.work

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Status:	Contract Signed
country:	International
Registry Provider:	Minds + Machines
Type:	Generic
Category:	Lifestyle
PIC Submitted:	Download Here
Priority #:	1085 - Top Level Domain Holdings

.work is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. It is one of 68 applications that Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. has filed for on its own behalf. While Top Level Domain Holdings is the only applicant for ".work", the new TLD portfolio company, Donuts, has applied for 307, including .works.

Application Details

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

"We are confident that the .WORK top-level domain will give people seeking employment access to a safer, more efficient and effective job search process. It will also create transparency among businesses, encouraging them to provide living wages and treat employees well.

PUBLIC BENEFIT We believe that the Internet-using world will benefit from the existence of a .WORK gTLD by:

• making domain names ending in .WORK available to all those who may want to use such .WORK domain names for their own business, personal, political or other legal purposes in the United States and world-wide.

• the promotion of employment by having information of any and all types and for any and all legal purposes available and disseminated from websites and email addresses ending in .WORK for the registrants’ and users’ own purposes world-wide.

• the promotion of employment by allowing businesses, not-for-profits and individuals to associate their products, services, information and selves with employment for their own purposes.

• allowing people and organizations to promote their association with employment on the Internet.

• providing an identifiable means for people, organizations and businesses to communicate with those who associate with or provide employment.

EXPANDING THE TLD NAMESPACE Over the past decade, the market for domain name registrations has grown at a tremendous pace. From 2000 to 2010 domain name registrations increased from 40 million to 200 million domain names registered globally. 2011 experienced a growth of approximately 9%, which was significantly higher than the previous year’s 6% growth, ending third quarter 2011 with approximately 220 million domain names registered globally. Approximately 60% of these are gTLDs, while the remaining 40% are comprised of ccTLDs. More specifically, gTLD growth was approximately 8% in 2011, while ccTLD growth exceeded 11%.

Existing TLDs, such as .COM and .NET, do not provide adequate solutions for many registrants. Domain names that relate to the registrants’ business, interests, or associations are often already registered, priced exorbitantly high, or available options are unsuitable. Additionally, other options, such as ccTLDs, do not provide adequate alternatives as a registrant may not have any geographic relation or meet the criteria associated with other gTLDs such as .MUSEUM or .AERO. Therefore, the only available opportunity to pursue a relevant and useful domain name registration may be through a brand new registration of a gTLD.

Taking into account the new opportunities available with new gTLDs, growth is expected to continue in all sections of the domain name industry. It will benefit registrants and users by allowing registrants to reach more targeted audiences and increase their web presence. Additionally, it will allow registrants to more closely identify with a particular market segment.

At present, there is no specific .WORK domain name, or useful top-level alternative domain name, that exists for the people, organizations or businesses that associate themselves with employment or people, organizations or businesses that want to communicate with them. Those desirous of a domain name that indicates some level of association with employment could seek a second level domain name such as “WORK.COM,” “WORK.US” or “WORK.NET,” but such domains (or similar names) are not readily available under the limited number of existing gTLDs, and--more importantly--only provide a secondary (at best) or weak (at worst) relationship between the domain name and employment, which we believe is the primary goal of the registrant of such names.

From a competitive perspective, registrants that want a domain name that effectively and efficiently shows an association with employment or registrants that want a domain name that allows them to identifiably communicate with people who associate or identify with it face a domain name marketplace that provides them with few, if any, options for their purposes. The .WORK top-level domain will resolve this problem by providing registrants with an efficient, effective, prominent, instantly understood way of showing their association with employment, and provide those registrants who desire it a domain that that can effectively communicate information to such Internet users in an identifiable way. At the same time, .WORK provides competition with the existing TLDs and new gTLDs that will be approved by ICANN, benefiting the Internet community at large by increasing consumer choice.

We believe that the .WORK top-level domain will add significantly to competition and differentiation in the top-level domain space, both for registrants and Internet consumers. With respect to competition, registrants are presently extremely limited in their choice of domain names that allow them to efficiently and effectively associate themselves with employment. The availability of useful, effective, straight-forward domain names on existing top-level domains, such as .COM, .NET and .ORG, are few and far between, or may be for sale at prices that are out of reach for most. .WORK will allow registrants to obtain useful, effective, straight-forward domain names rather than be forced to purchase, for example, their fifth, sixth or even later choice .COM or .NET name--which may well barely relate to the registrant’s purpose--or use of a domain name that may be confusingly similar with numerous other .COM or .NET domain names. In addition, some existing generic top-level domain names, though newer, such as .XXX, may be inappropriate for most registrants for content associational reasons, while country-code top-level domains, though numerous, are not useful or appropriate for many registrants for geographical associational reasons. Thus, .WORK will increase competition for registrants who want a domain name that clearly, effectively and efficiently associates them with employment for their domain name purposes as well as for those registrants who want to reach Internet users who identify with it.

.WORK will also increase pricing competition in the top-level domain name space by assuring that .WORK domain names are priced at levels that are appropriate to the vast majority of potential registrants to whom .WORK is targeted.

Internet consumers benefit from this increase in competition, as less confusing and clearly associated .WORK domain names will make it easier for them to know that the owner of the second-level domain name is a member of or seeks to associate with employment.

Likewise, .WORK will help significantly increase differentiation in the top-level domain space. Existing leading generic top-level domain names, such as .COM, .NET and .ORG no longer require and no longer represent any real differentiation in association, purpose or content. Newer top-level domains, such as .XXX, .AERO and .MUSEUM, do represent differentiation, but are either inappropriate or unavailable to most prospective registrants at whom .WORK is targeted. .WORK will further increase differentiation by allowing registrants to be associated, and consumers to know that the registrant seeks to associate with employment.

In terms of user experience, .WORK will provide users with a top-level domain name that allows them to easily recognize that the registrant seeks to have its second-level domain name and content associated with employment. We believe this will be of substantial benefit to the Internet user community in generally--and the workforce and the unemployed specifically--as it will allow them to more easily and more readily understand the purpose or motives of the registrant’s website or email, allowing for better, more efficient and more effective use of their time online.

On balance, and for the reasons set forth above, a .WORK domain will be in the public’s interest; it will serve as a catalyst to promoting employment; and it will benefit the entire economy."

Contract Signed

On 19 December 2013 Top Level Domain Holdings received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .work after passing all the required processes needed to become a Registry Operator for the string.

References

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