gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.citic	CITIC Group Corporation	ymail.com	View

18 (b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others? What is the goal of your proposed TLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

As mentioned in Question 18(a), “.citic” is directly associated with CITIC Group. “.citic” is intended to be the online brand of CITIC Group, and is tasked with the responsibility of building and promoting the online brand. The registrants, internet users and others will understand that any domain under “.citic” is managed and supervised by CITIC Group.

Hence, internet users will be able to fully trust “. citic” domain names since they will know that they are being served by the CITIC Group.

On the service level, CITIC Group strives to provide high level service to its registrants and users. To this end, CITIC Group has partnered with KNET, the leading Registry Service provider in China to meet or even exceed the SLA standard of the performance per the Registry Agreement.

The KNET Shared Registry Platform (KSRP) is designed, implemented and operated to provide high availability, secure, robust and scalable registry services. Please refer to the answer on Question 23 for the details on the service level provided by CITIC Group.

Secure and trusted services shall come to be associated with “.citic” domain names as “.citic” is the official online brand of the global fortune 500 company, CITIC Group.

What do you anticipate your proposed TLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

Currently, CITIC Group has found it difficult to manage its domain name portfolio and maintain a consistent and secure brand image which unfortunately is currently scattered across several different TLDs. With the introduction and utilization of “.citic”, CITIC Group will be able to provide a consistent brand image and innovate on services for its customers, internet users and corporate internal users.

Firstly, CITIC Group shall make “.citic” a secure space dedicated for CITIC Group and its customers and partners.

In addition to that, through “.citic”, CITIC Group envisions providing innovative service to its customers based on its own offline products and services in close collaboration with different sectors and branches of CITIC Group.

For example, “.citic” may serve as a focal point for the online communications, internal communication and information sharing within the entire CITIC Group,. Cross sector or cross border collaboration or online training could rely on the “.citic” domain space to be carried out in a secure and stable manner.

Of course, the addition of “.citic” in the root will contribute to the competition on the domain name industry, offering more choices and services to CITIC Group and its customers, and better yet, offering a competitive environment for other TLDs to enhance their security and stability of their respective zones. This indirectly encourages the existing gTLDs to provide more innovative or better services at a lower price.

What goals your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

CITIC Group believes that “.citic” as a gTLD will achieve the following goals in terms of user experience:

Trust:
“.citic” will inspire trust and confidence in the consumers as they know that they are dealing with CITIC Group or⁄and its subsidiaries when they interact with “.citic” domain names.

Secure:
The registrants of the “.citic” domain names can be confident that the registered domain names are managed and controlled by the CITIC Group with the highest security and availability. Cybersquatting, email fraud, phishing, spoof and other domain name abuses will not occur or will be greatly reduced when using “.citic” TLD.

Brand:
To the internet users, “.citic” domain names bear the brand of CITIC Group and can be naturally affiliated with its products or services or employees of CITIC Group. Internet users hence will inherently trust the website that is offering CITIC products or services.

All in all, registrants, internet users and the general public shall regard “.citic” as the official online presence of CITIC Group, and the service on this space is an official offering by the CITIC Group. This TLD is trusted and secure managed by CITIC Group.

Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

Restricted Registration

CITIC Group will place stringent registration policy for “. citic” domain names. All applications for domain names under “. citic” must have a supporting letter executed by the CITIC Group’s legal department prior to any registration. In the supporting letter, it will clearly indicate
• the domain name under “. citic” for which it is been approved
• the purpose of the domain name
• the registrant, administrative and technical contact for the domain name

CITIC Group will reject any domain name registration without the supporting letter. Registrars will all be instructed of the additional requirements.

String Policy

Domain names can contain the English-language letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9 and hyphens (LDH -- Letters, Digits, Hyphens).

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -

Hyphens however cannot be used for the first or last character of the second level domain name. Spaces and special characters (such as !, $, &, é, and so on) are not acceptable. The maximum number of LDH characters accepted for a second level domain is 63.


WHOIS Policy

CITIC Group shall operate as a ʺthickʺ registry, in which all of the information associated with registered entities, including both technical information and social information is stored within a central registry repository.

CITIC Group shall deploy ante-audit mechanism. The domain name will not be registered unless all registration materials as well as the real ID and contact information of the registrants or their purveyors to be verified by the Audit team of the accredited registrars.

CITIC Group also commits itself to maintain timely, unrestricted and public access to accurate and complete WHOIS information, including registrant, technical, billing, and administrative contact information. Details of the WHOIS policy can be found in answer to Question 26.

Others

• UDRP and URS as described in the answer to Question 29
• Sunrise process as describe in the answer to Question 29
• Geographic name restriction as described in answer to Question 22
• Trademark protection as describe in answer to Question 29
• Domain Name Lifecycle as describe in answer to Question 27
• Data Privacy as describe in Question 18(c) below
• Reserved list as describe in the answer to Question 29

Will your proposed TLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

CITIC Group would adopt stringent policies to protect the privacy of registrants and its domain name users as per the ICANN WHOIS policy and China data protection regulation.

