.بيتك
| Status: | Delegated |
| Language: | Arabic |
| Translates to: | Your own house |
| Manager: | Kuwait Finance House |
| Registry Provider: | CentralNic |
| Type: | IDN Brand TLD |
| Priority #: | 44 |
بيتك is an IDN Brand TLD delegated in ICANN's New gTLD Program. Kuwait Finance House (KFH)'s application to ICANN succeeded and the TLD was delegated to the Root Zone on 15 December 2015. [1] The string is Arabic for "your own house," the short form of KFH in all publications worldwide.[2] CentralNic was selected to provide backend registry services.
Application Details
Excerpted from applicant response to question #18 in TLD application:
"Kuwait Finance House (“KFH” or “Applicant”) has chosen to apply for the TLD to promote awareness of KFH’s services and products and facilitate the digital growth and physical expansion of KFH. The TLD will control and protect KFH and its Trademarks by providing an official digital hub for consumers worldwide as well as fostering consumer trust by creating a secure and technically stable zone. KFH is confident that the TLD will allow the company not only to achieve its own goals of expansion, risk reduction, improved performance and efficiency, and technological development, but also contribute to ICANNʹs commitment to innovation, consumer protection, security, and stability across new markets while simultaneously achieving ICANN’s goal of increased use of IDNs at the Top and Second Level.
Headquartered in Kuwait City, Kuwait, KFH provides Islamic Finance or Shari’a compliant services covering banking, real estate, trade finance, investment portfolios, and corporate, commercial, and retail financial markets. KFH was the first Islamic bank established in the State of Kuwait and is today one of the foremost Islamic financial institutions in the world. From its inception in 1977, KFH has grown into a robust banking and financial institution that is a market leader not only in the Islamic banking industry but also in the banking sector as a whole (both in terms of profitability and total assets). KFH has strong affiliations with leading international institutions and in the past has successfully launched a number of products in alliance with other major global banks such as Citi, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Chase, BNP Paribas, ABN Amro, and HSBC.
Although KFH’s core market remains Kuwait (where it holds a 30% retail market share and the largest customer and retail base of any bank in Kuwait), the bank also cultivates a strong and growing international presence. KFH has established fully owned, independently functioning banks in Turkey (1989), Bahrain (2002), and Malaysia (2005, extended into Australia in 2008) while establishing significant stakes in other Islamic banks regionally and worldwide. As at December 2011, KFH also held subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. KFH actively seeks to expand its customer base both in Kuwait and internationally, quantitatively and qualitatively, by increasing the number of branches, developing communications channels with customers, developing innovative new products to meet evolving requirements, and continuously improving customer service to achieve the highest standards of quality and efficiency (as benchmarked against international standards). In its constant pursuit of excellence and bringing quality, secure banking products to new markets, KFH’s expansion program directly mirrors ICANN’s commitment to the extension of choice and the promotion of secure and stable technology across new and emerging markets.
KFH is a multi-award winning organization, and it has received recognition and accolades from industry organizations and counterparts in every field – from Banking to Real Estate and Technology. In 2010, KFH won Global Finance’s award for Best Islamic Finance Bank in the GCC and was selected among the same organization’s Safest Banks in the Middle East. It is rated A+ by Fitch and Capital Intelligence, Aa3 by Moody’s, and A- by Standard and Poor’s. Its excellent ratings reflect the bank’s high degree of flexibility and resistance to market shocks. But perhaps the best gauge of the bank’s success and reliability is the trust consumers have placed in it: KFH ranks first in the banking deposit segment in Kuwait.
KFH was rated Best Consumer Internet Bank in Kuwait by Global Finance in 2010. The bank has an active internet presence, with the most-followed Twitter account (@KFHGroup) of any bank in the region (allowing for real-time customer feedback and service) as well as a Facebook page (www.facebook.com⁄KuwaitFinanceHouse). Most significantly, however, KFH’s website allows for the execution of 140 different banking services; KFH Online was the top rated application among customer testimonies. Throughout the past few years, KFH has targeted superior solutions and banking applications, matching the best international practices and standards in order to upgrade business efficiency and achieve the highest standards of quality. The establishment of quality control measures and increasing the capacity of equipment, systems, and network throughout KFH’s digital infrastructure further ensure KFH has the resources necessary to match the service requirements of the future. The decision to launch the TLD thus falls squarely within KFH’s digital strategy by providing access to unprecedented levels of technical security and innovation.
[..]
The Sunrise phase will be followed by General Availability, during which time domain names will be become available for eligible entities on a first-come, first-served basis (the limited initial pool of authorized registrants negates the possibility of any registration collisions). All domain name registrations in the TLD will be registered to and maintained by the Registry Operator for its own and its affiliates’ exclusive use within the first three years of delegation.
Depending on various factors including the up-take and usage of new TLDs, KFH may extend the client base in the future, though in not less than three years from delegation. The initially proposed Eligibility Policy provides for such expansion, and amendments to the Eligibility Policy to make it less restrictive are also feasible.
Any significant expansion of the potential registrant base will be prepended by an intermediate Sunrise period to allow new entrants to register their trademarks as domains under the TLD. Standard first-come, first-served policy will take over thereafter. The Applicant firmly believes this tiered policy will satisfy all potential registrants both now and in the future."[3]