ICANN is opening the website of top-level domain suffix with any brand, music or London -... And you can take advantage of them

In June, ICANN announced a program to open the domain name space, so that anyone can register any top level domain imagine. Run an international consortium of banks? Why not buy. "Bank"? Like music? Why not buy. "Music"? With the deadline of January 12 nears, most of these initiatives are beginning to emerge from the wood with an example this week the Scottish government making noises about buying the "roses". And another is the public relations agency for London for "London". . So let's look at the mechanics and costs involved in making their own gTLD happen.

(For disclosure, I am part of a project to acquire the rights for the entire year. GTLD application that comes, but this article is not about my project.)

Hey, let's make the TLDhere!

The idea of ??the opening of the gTLD space has been running for years within ICANN, but it is only this year that formally approved the plan. Applications open in January 2012 and closed shortly afterwards, in April. Since then, ICANN runs its own process to evaluate each request in turn - a process that will discuss in a moment.

Current thinking is that applicants are divided into three types -. "Unpunished". "Mark" (any brand you can imagine, for example, Deloitte, Canon, etc.). "Place" (any identifiable geographic area, for example. "London", ". Africa", etc) and ". group "(any other entity, such as a trade group." bench "." money "or" music. "). The industry is expecting between 1,200 and 1,500 applications, 80% of which are. Brand, 10%. Place and the 10% group ..

"Sssh ... it's a secret"

There are a number of sites that have lists of who is thinking of buying these domains - NXT is one, led by a former insider ICANN. Newdomains.org is another. One thing that is interesting to note is that although the industry is expecting about 960 to 1200 marks, very few have declared their hands. In fact, current thinking is that if you are looking for a gTLD, not too splash this is the smart way of doing things.

Depend on the final proposal, with hotel, bank, London and Scotland appear to offer a consumer sensible proposal by the joint venture and similar organizations -.... Especially in the case of "dot.place" applications driving record by tourism.

The reason for this is that obtaining one of these gTLDs is mind-numbingly difficult and terrifyingly expensive - even if you are doing a bid which could be partly or fully funded with public money.

When you apply to Icann, you have to pay it $185,000. This is your "evaluation fee". It's not an application fee - you won't get back if you fail. (You can get some of it back if you withdraw from the process.) This is the charge for Icann to look at your application. (Incidentally, Icann originally budgeted for 500 applications for a total fee of $92.5m. Now that it's likely to see up to 1,500 applications, this fee comes out at around $278m.)

To start the process, it takes 325 pages ICANN gTLD Applicant Guide and start reading. The application process takes about nine months for easy application. The fee involved for about four full-time members of staff to each application. Each application consists of 50 questions - business and technical 25 25. The technical part is considered to be a little more difficult for the commercial, but a standard response to the 25 technical questions that will cover about 300 pages.

To answer the technical questions, you need a "partner backend" line that will carry out this work for you. This is highly specialized in IT, you need someone to do it for you, but luckily there are a lot of people do it for you if you cash pony. To run a place. Or a group. Then you have to find $ 500,000 for the operation of first class technical years. You will also need an additional $ 500,000 in marketing to sell enough of them to reach a balance in 36 months. Depending on how attractive is your domain, you may find a provider to take a punt on this with you and take some stock in exchange for services. To succeed, you must be selling about 50,000 domains a year (because, of course, the whole point of having a top-level domain is the sale of domains registered there), but remember that the more sell the more you pay. This does not include the money you may have to find to get the rights for the domain at auction - something we'll cover shortly.

But for now, let's pause and take a look at the marks ..

The. "Marca" proposal

If you run a brand., This is a little easier, since it is likely that only charges $ 25,000 to $ 50,000 a year for back-end provider. But that'seachyear. Forever. In addition, for a brand. You will not be making any money on this, if you're going to have a number of full-time employees managing this process from now until the end of 2012 at least, and then someone childcare is infinity.

So let's guess at $500,000 of internal funding for the application, then $150,000 a year at least to keep it running. (Remember this is international trademark law stuff - this is going to tie up a lot of pricey lawyers for a good number of billable days.)