As such policy and regulation may be modified in the future, CITIC Group will also amend its privacy policy accordingly from time to time.

Specifically, CITIC Group is subjected to China’s Information Security Technology -- Guide of Personal Information Protection. In brief, the CITIC Group shall inform the registrants
i) The purpose of any personal information collected and scope of use
ii) The period in which these personal information will be stored
iii) The security measure and information protection policy to safeguard the personal information
iv) The rights of the registrants on the personal information
v) The registrant responsibility for accuracy of the personal information

In general, the Applicant stipulates how the personal information will be collected and used and how the WHOIS information will be displayed. Any information other than the WHOIS shall not be collected and used. No personal information will be collected without the consent of the registrants and the registrants shall have the Rights to Confidential, Rights to Knowledge, and Rights to Opt Out⁄Change Data⁄Prohibit Use.

The information submitted by the registrants shall be regarded as classified information and shall be processed by specially designated personnel. Without the written consent of registrants, the information collected cannot be used in the way other than WHOIS purpose.

The back-end registry service provider shall deploy security measures to protect the integrity of the database against potential stealth or unintended leakage. Please refer to answer to Question 30 for more information in this regard.

Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communication will help to achieve your projected benefits.

CITIC Group envisions the “.citic” TLD to be an integral part of its overall brand resource. The projected benefits such as consumer trust, recognition of “.citic” online and competition will be achieved through a series of promotion and marketing activities.

At the application stage, outreaches will be given to the subset of CITIC Group to raise the awareness of the online presence of “.citic” within the entire group. It will give the various sectors of the group a precious opportunity to promote their products and services or even more innovative application of the “.citic” through this dedicated cyberspace. Internal trainings shall be held in various sectors and branches to achieve the outreach purpose.

After that, outreach and promotion will go to the customers of CITIC Group. As the targeted users of the “.citic” domain names, the customers shall benefit enormously through the secure and trusted online experience on the “.citic” domain. Brochure and flyer illustrating the “.citic” domain names and its services will be presented at each and every CITIC Group outlet.

After the delegation of the applied-for string, offline and online advertisement will be used to attract their attention. Branding campaigns will also be conducted to promote the “.citic” TLD to convey the impression that “.citic” is the online presence of CITIC Group and any online services provided by using the “.citic” domain names” is reliable and trustworthy.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.sohu	Sohu.com Limited	sohu-inc.com	View

What is the goal of your proposed TLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
SOHU is one of Chinaʹs Internet pioneers. Applying and operating the .sohu gTLD can help SOHU to improve the overall competitiveness, and become the leading company within the industry. The successful operation of .sohu is the responsibility of SOHU in virtual world, which will be of great significance to the brand image of SOHU. SOHU makes commitment to provide high level of service to its registrants and users exceeding the SLA required by ICANN (Please refer to the answer to Question 23 for the detail of the SLA provided by SOHU).
The .sohu shall be known as the official online brand for SOHU, delivering secure and trusted services with .sohu domain name.

What do you anticipate your proposed TLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
Just as mentioned above, the websites of subsidiaries of SOHU and the product lines are currently scattered across several different TLDs, which is difficult for SOHU to manage. With the application and utilization of .sohu, SOHU will be able to conceive a uniform and secure brand image and differential services for its customers, Internet users and corporate internal users compared with the current internet space.
First of all, it is hard to solve the abuse of domains such as network phishing and cybersquatting within the current space of ʺ.comʺ or ʺ.netʺ. The .sohu can provide the TLD service to its registrants and users by making .sohu a secure space dedicated for SOHU and its customers. The users of .sohu will be confidential to the space service, which is different from services of other domain spaces.
Secondly, .sohu plans to provide innovative services based on social network. With the unified TLD .sohu, all product lines and branches of SOHU is integrated. Users can navigate SOHU under one TLD, and perform almost all operations. Compared with the current space, .sohu can provide more opportunities for internal cooperation and information sharing among different sectors and branches of SOHU. Cross sector or cross border collaboration or online education could rely on .sohu space to carry out in a secure and stable manner.
Of course, the addition of .sohu in the root will contribute to the competition on the domain name industry, offering more choices and service to SOHU and its customers, and better yet, offering a competitive environment for traditional TLDs to enhance their security and stability of their respective zone. This indirectly forces the existing gTLDs to provide more innovative or better services at a lower price.

