select TLDs that do not bring benefits in various ways to both Internet users and their businesses. In order to demonstrate these qualities, registries need to make an effort to provide quality services, business operations, system operations, pricing, customer support, and so on. It is expected that this will also promote competition and differentiation in the current space.

Competition and differentiation in turn will spur innovation. In the case of .SHOP, the Applicant intends to discuss ideas with registrars and introduce tools, products, and services that are effective or necessary in achieving goals and roles set forth for .SHOP. The Applicant believes that these efforts will promote innovation and lead to a better namespace.

iii. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

The Applicant will endeavor to achieve the goals listed in part (b).i. in this section as well as to build a namespace that Internet users are satisfied with for its meaningfulness, safety and effectiveness.

iv. Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

In order to achieve the goals stated above, the plans for .SHOP domain name registration policies are as follows. All .SHOP TLD registrars are required to include, policies and restrictions including but not limited to the following in their registration agreement with their customers, and registrants must agree and comply.

The primary target of .SHOP domain name registrations is individuals, business entities and organizations that deploy or intend to deploy commercial activities in an online or offline environment, i.e. offering for sale and selling products or services on a more than occasional basis, or providing information in relation thereto over the Internet.

1. Usage Restrictions
The purpose of the domain name usage will be restricted as follows:
a. Registered .SHOP domain names must be used primarily for commercial activities in an online or offline environment or to provide information in relation thereto over the Internet; or
b. Registered .SHOP domain names must be intended to be used primarily for commercial activities in an online or offline environment or to provide information in relation thereto over the Internet.

Registration of a .SHOP domain name solely for the purpose of selling, exchanging, trading, leasing the domain name shall be deemed as inappropriate use or intent.

The Applicant will conduct random checks to determine compliance with usage restrictions using sampling methodologies. In case the Applicant determines a sampled domain is in violation of the usage restrictions, the domain name may be deleted or placed on lock, hold, or similar status.

2. Draft Abusive Use Policy
The Applicant defines abuse as any activity that may harm the stability and security of the DNS and Internet, including, but not limited to:

- Illegal or fraudulent activities;
- Phishing;
- Pharming;
- Using or distributing malicious software (malware);
- Sending unsolicited bulk messages (spam);
- Posting, trading, or exchanging information that harms minors;
- Posting, trading, or exchanging child pornography;
- Posting information that encourages illegal acts, crimes, murders, or suicides; and
- Posting information that is offensive to public order or morals.

The Applicant reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name on lock, hold or similar status, at its sole discretion, to enforce the policy.

In addition, the Applicant intends to set up an abuse support window (abuse report form and abuse support window) for .SHOP operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to be able to provide prompt responses to abuse activities.

In case an abuse use is reported, the Applicant will promptly take appropriate measures in accordance with the suspension flow provided separately (Please refer to Question 28).

3. Accuracy of Registration Information and Restriction of Whois Proxy
In order for Internet users to use the .SHOP namespace with confidence, it is important that registration data associated with domain names is appropriate and accurate, and that there are not any fraudulent registrations and uses. The Applicant believes that it is important for .SHOP registrants to be identifiable, provide bona fide information, and not use their domain names in bad faith. Therefore, .SHOP registrants are obliged to provide and maintain correct, complete, and up-to-date registration information (Whois information). In addition, no Whois protection service of any kind will be permitted.

Failure to comply with this policy may result in the domain name registration being denied, cancelled, or transferred; the Registry Operator shall also be entitled, in such cases, to delete any such domain names, or place them on lock, hold, or similar status.

4. ICANN Policies
The Applicant will adopt and comply with the Uniform Rapid Suspension System, Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, and all other ICANN Consensus policies, regulations, and rules (the “ICANN policies”). In any case, all .SHOP domain name registration policies will apply, but nonetheless be subject to these ICANN policies.

5. Website Best Practices Information Page
In order to help .SHOP domain name registrants understand the purpose of the TLD, clearly publicize usage restrictions of the TLD, and encourage registrants to use .SHOP domain names in an appropriate manner, the Applicant will publish an information page on its website describing recommended ways to use .SHOP domain names. The information page is for information purposes only and will include best practices for web contents and a list of prohibited activities under the TLD.

All .SHOP registrars will be required to place the link to the information page on their website or include it in domain name registration⁄renewal confirmation emails sent to the registrants.

v. Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

.SHOP will comply with the applicable laws of Japan, as well as applicable ICANN policies. As part of its responsibility as the registry operator of the .SHOP TLD, the Applicant will exercise due care to protect all information it receives from registrants or users through registrars, and will not disclose such information to any third party, with the exception of public Whois data.

As stated earlier, the Applicant believes that it is important that .SHOP registrants are identifiable in order to ensure registrants provide bona fide information, services, and products responsibly and do not use their domain names in bad faith. Also, the Applicant believes that Internet users gain a sense of safety and security when they have a means to access the registration information. For this reason, as previously stated, no Whois proxy service of any kind will be allowed.

vi. Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

1. Communication with Registrars
In order to achieve the projected benefits, .SHOP must gain substantial mindshare among Internet users. The Applicant believes that the primary method of increasing recognition and registration numbers in the TLD is to gain strong support from .SHOP registrars. For that reason, the Applicant intends to:
- Maintain regular communication with registrars;
- Attend ICANN meetings and domain name⁄Internet related events and have face to face meetings with registrars; and
- Organize events for registrars
Feedback from registrars will then be taken into account and integrated into public relations and marketing activities where appropriate.

2. Other Outreach Activities and Communication
The Applicant believes that support from the industry segments of individuals, organizations and companies that deploy commercial activities in an online or offline environment is also critical to achieving the projected benefits.

Therefore, it plans to establish communications and partnerships with related industries and their main representatives, and conduct joint promotional activities that will encourage development and growth of the industries as well as .SHOP. In addition, the Applicant is already making an effort towards raising awareness of .SHOP in the relevant industries, working closely together with representatives of the community, and in particular those who have endorsed our bid for the .SHOP gTLD.