STARTING DOT

Type:	Privately held
Industry:	Registry
Founded:	2011
Ownership:	Afilias Limited (2016+)
Headquarters:	Paris
Country:	France
Website:	startingdot.com
Key People
Godefroy Jordan, CEO Guillaume Buffet, General Manager
nTLDStats
TLDs:	2
Registrations:	28,535
More Info: nTLDStats

STARTING DOT is a start-up registry service provider based in France, which was established in 2011. The company confirmed its applications for five new top level domain names (TLDs) representing major industries:

• .archi (architecture industry)
• .bio (organic food and agricultural industry)
• .design (design industry)
• .immo (French real estate industry)
• .ski (ski sports industry), Community Application

In April 2012, the company announced that Alven Capital, 123 Venture, and a group of other Internet and media veterans from France and Germany provided a total of €1.5 million in capital funds to support the applications and operations of the five TLDs.

In June 2013, the company withdrew from the .design contention set, citing the fact that there were just too many applicants in the contention set.

In August 2016, Afilias acquired the business including its brands .bio, .ski and .archi.

Partnerships

STARTING DOT partnered with Adrenaline TLD in applying for the .ski TLD. Robert Rozicki, founder of Adrenaline TLD, will be responsible for developing Dot Ski, North America. In a statement, Godefroy Jordan said, "Rob has been the .ski pioneer with Adrenaline TLD and we are very proud to have him bringing .ski to the ski and domain registrar community in North America."

KSRegistry is the backend services provider for all 5 applications by STARTINGDOT.

Its largest community sponsors include Union Internationale des Architectes (.archi), and International Ski Federation (.ski).

Applications

.ski

STARTING DOT's application for .ski is a community priority application, which requires that the applicant must prove it has singular community support. Ski groups that have come out to support the organization include: The International Ski Federation, the US Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), Alpine Canada, the Canadian Snowsports Association, France Montagnes, Fédération Française de Ski (FFS), and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

.bio

As a stand-alone word, “bio” means “life” generally, and as a prefix ‘bio’ precedes dozens of words ranging from biography to bioclimatology, biodegradable, biodynamics, bioengineering, biomedical, biometrics, biosystematics, biotelemetry, etc. However, “bio” means “organic”, as in organic farming, in over 10 languages covering 52 nations. Thus, to respect the European Union's standards for 'bio' /organic food, this open TLD will have regulations in place for registrants intending to use it as a space for organic food products. The rest of the non-organic related TLD will not be regulated.

.immo

STARTING DOT has applied as a community priority applicant, which requires that the application must demonstrate that it has the majority support of a cohesive community. It has received the official endorsements of the main real estate professional associations in the countries related to .immo (Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg) and is the official application of the real-estate community in Continental Europe. The associations and real estate portals endorsing .immo by STARTING DOT represent over 100,000 real estate businesses.

CPE Result

In March 2014 a Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) panel decided that the applicant would not prevail as a community applicant, giving them a 4 out of 16 possible points (14 are needed to pass). Thus the applicant will now have to resolve the contention set through other means such as a Private or ICANN auction.

.archi

STARTING DOT plans to restrict the registration of .archi domain names to certified architects and individuals who have graduated with a degree in architecture. The application is supported by the Paris-based International Architectural Union (UIA), the umbrella trade organization for more than one million architects. The UIA was founded in 1948, UIA is the most representative professional organization of architects and the only global network of architecture, covering120 countries and territories through its members sections.

The UIA has objected to the open gTLD application for .architect submitted by Donuts.