| gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | | .网店 | Global eCommerce TLD Asia Limited | namesphere.asia | View |
According to recent studies and as described in the Chinese IDN VIP Case Study Report (http:⁄⁄archive.icann.org⁄en⁄topics⁄new-gtlds⁄chinese-vip-issues-report-03oct11-en.pdf):
‘The Chinese language community has embraced the Internet at an unprecedented rate. The Internet users have surged from 620,000 in 1997 to 485 million by the end of June 2011. The number of Internet users who use Chinese has increased by 24.2% in 2011 alone. During this process, the composition of Internet users has undergone a dramatic change as well. In 1998, 89% of Internet users in China had college-level English comprehension, while in 2011 only 22% have received such education. This means more and more Chinese Internet users are only familiar with the Chinese language environment.’
This provides a good explanation on why the introduction of a Chinese IDN TLD is in itself a benefit to Chinese Internet users worldwide.
The increasing popularity and dominance of proprietary ecommerce websites makes it difficult for many small and medium businesses to avoid relying on their services. Furthermore, once a business starts utilizing the proprietary ecommerce platform, they start driving their own customers to that platform. In time, it becomes very difficult for the business to move away from the platform. .网店 domain names will provide businesses with an alternative and trusted communication channel to build their own businesses and online brand. The decreased reliance on proprietary e-commerce websites grants businesses a high degree of control over their online presence by, amongst other things, granting businesses access to user traffic data thereby allowing them to precisely engage and target Internet users.
1. Goals of the TLD
The .网店 TLD aspires to be the domain of choice for Chinese e-commerce websites and services. With a growing Chinese economy and a vast worldwide Chinese market, the .网店 TLD focuses on servicing ecommerce activities. As a Chinese IDN TLD, the TLD is the best choice for not only local companies in China, but is also a valuable asset for companies around the world looking to explore the burgeoning Chinese Internet marketplace with an immediately Chinese-friendly online identity.
Today, more than a decade after IDN technologies were first discussed, IDN is still a novelty. Global eCommerce TLD Asia Limited’s (‘the Registry’) vision is to make IDN a natural navigation habit for the hundreds of millions of Chinese shops and shoppers.
With the full support of ARI Registry Services (ARI) as the registry back-end services provider, the TLD aims to operate at world class service levels delivering registry services to its registrars, registrants and general internet users a high capacity and high availability platform.
Through the support from its Registry Front-End Services Provider, Namesphere, which is a spin-off of the DotAsia Organisation, the Registry sets a noble goal in building itself as a reputable initiative that is economically viable, sensitive to the cultural aspects of the community it serves, and one which participates in the global community as a responsible netizen, upholding a high level of integrity and respecting the rights of others.
2. Differentiation and Innovation
The major point of differentiation is of course the fact that the TLD is a broad generic Chinese IDN TLD. While we remain conservative on our outlook for the immediate market, the Registry believes in the strong potential for a wide range of registrants.
As a generic and open TLD, the Registry believes in providing a secure and stable platform from which innovations can be built by registrants. The Registry itself will focus on innovations which should be unfelt by users, to maintain a reliable, advanced and operationally sound TLD registry.
3. Improving User Experience
An appropriate implementation of IDN Variant policies for Chinese will be critical for the Registry in terms of providing a good user experience. The TLD will become one of the first IDN gTLDs and therefore providing a full IDN user experience is in the core of its vision.
This is especially important for the .网店 TLD because of its focus on e-commerce. Consumer experience and trust is paramount to the success of the TLD. Leveraging the deep knowledge of IDN and IDN Variant policies from DotAsia Organisation (through Namesphere) as the registry front-end services provider and ARI as the registry back-end services provider, the Registry is committed to providing a seamless user experience for Chinese users around the world, whether they primarily use Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese or both.
Outreach efforts to educate users about IDN TLDs, as well as to advocate the universal acceptance of IDN TLDs by application providers and network infrastructure providers will also be an important aspect for improving user experience not only for .网店, but for all other IDN TLDs to come.
4. Registration Policies Supporting the Goals to Drive User Benefits
Upon Go Live of the registry, the TLD will be an open registry accepting registrations from individuals and businesses around the world. To uphold its reputation as a trusted open namespace and a socially responsible TLD, beyond the basic ICANN requirements, the Registry is committed to put in place a comprehensive Sunrise and Start-up process (discussed in the response to Question 29) as well as effective Abuse Prevention (discussed in the response to Question 28) and Rights Protection Mechanisms (discussed in the response to Question 29) to strengthen the orderly and stable introduction of the TLD.
As a Chinese IDN TLD, the Registry will also put in place best practices for the handling of IDN Variants and other IDN related policies to support our goals to become a reputable domain of choice for Chinese websites.
5. Privacy and Confidentiality Protection
Measures to protect the privacy and any confidential information of registrants will be consistent with other existing broad gTLDs.
To address registrant privacy, the Registry is administered with compliance to a Privacy Policy which requires that identifying information received by the Registry Operator in connection with registrations will not be disclosed to third parties, except as required to combat any abusive registrations and comply with our contractual obligations to ICANN and investigations conducted by law enforcement agencies.
