.casa
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| Status: | Delegated |
| Type: | Open |
| Category: | Real Estate |
| Website: | mmx.co |
More information: 
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.casa is a GTLD that was proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The successful applicant is MMX, also known as Minds + Machines.
Intended Use
Spanish word for house, .casa is a new generic top level domain targeted to real estate firms, contractors, decorators, home and family-related companies or interested individuals. The target audience for this TLD is the Spanish-speaking market.
Delegation Status
.casa was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on the 23rd September 2014, completing the successful application for the string.[1]
Notable Users
The .casa top-level domain is open to the public, and is available to any brand, business or individual who wants to embrace their Spanish Speaking audience with an easy to remember domain name. With more than 560 million Spanish speakers worldwide, real estate firms, construction contractors, services and individuals can use a .casa domain to make a clear connection between their brand and the idea of “home.”
Former Applicants
- MMX, also known as Minds + Machines. It is one of 68 applications that the company has filed on its own behalf.[2] This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
- Donuts (Extra Way, LLC), a start-up registry operator, which invested $56 million just for application fees for 307 new gTLDs.[3] This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
GoDaddy Withdraws
GoDaddy had originally applied for .casa, but in March 2013, the company announced that it was withdrawing its applications for .casa and .home, and only sticking with its Brand TLD application for .godaddy. It was noted that it was withdrawing its applications to focus on its core registrar business, thereby removing competition with competitive applicants it could work with as future registries and eliminating concerns that it will promote its own TLDs ahead of others'. The announcements were made at an event, Registry Days, meant to open a dialogue between the world's largest registrar and new gTLd applicants.[4] The applications were withdrawn in time to receive a 70% refund for each of the $185,000 application fees.
Auction
In an August 2013 auction, MMX prevailed as the winner. The total amount was not disclosed though the 8 total auctions that were cumulatively valued at $9.65 million.[5]
Name Collision Issues
In October 2013 ICANN released their final assessment and mitigation plan for the Name Collision issue that was facing the New gTLD program. On 18 November 2013, ICANN announced the applied-for strings that were eligible for an alternative path towards delegation that would allow applicants to proceed without waiting for further mitigation research and plans to be published. 25 strings, including .casa, were not eligible for the alternative path, and will have to wait for more plans to be published before continuing towards delegation.[6]
Contract Signed
On November 21, 2013 MMX received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .casa after passing the Initial Evaluation.[7]
References
- ↑ ICANN delegated strings Retrieved 5th December 2014.
- ↑ gTLD Application Update 92 applications submitted, TLDH.org
- ↑ Donuts Inc eye popping list of 307 new top-level domains
- ↑ GoDaddy Home Casa TLD, DomainNameWire.com Published & Retrieved 6 Mar 2013
- ↑ Second Applicant Auction, Concluded Successfully 8 domains 965m, ApplicantAuction.com Published Aug 15th
- ↑ Announcement 17 Nov 13, ICANN.org Retrieved 20 Feb 2014
- ↑ Registry Agreements, ICANN.org Retrieved 02 Dec 2013