Wolfe Domain Blog

Many brand gTLD applicants are passing initial evaluation and moving into the final phase of acquisition in contracting with ICANN.  This means the time is now to start building your gTLD team and launch plan so that you can leverage and maximize the value of your gTLD by 2014. 

For gTLD applicants, the acquisition phase of the process is nearly complete.  Even applicants with high prioritization draw numbers are starting to receive clarifying questions.  Each week more applications pass initial evaluation.  Within the next 30 – 60 days, all applicants are likely to have received their clarifying questions and be on their way to contracting with ICANN.  While contracting could take time for large brands,  given the current policy debates about contract terms, brand gTLD applicants need to start building their digital management team, operating budget and P&L for their new gTLDs to launch in 2014.

When can I secure one of the new domain names? The first gTLDs will begin to launch this summer with the others soon to follow.  If you want to obtain domain names in these new top level domains, a few important steps will be needed in the next six months.

Mega media partnerships like AOL and Time Warner and GE and NBC dominated the last decade or so of media news.  These mega media companies sought economies of scale and domination in a way not possible in earlier years.

Every publication about marketing, branding, search and digital is touting the importance of data.  Big Data is all we hear about these days.  From Harvard Business Review to Inc and Fast Company, using data to mine customers, understand how to reach customers and improve revenue and profitability proliferates everything we read.  We all know that more data is captured now than ever before from our credit card purchases, internet searches and purchases to how we use our phone and tablets every where we go.  With the launch of new gTLDs, brands with their own top level domains will have even greater opportunities to tap into the power of data in new and innovative ways.  

The ICANN 46 meeting drew to a close on April 11^th, 2013 in Beijing China.  A week of meetings and discussions around the future of the internet produced dynamic discussions and ongoing debate on many issues.  But the one clear message from CEO, Fadi Chehade,  is that ICANN will be a more agile organization and will move forward with the roll out of gTLDs as approved by the Board via many years of policy making process in the stakeholder groups.  Plagued by years of policy battles among the constituencies and stalemates in execution, Fadi takes a down to business approach to getting things done, but remains accessible and accountable to the many stakeholders he serves.  Throughout the week, a few key issues emerged for gTLD applicants.

For all companies who did not apply for a gTLD, the time is now to start planning.  You need to first and foremost understand all brands in you category who did apply and determine what they might be doing as a critical competitive analysis.  Consider these questions: 

The UDRP is the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. It is a legal mechanism to resolve disputes between registrants of domain names and third parties, typically trademark and other intellectual property owners, over the abusive or infringing registration and/or use of domain names. The UDRP is administered by four ICANN-approved dispute resolution service providers:

We aren’t often given a heads up about a major paradigm shift.  Imagine if you knew that the internet would change everything back in 1994.  Would you have responded differently, captured internet real estate or planned your business for a transforming model of interacting with consumers?

When the 1400+ new gTLDs begin to launch in the latter part of 2013, a paradigm shift begins that will ultimately dramatically impact the way internet users search and navigate the internet.  While most search experts are taking a wait and see approach,  it’s quite logical to evaluate the scale and magnitude of the shift about to come with gTLDs coupled with a basic understanding of search.