Remember also that this is so that instead of going to "http://www.mybrand.com/" people can go to "http://mybrand" or do things like email "customerservice @ MyBrand" . This is not an easy sell for anything more than 10 years is like 1.5 million dollars of money from anyone - until you consider a world where you wake up in January 2013 to discover that the big brands have changed world and you're the only one. space is still using an old and boring. "com", and have all their competitors. ladedabrand and MyBrand. to his credit.

So essentially there is great risk for major brands, both in going andnoin their favor. At the time of announcement of the ICANN in June on the program, there were a lot of noise from the markings on the opportunity. But now - because I suspect the reality that is not attractive - most have been covered. However, imagine that it marks the only woman of beauty with its own gTLD, or the only car company. Considerable prestige. It also closes the window of about five years, so you have plenty of time to make hay while competitors are on the defensive. This is why the back-end providers are becoming so queries can brand, however, very few have gone public with it.

Anyway, whatever the type of gTLDs that are, let's imagine that you've decided to do it and have the money and complete the application. Here is where things get interesting.

The dispute over strings: string theory as, but is more difficult

On April 12, 2012 ICANN published a list of those who actually put in your application. It is at this point to determine whether or not the point of having a bed of roses.

ICANN rejects any application that looks to intentionally or indirectly cause problems. For example, do not expect to get. "BBC", but the BBC do not put in a request. "BBC". This is also where gTLD crazy ideas designed to trap users into phishing traps to a halt. First, ICANN detect, and the second calls for the masses of evidence of good governance. Get one of these gTLDs for nefarious purposes just not going to happen.

If only one proposal in a chain, things are easier from here. Working hard for nine months and get into the "delegation" and can start trading. You become a "record" and can be named "Register" and start selling domains. (Besides, now may be a combined record and registration, which until now was impossible.) Reference, is almost certainly have to reach agreements with registrars to reach breakeven 50,000 domains will be the need for an established sales channel.

But if two requests for the same "chain" aspirants to enter the "dispute". Applications are invited to solve the problem between them, which usually result in all but one pulling it out. How well it works for those out to the inherent value of work done so far, and how good they are in negotiation. If you do not agree and one or more of them want in, going to auction.

(Readers are kindly requested to note that there are two. "Unpunished" the proposals contained in it. NXT, which raises some issues, especially in the press release issued by the Scottish government is not explicit about what their preferred, if applicable.)

Auctions are fun itself interesting: applicants have to deposit 10% of a "limit bid" in secret with ICANN. Therefore, if given $ 1 million that can bid up to $ 10 million. Or, if some real money to do, you can arrange for an "unlimited funds" with ICANN to decide the cost to join that particular club at the moment. A domain that can move between 50,000 and 100,000 domains in place one year auction prices could reach more than 3 million pounds.

Where this gets more interesting / scary (choose your preference) is that there are a number of very large (in terms of cash on hand) organizations out there seeing this as a simple numbers game. Imagine that organizations able to make an offer for 50, 60, even 70 gTLD strictly as a for-profit company, and have hundreds of millions of pounds in the bank. These organizations make it very difficult for younger children to enter the market, especially on what works in stealth mode, keeping close to the chest exactly what they are looking to get domains. It is only when the window closes, as you know if your offer little niche group is about to be eaten by a large mutual fund that do not share the same principles as thyself. If it seems like you can change with the magic of 50,000 domains, it is almost impossible not to end up getting subsumed in one of these monsters chewing domain.

Is this idea still looking attractive?

However, there is a guaranteed way to make money in this scheme. It is this: do not bid for a gTLD. Go to the provision of consultancy and services for new gTLDs.

Conclusion

Ultimately, you can only have one owner of a chain. Once the process is reduced through a process of wear and spending cash to the winner is placed on the delegation. But remember, you can only put 1,000 domains in the system in a given year. In addition, if ICANN receives more than 500 domains that are to process in batches of 500. You could be a long wait ...

Matthew Baxter-Reynolds is an independent software development consultant, trainer and author based in the UK. His favourite way to communicate with like-minded technical people is Twitter: @mbrit.