18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

Prototypical answer:

MISSION AND PURPOSE:

The Mission of .Play is to be the global home of Online Entertainment. .Play will offer a plethora of fresh available domain names for everyone who is on the internet and associated with Online entertainment.

The Internet has truly changed the scope of communication in today’s day and age. Delving deeper into how people spend their time on the internet reveals that close to 40%(^1) of it is spent on leisure and entertainment. This includes visiting social media, playing games online, listening to music, or watching the latest videos. However, there is no TLD in the world that truly addresses and encapsulates this world of leisure and entertainment. .Play will pioneer the market as a truly global TLD meant to plug this gap, bringing Online Entertainment under its own fun namespace.

The purpose of .Play is to be able to cater to the world of Online Entertainment in all its forms as a first choice TLD. .Play will focus on marketing the TLD to Registrants who own and wish to own domain names related to prominent entertainment forms such as Gaming, sports and Music.

Gaming Online is what people do on the internet for 1⁄10th of their surfing(^2) time! According to ComScore’s report(^4) in 2007, the worldwide Online Gaming Community reached 217 Million people, which means every one in four internet users visited an online gaming site. It is difficult to peg down the number of Websites worldwide that cater to Online gaming. However thorough analysis of the domain names existing across Com, Net, Info, Biz and Org reveals that there are close to 460,000+ domain names worldwide that have the word ‘game’ or ‘gaming’ in them.

The Gaming industry is fast turning into a formidable one, with 273 million game copies sold in 2009 alone, raising an astounding $10.5 Billion in revenues for Video games and computer games. With 67% of US households playing video games, it’s not surprising that gaming is now an integral part of modern culture, (Source: Entertainment Software Rating board(ESRB) Report(^3)). Each of these games are largely dependent on the Internet for their promotion with reports showing that digital sales are surpassing retail sales in the last few years(^5). Gaming companies use the internet to promote their new releases, with individual websites and social media campaigns for each title. .Play will now be able to serve as the online destination for any game title release, publication or interactive promotion for these games.

In fact, the advent of the Apple and Android platforms has also brought about a budding Gaming application industry, with over 100,000 games on iStore(^6) alone today (17% of Apple’s total App base!). .Play will be able to provide a dedicated URL for each of these games that are becoming an integral part of Popular Culture. It’s never too late for AngryBirds.play!

.Play will also be looking at targeting the Online Streaming industry. The YouTubes and Groovesharks of the world have changed the way people entertain themselves. Now, such portals could brand themselves better with a .Play.

In our analysis of the existing domain names across Com, Net, Info, Biz and Org, we found that the number of existing domain names with keywords relates to sports, music and gaming such as “Baseball”, “Basketball”, “Music”, “Gaming” and so on, came close to Half a million!

Our aim is to truly bring Online Entertainment under one roof, which will allow better consumption of entertainment, better promotion, and a distinct identity in their own fun Namespace for Online entertainment purposes!

In addition, the .Play Registry also aims to:

* Enhance Searchability and Recognition

By providing the online entertainment industry its own dedicated namespace, end users will be able to find the website that theyʹre looking for easily amongst the sea of other sites at generic extensions.

* Enhance Registrant Choice

Due to the saturation in the existing popular gTLD space, many registrants have to opt for a name that does not best reflect their brand. As a completely new space, the .Play Registry will offer registrants a greater choice of names to pick from and improve the chances of them obtaining their desired name on the internet.

* Create a Cleaner Internet Space

The .Play Registry aims to create a cleaner internet experience for end users by implementing pioneering registration policies, content and usage policies, and abuse mitigation processes.

* Create a Stable and Resilient Internet Space

The .Play Registry also aims to deliver a stable and resilient internet experience to registrants and end-users by going above and beyond the ICANN mandated SLAs and delivering 100% resolution uptime

External References:

* (^1) http:⁄⁄blog.nielsen.com⁄nielsenwire⁄online_mobile⁄what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity⁄

* (^2) http:⁄⁄blog.nielsen.com⁄nielsenwire⁄online_mobile⁄what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity⁄

* (^3) http:⁄⁄www.esrb.org⁄about⁄video-game-industry-statistics.jsp

* (^4) http:⁄⁄www.comscore.com⁄Press_Events⁄Press_Releases⁄2007⁄07⁄Worldwide_Online_Gaming_Grows

* (^5) https:⁄⁄www.npd.com⁄press⁄releases⁄press_100920.html

* (^6) http:⁄⁄148apps.biz⁄app-store-metrics⁄?mpage=catcount

This completes our response to Q18(a)

Similar gTLD applications: (0)