.design

Status:	Proposed
Type:	Generic
Category:	Industry
More information:

.design is a gTLD proposal submitted to ICANN's new gTLD expansion program.

Applicants

Several companies submitted their applications to serve as registry operator for the TLD including:

1. Starting Dot, a start-up registry company based in France that has submitted 5 TLD applications
2. Top Level Design, submitted 10 total applications. The company partnered with CentralNic to provide back-end registry services.
3. STRAAT Investments, the parent company of .co Internet submitted its applications for 13 domain name strings including .design. The company partnered with Neustar to become its back-end registry service provider.
4. Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd.- The company filed 68 new gTLDs for its own behalf. Minds + Machines will provide back-end registry services. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
5. Donuts filed for 307 new gTLDs under different company names, Black Avenue LLC applied for the .delivery string. The company's back-end registry service provider is Demand Media. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
6. Uniregistry, Corp.- It is one of the 54 new gTLDs filed by the company.
7. BET Inc.- The company is based in Japan and John Kane of Afilias is the main contact person.
8. Design Trend Registry Inc.- (Momentous), submitted 4 total applications.The company is based in Canada and Aimee Deziel is the contact person.

TLDH & $15mm Auction Funding

On February 26 2013, Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. announced that it had entered into a funding agreement worth $15 million to be used in the case of auction for a specific unnamed TLD. The investor will not receive ownership of the TLD but a share of future revenues. TLDH did not name the TLD that the funds are directed for, and it is in 11 head to head contentions and 12 featuring more than one contender.

Top-Level Domain