McDonald’s! The symbol of globalization: from the invention of the express service by the eponymous brothers to its successful franchise by Ray Kroc (I recommend the film ‘The Funder’), McDonald’s is an example of post-war entrepreneurial success. The BigMac, the Filet o’Fish? These are the inventions of franchisees that headquarters have agreed to develop throughout the world. A model of innovation. What about their digital strategy? When Internet arrives and everyone talks ab... Read More
Category: TLDs/New gTLDs
.BRAND : 4 episodes, for this summer
Act 3: Depression Five years ago, the number of domain name extensions was alright: less than 500. It was still possible to register its trademark and its company’s name in the extension of its choice and to act against fraudulent deposits. Attacks were unusual and you defended yourselves when smart little ones made contentious deposits. Some extensions only accepted subdomains registrations, such as Australia and the United Kingdom. Impossible to save at the root and impossible to regi... Read More
.BRAND : 4 episodes, for this summer
Act 2: Expression We left off on the time when the brands did not feel the Internet revolution, the techniques evolving and the registered domain names. (Read act 1: Denial (and anger)) The example of McDonald’s is interesting. In 1994, Wired, an American magazine created a year earlier, communicates about the case of mcdonalds.com. Joshua Quittner, a journalist at Newsday, contacted McDonald’s and asked if they would be interested in registering mcdonalds.com. There was litt... Read More
The acquisition of Rightside Group by Donuts becomes a reality
It’s at mid-July that ICANN has given its consent regarding the merge of Rightside Group, the registry behind the 40 new gTLDs (.ATTORNEY, .NINJA, .PUB, .DENTIST, .NEWS, .ROCKS, .LIVE, etc.) and the other well-known registry in the new gTLDs’ world, Donuts Inc (more than 200 TLDs: .LIFE, .LOANS, .MEDIA, .SOLUTIONS, .WORLD, etc.). Donuts will then acquire Rightside at the price of 10.60$ per action, in the context of a takeover offer, i.e. an operation of approximatively 213 million in total. Do... Read More
Black July for the .xyz
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... Read More
.BRAND : 4 episodes, for this summer
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 oppos... Read More
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 indu... Read More
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 gTLDs’s program by ICANN has generated ... Read More
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... Read More
Why are Dot Brands dragging their feet?
Ok so here’s the thing, we’re over 2 years into the new gTLD rollout now, a new era of the Internet, and everything seems to be going swimmingly…. Or is it? On the face of it, momentum is building. Over 16 million domain names registered in the past 2 years and 60% of them would still have been available under a .com e.g. nameshield.website and its .com equivalent nameshieldwebsite.com. That’s great because it means that New gTLD domain names are being registered instead of the equivalent .com. ... Read More