The .网店 TLD will be based out of Hong Kong and will be governed by the Privacy Ordinance, while the registry systems will be mainly based in Australia, governed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), both of which sets down specific terms and conditions for collecting, storing and using the personal information of others. A Privacy Policy has been developed which is compliant with relevant legislation and ensures that a high level of privacy and information security surrounds all collected data.
| gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | | .网站 | Global Website TLD Asia Limited | namesphere.asia | View |
According to recent studies and as described in the Chinese IDN VIP Case Study Report (http:⁄⁄archive.icann.org⁄en⁄topics⁄new-gtlds⁄chinese-vip-issues-report-03oct11-en.pdf):
‘The Chinese language community has embraced the Internet at an unprecedented rate. The Internet users have surged from 620,000 in 1997 to 485 million by the end of June 2011. The number of Internet users who use Chinese has increased by 24.2% in 2011 alone. During this process, the composition of Internet users has undergone a dramatic change as well. In 1998, 89% of Internet users in China had college-level English comprehension, while in 2011 only 22% have received such education. This means more and more Chinese Internet users are only familiar with the Chinese language environment.’
This provides a good explanation on why the introduction of Chinese IDN TLDs is in itself a benefit to Chinese Internet users worldwide.
1. Goals of the TLD
The .网站 TLD aspires to be the domain of choice for Chinese websites. For the Chinese community, much of its novelty and value will be in the name itself. As a broad generic Chinese IDN TLD, the registry has a goal of popularizing the use of IDN and to provide a full Chinese IDN experience for the Chinese language community around the world.
Today, more than a decade after IDN technologies were first discussed, IDN is still a novelty. Global Website TLD Asia Limited Registry’s (‘the Registry’) vision is to eventually make IDN a fact of life for the hundreds of millions of Chinese users, and to eventually reach a point when users forget there once was a time when domain names only existed in Ascii alphanumeric form.
With the full support of ARI as the registry back-end services provider, the TLD aims to operate at world class service levels delivering registry services to its registrars, registrants as well as general internet users a high capacity and high availability platform.
The Registry, through the support from its Registry Front-End Services Provider, Namesphere, which is a spin-off of the DotAsia Organisation, sets a noble goal in building itself as a reputable initiative that is economically viable, sensitive to the cultural aspects of the community it serves, and one which participates in the global community as a responsible netizen, upholding a high level of integrity and respecting the rights of others.
2. Differentiation and Innovation
The major point of differentiation is of course the fact that the .网站 TLD is a broad generic Chinese IDN TLD. While remaining a conservative outlook for the immediate market, the Registry believes in the strong potential for a wide range of registrants.
As a generic and open TLD, the Registry believes in providing a secure and stable platform from which innovations can be built by registrants. The Registry itself will focus on innovations for which should be unfelt by users, to maintain a reliable, advanced and operationally sound TLD registry through support from its Registry Back-End Services Provider, ARI Registry Services.
3. Improving User Experience
An appropriate implementation of IDN Variant policies for Chinese will be critical for the Registry in terms of providing a good user experience. The TLD will become one of the first IDN gTLDs and therefore providing a full IDN user experience is in the core of its vision.
For the hundreds of millions people from the Chinese language community who are yet to come online, an important barrier is the dependence of the Internet’s core direct navigation system on ASCII alphanumeric domains today. The Registry believes that offering a Chinese IDN TLD with a name that has broad appeal, in itself, contributes towards improving user experience.
Outreach efforts to educate users about IDN TLDs, as well as to advocate the universal acceptance of IDN TLDs by application providers and network infrastructure providers will also be an important aspect for improving user experience not only for .网站, but for all other IDN TLDs to come.
4. Registration Policies Supporting the Goals to Drive User Benefits
Upon Go-Live of the registry, the TLD will be an open registry accepting registrations from individuals and businesses around the world. To uphold its reputation as a socially responsible TLD, beyond the basic ICANN requirements, the Registry is committed to put in place a comprehensive Sunrise and Startup process (Question 29) as well as effective Abuse Prevention (Question 28) and Rights Protection Mechanisms (Question 29) to strengthen the orderly and stable introduction of the TLD.
As a Chinese IDN TLD, the Registry will also put in place best practices for the handling of IDN Variants and other IDN related policies to support our goals to become a reputable domain of choice for Chinese websites.
5. Privacy and Confidentiality Protection
Measures to protect the privacy and any confidential information of registrants will be consistent with other existing broad generic gTLDs.
To address registrant privacy, the Registry will be administered in compliance with a Privacy Policy which requires that identifying information received by the Registry Operator in connection with registrations will not be disclosed to third parties, except as required to combat any abusive registrations and comply with our contractual obligations to ICANN and investigations conducted by law enforcement agencies.
The .网站 TLD will be based out of Hong Kong and will be governed by the Privacy Ordinance, while the registry systems will be mainly based in Australia, governed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), both of which sets down specific terms and conditions for collecting, storing and using the personal information of others. A Privacy Policy has been developed which is compliant with relevant legislation and ensures that a high level of privacy and information security surrounds all collected data.