What goals your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
The goal of .sohu is to provide customized service and secure space for users.
Secure: .sohu will provide user with ongoing services on a 24x7 basis to ensure the security and availability of network. The registrants of the .sohu domain names can be confident that the registered domain names are managed and controlled by the SOHU with the highest security and availability. Cybersquatting, email fraud, phishing, spoof and other domain name abuses will not occur when using .sohu TLD.
Trust: For the internet users, .sohu domain names bear the brand of SOHU and can be naturally affiliated with its products and services. Internet users hence have the trust on the websites that are offering SOHU products or services without worrying whether or not it is a genuine link. At the same time, with the development of social network, users of .sohu will form a closer social relationship based on the social identity.
Convenient: With the short TLD .sohu, users donʹt need to input the long domains to search information. It will be easier for users to remember and spread the TLD. Users can have advanced and fresh using experience and enjoy a faster and secure internet. And also, the TLD .sohu can be selected conveniently by search engine due to its unique naming which is related closed with SOHU itslef, which is good to enhance usersʹ trust to the cyberspace service.

Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
Restricted Registration
SOHU will place stringent registration policy for “.sohu” domain names. All application for domain names under “.sohu” TLD must have a supporting letter executed by SOHU’s legal department prior to any registration. In the supporting letter, it will clearly indicate
• the domain name under “.sohu” for which it is been approved
• the purpose of the domain name
• the administrative and technical contact for the domain name
Registrars should be notified that any domain name registration without the supporting letter will lead to rejection.
String Policy
Domain names can contain the English-language letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9 and hyphens (LDH -- Letters, Digits, Hyphens).
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -
Hyphens however cannot be used for the first or last character of the second level domain name. Spaces and special characters (such as !, $, &, e, and so on) are not currently acceptable. The maximum number of LDH characters accepted for a second level domain is 63.
WHOIS Policy
SOHU shall operate as a ʺthickʺ registry, in which all of the information associated with registered entities, including both technical information and social information is stored within a central registry repository.
SOHU shall deploy ante-audit mechanism. The domain name will not be registered unless all registration materials as well as the real ID and contact information of the registrants or their purveyors to be verified by the Audit team of the accredited registrars.
SOHU also commits itself to maintain timely, unrestricted and public access to accurate and complete WHOIS information, including registrant, technical, billing, and administrative contact information. Details of the WHOIS policy can be found in answer to Question 29.
Others
• Data Privacy as described in Question 18(b) below
• Geographic name restriction as described in answer to Question 22
• Domain Name Lifecycle as described in answer to Question 27
• Right protection mechanisms as described in answer to Question 29
• Reserved name list as described in the answer to Question 29
Will your proposed TLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.
SOHU would adopt stringent policies to protect the privacy of registrants and its domain name users as per the ICANN WHOIS policy and China data protection regulation.
As such policy and regulation may be modified in the future, SOHU will also amend its privacy policy accordingly from time to time.
Specifically, SOHU is subjected to China’s (“Information Security Technology -- Guide of Personal Information Protection”). In brief, SOHU shall inform the registrants
• The purpose of any personal information collected and scope of use
• The period in which these personal information will be stored
• The security measure and information protection policy to safeguard the personal information
• The rights of the registrants on the personal information
• The registrant responsibility for accuracy of the personal information
In general, SOHU stipulates how the personal information will be collected and used and how the WHOIS information will be displayed. Any information other than the WHOIS shall not be collected and used. No personal information will be collected without the consent of the registrants and the registrants shall have the Rights to Confidential, Rights to Knowledge, Rights to Opt-out⁄Change Data⁄Prohibit Use.
The information submitted by the registrants shall be regarded as classified information and shall be processed by specially designated personnel. Without the written consent of registrants, the information collected cannot be used in the way other than WHOIS purpose.
The back-end registry service provider shall deploy security measures to protect the integrity of the database against potential stealth or unintended leakage. Please refer to answer to Question 30 for more information in this regard.

Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communication will help to achieve your projected benefits.
SOHU envisages the .sohu an integral part of its brand resource. The projected benefits such as consumer trust, recognition of .sohu online and competition will be achieved through a series of promotion and marketing activities.
1. SOHU will carry out advertising and promotion activities of .sohu TLD and the trademark of SOHU across the whole world. It will be held as integral part of the existing brand marketing of SOHU to enhance the relevancy between the gTLD and the trademark of SOHU.
2. At the application stage, outreaches will be given to the subsidiaries and product lines of SOHU to raise the awareness of the online presence of .sohu within the company. It will give the various sectors a precious opportunity to promote their products and services or even more innovative application of the .sohu through this dedicated cyberspace. Internal trainings shall be held in various sectors and branches to achieve the outreach purpose.
3. SOHU will print the logo of .sohu TLD on various kinds of marketing materials of the company to increase the awareness of .sohu in the internet users.
4. After that, outreach and promotion will go to the customers of SOHU. As the targeted users of the .sohu TLD, the customers shall benefit enormously through the secure and trusted online experience on the .sohu domain. Brochure and flyer illustrating the .sohu and its services will be presented at each and every sector and branch of SOHU.
5. The .sohu Registry will take Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection actions to safeguard its rights against the abuse of .sohu TLD. The IPR protection will be a long term work which needs ongoing investment.