.工行
| Status: | Proposed |
| Language: | Chinese (Hans/Simplified) |
| Translates to: | ICBC |
| Manager: | Afilias |
| Type: | IDN Brand TLD |
| Priority #: | 41 |
.工行 is an IDN Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited. The string is the commonly used and wildly recognized Chinese abbreviation of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). It is an official registered trademark of ICBC.[1]
Application Details
Excerpted from response to question #18 in TLD Application:
"The intention of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ʺICBCʺ) in filing this application is to provide a trusted, hierarchical and intuitive namespace for businesses and consumers that use ICBC’s broad range of financial products and services. In addition to this IDN application for the .工行 string, ICBC will also be filing an ASCII application for the string (.工行) to provide a unified branding strategy for a global financial institution.
[..]
Potential Business Models
ICBC is still analyzing potential use case options on the type of domain names that will be permitted to be registered and by whom. In undertaking this research, ICBC is leveraging its experience as global financial institution to ensure that its corporate and individuals clients are provided information and services in a safe and trusted environment. The current best thinking involves a three stage roll-out over a seven year period of time.
Stage One
The primary use of the .工行 gTLD will initially be primarily defensive in nature, with ICBC registering a limited number of second level domain names. This initial use will provide ICBC IT and security personal the ability to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access to the ICBC website, and interoperability with various software and web-based applications. This will likely take one year, especially considering that ICBC will be seeking to integrate both an ASCII and IDN application.
Stage Two
Once appropriate security and stability issues have been satisfactorily addressed, ICBC will likely begin allocating domain name for internal corporate use. This will likely involve allocating second level domain names corresponding to individual branches and potentially financial products and services offered by ICBC. This phased roll-out will likely take place during years two thru three, but is subject to change depending upon a range of external factors. During this same period of time ICBC will evaluate potential strategies to migrate all traffic away from the current patch work network of second level domains registered in various TLDs, to ICBC’s ASCII and IDN gTLDs.
Stage Three
ICBC is still evaluating the potential to allow future registration of domain name to individuals and organizations outside of ICBC, e.g. select VIPS and SMEs. However, ICBC will likely not make any such determination until after the first three years of operation, and the ability of ICBC to survey how other global financial institutions that might apply for a gTLD are using it in the broader commercial marketplace. This proposed phased roll-out provides heighted guarantees that the identity and contact information of each .工行 domain name registrant will be known thus minimizing the start-up and operational costs of ICBC."[2]