Category: TLDs/New gTLDs

Black July for the .xyz

.XYZ - new gTLD

The volume leader of the new gTLDs has seen its zone file cut by more than half.

While it started its July month with more than 5.2 million of registered domain names in its zone, it had only 2.5 million on Monday 17, letting the .top get its way back to the top in the meantime.

How to explain such a phenomenon?

First of all, the multigenerational extension doesn’t escape the non-renewal law.

A year after having massively registered at the derisory price of 0.01$ or even received for free their domain names in .xyz, the acquirers simply don’t renew these latter, hence a considerably reduced zone file.

Last but not least, a big part of the non-renewals comes from the ban done to registries by the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to sell .xyz.

Yet, half of the registered domain names in .xyz were owned by people in China.

The case is currently in the process of being resolved, so the .xyz has yet to type its final point.

.BRAND : 4 episodes, for this summer

.BRAND : 4 episodes, for this summer
Photo : CC BY-SA 3.0 Nick Youngson – source : http://nyphotographic.com/

Act 1: Denial (and Anger)

 

The brand, a forbidden territory. Everything is played out by attacks, complaints, courts. A ruthless world. Since the 23rd of June 1857 and the creation of the first system of trademarks by France, it is possible to benefit from an exclusive right of use for a term on different applications. Otherwise the law is coming. The arrival of the Internet will shake up this foundation.

If one remembers the Milka conflict with Kraft foods, which led to the famous opposition between Milka Budimir, a seamstress in Bourg-lès-Valence, and the American giant Kraft Foods about the domain name milka.fr, we can keep in mind the case of many domain names holders who succeeded in winning attacks against those bigger than them.

The expression of David vs Goliath is illustrated in France with leclerc.fr, domain name registered by a fan of the Leclerc tank. In spite of an attempt at recovery of SYRELI type, the tradesmen never succeeded in obtaining this famous domain name. For posterity, the justification of the individual will be retained in his argument: “… in life there are not only shopping centers and consumption, France is above all, a country of history, a strong history of which we can be proud!”

 

.BRAND - Leclerc.fr website
Leclerc.fr website

 

In the United States, the case of Nissan Computers is interesting. The little known IT company was registered after the name of its owner, Uzi Nissan. The eponymous Japanese company Nissan Motors evidently pouted at the deposit of nissan.com and tried to recover the domain name in question. Despite an incessant media campaign and numerous attacks, today nissan.com remains the property of Nissan Computers. Nissan Motors now uses nissanusa.com for its US business. In this case, the Nissan.com website only reflects Nissan Computers’ computer sales activity. We can instead find a strong attack against Nissan Motors. A bad buzz in action!

 

.BRAND - nissan.com website
Nissan.com website

 

What can we keep in mind through these two experiences? A relatively interesting bone marrow: the domain name, this intangible asset representing the image of a company, has not been sufficiently monitored by multinationals.

Schmidt launches its new website in dot brand: Home-design.schmidt

Schmidt is one of the first French brands of kitchens, but also the first kitchen furniture export company in France.

Schmidt group has decided to launch its new website in « .brand » (dot brand), .schmidt and thus has joined many big companies which have made this bet, like BNP Paribas (mabanque.bnpparibas), MAIF (voyagepro.maif), Club Med (corporate.clubmed) or the latest, SNCF (oui.sncf).

Schmidt chose to regroup its activity under the « home design » designation which describes well its industry. The company is not only dedicated to the kitchen world but also proposes bathrooms and “custom-made” furniture for the entire house: dressing, TV furnitures… all with a design touch.

The domain name home-design.schmidt allows on the one hand, to optimize the SEO and on the other hand, to facilitate its development and its international communication. After its launch in Great Britain at the end of April, the website arrives in Belgium, and will continue with Spain, Italia and Switzerland by July the 4th.

The domain name home-design.schmidt is easy to recognize and to remember for general public.

dot brand - Home-design.schmidt website
Home-design.schmidt website

But what is the benefit for brands to have their own extension?

