.rest

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Status:	Delegated
Registry Provider:	CentralNic
Type:	Generic
Category:	Food & Drink
Priority #:	704 - Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable

.rest is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 02 April 2014.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"The .rest gTLD will provide an online zone for restaurants and corollary entities and services worldwide, and it will allow these entities to register names that are appropriate to their business name or service offering. The .rest gTLD will provide innumerable benefits to the entire restaurant universe (consumers and the industry alike) by providing simple, easily identifiable, and intuitive domain names for restaurants, restaurant guides, restaurant associations, food and restaurant critics, bloggers, chefs, restaurant groups, sites and services for restaurant employees, and other restaurant-related entities. It will provide a designated namespace where these entities can register domain names related to restaurants and the restaurant industry and where consumers can search for and easily locate them. Its use will include but not be limited to websites, emails, online applications, online transactions, social media, directories and any new usages of domain names.

The restaurant industry (and the hospitality industry in general) is growing worldwide, and according to some sources is expected to be worth US$2.1 trillion by 2015; however, newly launched restaurants fight (and often don’t succeed) to obtain an appropriate domain name in the current TLD space. With 7 out of 10 eating-and-drinking establishments in the US alone being single unit operations– and with web presences becoming increasingly important both as business drivers (via online reservations and home delivery order services, for example) and sources of information about restaurants and the restaurant industry– it is crucial that a new domain is launched to address and service this growing and underserved market. The National Restaurant Association (USA) 2012 Restaurant Industry Forecast revealed the importance of an internet presence for restaurants, with 6 out of 10 adults indicating that they have ʺused the internet to visit a restaurant website, view a menu, or find out more about a restaurant they havenʹt been to beforeʺ (p. 31). This same report indicated that 36% of adults have placed dine-in, carry-out, or delivery orders online, 27% have made reservations online, and a further 27% have posted or read restaurant reviews on consumer-driven websites. Additionally, 53% of adults (and 68% of 18 - 34 year olds) revealed that they would be interested in placing their order online in advance. These figures clearly demonstrate the significant potential that the .rest domain holds for restaurants and the general public: being in possession of a short, appropriate, and easily locatable domain name will not only be vital for restaurants hoping to attract customers in a competitive environment but also provide a vital platform for innovation and key services to a general public hungry for access to restaurant-related information online.

By offering a zone specifically designed for and dedicated to this industry and the billions of consumers that patronise it, the .rest gTLD will provide increased consumer choice (opening up new and appropriate domain names both in ASCII and extended Latin IDN scripts), a reduction in the price spent on obtaining domain names (circumventing the exorbitant fees charged for valuable domains on the secondary market in the traditional TLD space), and improved user experience (allowing consumers to easily locate the domain name for which they are searching because of the intuitive domain name and capacity for registration in their local language).

The .rest gTLD will not only benefit the restaurant industry by allowing its members to obtain the most appropriate domain name possible as their web address – currently difficult and ⁄ or expensive in the traditional TLD space where valuable or appropriate names are no longer available on the primary market – but because the .rest gTLD is designed specifically for restaurants and corollary products and services, it will also direct consumers to the domains they are seeking, thereby reducing consumer confusion. It will assist with the reorganization of the DNS along more intuitive and economical lines and provide a digital signpost directing the public toward restaurant-related domains. ..

Although the term “restaurant” is internationally understood, the 4-letter string “rest” holds more global appeal and is more locally sensitive, being the commencement for the word “restaurant” in 20+ languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Czech, Portuguese, Latvian, Catalan, Galician, Estonian, Polish, Romanian, Dutch, Albanian, Croatian, Lithuanian, and Turkish). Punto 2012 fully supports ICANN’s mission to expand the TLD space and introduce increased competition into new markets and languages, and we believe the adoption of the term – in addition to the .rest gTLD’s support for IDN capability – accomplishes this goal. ..

iv. In keeping with the spirit of global access, innovation, and competition promoted by the .rest gTLD and by the applicant, Punto 2012 believes that the registration of domains should be open to all parties for legitimate purposes. Due to the specific and descriptive nature of the string, it is expected that parties from outside the restaurant industry will not be interested in registering domain names; however, we do not wish to impose validation criteria as we believe it would only increase cost and restrict innovation – which goes against ICANN’s and our goals for the TLD."

Contract Signed

On 20 December 2013 Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .rest after passing all the required processes needed to become a Registry Operator for the string.

Delegation and Availability

.rest was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on 02 April, 2014, completing the successful application for the string.