20(a) Provide the name and full description of the community that the applicant is committing to serve

Prototypical answer:

The .immo gTLD will serve a community restricted to businesses, organizations, associations, and governmental and non-governmental organisations operating in the real estate industry, while targeting in particular German, French, Italian and Catalan speaking countries (e.g. an estimate of 41 states in the world).

In these languages “immo” is a well known as a short-form of words meaning “real estate”:
- “immo”, short form of “Immobilie” in German;
- “immo”, short form of “immobiler” in French;
- “immo”, short form of “immoble” in Catalan;
- “immo”, short form of “immobiliare” in Italian.

“Immo” is generally used to describe real estate services provided to households and businesses (e.g., sales, rental).

Real estate is made up of different business segments, concentrated in two principal markets:
a.The primary market, mostly dedicated to real estate construction services such as property development and home building, refurbishments, etc.;
b. The secondary market dedicated to existing properties:
- Realtors (rental or sale);
- Property traders (purchase and sale);
- Property managers.

Accordingly, the scope of activities covered by the .immo gTLD will include real estate segments:
- Commercial and Residential Real Estate Agents and Brokers;
- Rental Property Management Services;
- Real Estate Publishers (Information Media, Classified Media, Management Software);
- Service Providers for Real Estate Professionals;
- Real Estate Mortgage services (Loan, Insurance);
- Homebuilders;
- Real Estate Developers;
- Notaries.

The overall population within these sectors has been estimated to be in excess of 600,000 entities, representing an equivalent of .immo domain name eligible registrants. Starting Dot expects to achieve a market penetration of at least 3.5% after 3 years of operation of the proposed gTLD (which equals about 21,000 domain name registrations).

The real estate industry is well supported by national and sectorial organization. It is an industry that has defined itself for many decades. Real estate related activities and transactions first appeared in Europe during the 12th century, benefiting from construction booming in newly developed free cities in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

The real estate industry and its segments have long been at the forefront of usage of information technology as reflected by the fact that 90% of real estate agents in Germany and in France have a website to promote their business.

90% of homebuyers use the Internet as a source of information during their home buying process. Accordingly, most successful realtors draw at least 50% of their clients from the Internet.

Given the continued growth of the Internet and the role it plays in the industry, it is in the real estates’ best interest to support the creation of an industry-specific space on the Internet.

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