.网店

Status:	Proposed
Language:	Chinese (Hani)
Translates to:	webshop/webstore
Type:	IDN gTLD
Category:	Commerce
Priority #:	17 - Global eCommerce TLD Asia Limited 31 - Zodiac
More information:

.网店 is an IDN gTLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program.

Current Applicants

1. Global eCommerce TLD Asia Limited - Using ARI as back-end provider.
2. Zodiac (Zodiac Libra Limited)

Background

Global eCommerce TLD Asia Limited

Excerpts from Application:

"The Registry wishes to apply .店 (.dian) but current rules disallow 1 char IDN TLD & GNSO policy advises against ASCII squatting (.dian is ASCII squatting as 1 char IDN TLDs are not allowed)

[..]

According to alexa.com, a leading provider of free global web metrics, taobao.com, China’s largest online e-commerce site, overtook Amazon and Ebay in 2010 to become the world’s number one online shopping site in terms of unique visitors. What is perhaps even more surprising to many in the west is that the website is not very accessible to the rest of the world because it does not provide English language support.

This comes as no surprise considering that with over 500 million users online, China is already the country with the most Internet users by far; the United States is at a distant second, with less than half of that at about 245 million Internet users. In addition to the 1.3 billion population in mainland China, there are another 30 million Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, and over 40 million Chinese overseas. The Chinese market, fuelled by the continued development of China, is a global one.

Even though it is one of the world’s oldest languages, the interest around the world in the Chinese language has been nothing short of a renaissance. It is reported that millions of (non-Chinese) people around the world are learning Chinese and China is exporting 5,000 teachers every year. With the continuing rapid growth of the economy and e-commerce in China extending to Chinese communities around the world, there is strong potential for a new Chinese IDN gTLD focused in the e-commerce field.

The vision of the .网店 TLD is that the introduction of a dedicated Chinese IDN TLD provides a platform that facilitates trade and mutual benefit between Chinese shops and shoppers connecting with shops and shoppers around the globe.

[..]

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.

[..]

The Registry is committed to introducing the .网店 TLD in an orderly manner to minimize the social costs and maximize the social value of the TLD. Following the successful launch of the .ASIA TLD, and leveraging the experience and knowledge from the DotAsia Organisation (through Namesphere), the Registry is committed to developing and implementing a comprehensive start-up process that would include, besides Sunrise and Landrush processes, a Pioneer Domains Program.

The Pioneer Domains Program will be designed to curb abusive registrations, thereby reducing social costs, as well as to promote the adoption of the TLD and maximize the social value of the TLD. An important goal of the program is to allow for the introduction of showcase domains under the TLD in a well structured manner, while ensuring that the protection of the rights of others is maintained. The implementation of showcase domains supports the development of positive foundation of usage of the TLD."

Zodiac

Excerpted from response to question # 18 in TLD Application:

"Zodiac Holdings Limited (“Zodiac”) was founded and incorporated in Cayman Islands by James Seng in 2008 in anticipation of the launch of the ICANN new gTLD program. Currently, it is headquartered in Hong Kong and has an operation center in Beijing, China. The team consists of experienced veterans in the global and China domain name industry like James Seng and former China Network Information Center (CNNIC) employees such as Eugene Li.

James Seng is one of the Internet pioneers in Singapore and is widely recognized as an international expert in numerous Internet areas. He is well known as the inventor of IDN and has co-chaired the IDN Working Group in IETF from 1999 to 2004, leading to the standardization of IDN.

Eugene Li, is the former Vice President of China Network Information Center (CNNIC). During his 7 years tenure at CNNIC, Eugene has launched initiatives that doubled domain name registrations and helped CNNIC become the no. 1 ccTLD and no. 2 TLD by volume. At the time when Eugene left to join Zodiac, CNNIC has over 13 million domain name registrations.

Under the vision and leadership of James Seng, with the support of angels, venture capital firm and family offices of approximately USD 20 million in place for the application and operation of the new gTLDs, Zodiac is seeking to become the first and largest privately held ICANN-approved TLD registry operator in Asia. It intends to operate TLDs that are centric to the Chinese culture.

[..]

[.网店], pronounced as “wang dian” means “online store” in Chinese. To the Chinese community, “STRING” is commonly used to refer to small online stores setup by a single individual. In China, there are platforms like Taobao.com and Paipai.com that offer these people a quick way to setup their online store."

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