In 2013, some companies (including some thirty French companies) wished to have their own « .brand » extension, in order to capitalize on their leading brand. Most of them wanted to secure and protect their naming spaces (to limit intermediaries in the chain of actors involved on a domain name registration). The purpose is also to have a domain name really distinctive and reassuring for the final consumer. The brands fight against cybersquatting, but this is an endless war. It represents an important annual budget and doesn’t limit the damages enough. The message of the brands owners of a « .brand » (dot brand) is the following: If you’re not on my « .brand » website, then you don’t buy the products or services of my brand.

This practice to communicate in « .brand » isn’t known enough by the general public. Of course, the consumers’ awareness should be increased in order to use extra caution during their navigation, and that means the domain name verification.

So having its « .brand » is a differentiating factor and will be more and more used for marketing purposes.

.brand - ma.cuisinella website
ma.cuisinella website

New extensions: The first signs of a (R)evolution?

Domain names registration strategies follow reasoning sometimes hard to understand. However “sheep-like” reasoning is the one we can easily observe.

When Alphabet (Google) used for the first time its domain name ABC.XYZ, a sensitive rise of registrations for this extension has been observed. More than a simple registration, ABC.XYZ has created for the public, informed or not, an interrogation on the extension used: “they aren’t in .COM?”

 

New extension - abc.xyz Alphabet Google

 

New gTLDs’s program by ICANN has generated many thoughts on naming politic on the web. Until now, these extensions weren’t well known by the general public, despite the real concern of the brands to communicate on this subject: BNP Paribas, Leclerc and AXA for French examples, which have chosen a dedicated extension.

New gTLDs creation allows to register domain name by searching to give a meaning to the associated activity: be it geographical or by sector.

That way, the following sentence makes more sense: “When I look at the domain name, I know what’s behind it”.

Today, despite this opportunity, few companies of big scale have chosen to use a new extension. And none to my knowledge, suppress its former address to go on the new one. Which can be quite logical. But things which seem unchanging, are changing.

DXC an American company, present in NYSE, has changed its short domain name, three characters, dxc.com to dxc.technology. It was our colleagues of DNW who announced this news. However the email addresses service didn’t move to the new extension yet.

 

New extension - dxc.technology
Example of dxc.technology

 

This information may seem of little importance, but have in mind the impact it will have on the process of new extensions use. Simply put, it begins with the importance and the safety of the extension for a company to change. Wait for the next step! It may only be the beginning of an underlying trend on communication and naming strategy on Internet.

Technology revolution growth is usually slower than the one planned, but its impact is often more important… To be continued.

The launch of .AFRICA

After more than five years of legal dealings and battles, South African organization .ZA Central Registry (ZACR) is now designed to commercialize the internet extension “.AFRICA” which will be opened to all. As presented by Koffi Djossou, member of UNIFORUM ZACR, future domain names in .AFRICA will “promote African companies, people and culture on Internet”. President of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, has already saluted the end of this battle as the moment when Africa “has finally acquired its own digital identity”.

 

new gTLD .africa

 

We will go back to present the facts: in the application call for new extensions launched by ICANN, they were two to claim the .AFRICA. On one side, we have South African national extension operator .ZA (ZACR). On the other side, we have an African/American business woman Sophia Bekele, the DotConnectAfrica (DCA) founder.

With the geographical and cultural nature of the .AFRICA, the extension couldn’t be sold by bidding. So ICANN has required the participants to obtain the support of at last 60% of the concerned region governments. After this, ZA Central Registry (ZACR) has benefited from many official supports (39 African governments) like the African Union. While DotConnectAfrica (DCA), has been the object of many mails opposed to this “dissident application”.

In early 2014, ICANN has finally given the delegation of the .africa domain to ZA Central Registry (ZACR). At that time begins this unprecedented judicial marathon, after DotConnectAfrica (DCA) submits a claim against ICANN for fraud and unfair business practices. DotConnectAfrica (DCA) has requested to the United States Federal Court to stop ICANN from giving the delegation of .africa domain to ZA Central Registry (ZACR) during the trial.  Even if the last request was finally denied, the claim against ICANN is still ongoing…

This highly political saga has ended in February 15th, 2017 but for ZA Central Registry (ZACR), the work begins now: to make of .Africa a real banner of the African continent.

Find more information on http://nic.africa/ or contact Nameshield regarding the conditions and the open period for the registration of your .AFRICA.