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

Prototypical answer:

Mission and Purpose

This response provides an overview of our mission and purpose. It is supplemented by further detail in the responses in questions 45-50 which quantify our assumptions and goals relative to the ‘most likely’ projection and addresses contingencies in the ‘worst case’ projection to deliver on our mission and purpose. Following is an overview of the following areas;

- Business Goals,
- Mission and Purpose,
- About .CLUB,
- Strategic Overview, and
- Market Need, Size and Character.

Business Goals
Secure the leadership position, providing domain registration and web service offerings to club niche markets, delivering indispensable value to clubs and strong returns for investors.

Mission and Purpose
.CLUB Domains, LLC d⁄b⁄a .CLUB is a new company entering the Domain Name Registry and Web Service space with a mission to provide domain registration and relevant EASY-TO-USE web services to meet the online needs of clubs, similar societies and associations of all types and sizes.

- .CLUB will provide services to the highest service level in the domain registry space and as such will be known for our professional management, customer care excellence and service performance.

- .CLUB will deliver niche-focused web services designed to help clubs establish engaging and effective online club membership experiences.

- .CLUB will foster innovation to help clubs grow and manage their membership base.

At .CLUB we help your club;
1. Secure a great domain name
2. Grow club membership
3. Improve member involvement and value
4. Reduce management costs


About .CLUB
.CLUB DOMAINS, LLC is a Fort Lauderdale, Florida based company formed for the purpose of becoming the “.CLUB” registry. We intend to become the leading provider of relevant easy-to-use web services to club markets. The Company is founded by a proven successful Internet entrepreneur, Colin Campbell.

An Internet pioneer since 1993, Mr. Campbell, built several Internet companies including; Tucows Interactive, Internet Direct Canada Inc. (merged with Look Communications in 1999), and Hostopia.com Inc. (IPO TSX: H in 2006 and sold to Deluxe Corporation in 2008).

Under Colin’s leadership, Hostopia.com established itself as the market leader in its space, delivering white-label web services to its communication service provider customers. Services included domain name services, hosting, email and web applications designed to meet the needs of small and medium sized businesses. Additionally, Hostopia operated several retail brands, selling directly to its’ markets. At the time of Colin’s departure, Hostopia hosted more than 500,000 websites, served more than 4,500,000 email addresses and managed close to 1,000,000 domain names both as a registrar (through wholly owned subsidiary, Abacus of America) and as a reseller of registrar partners, including Tucows and Register.com.

Colin has been an active member of the Internet community in the past, serving as director for the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP), and the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), and undertakes guest speaking engagements at a number of universities speaking on Entrepreneurship.

Colin’s leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and track record of success make him a compelling business leader. As a result, upon approval of the .CLUB TLD application, Colin will bring aboard an experienced leadership and operating team with many years of experience in the space. This team will form and help Colin realize the .CLUB DOMAINS, LLC mission and purpose.



Strategic Overview
The following provides an overview of .CLUB’s strategic approach to the market.

A CLUB is; a: an association of persons for some common object, usually jointly supported and meeting periodically; also : a group identified by some common characteristic b: the meeting place of a club c : an association of persons participating in a plan by which they agree to make regular payments or purchases in order to secure some advantage d : a nightclub e : an athletic association or team.

Market Need
Club membership communities share common interests, band together to a common purpose, provide for their members a forum for the expression and sharing of ideas, coordination and management of events, launch of membership programs and provide services to serve their Club’s community of interests.

Today clubs do not have a gTLD that addresses their specific identity needs and are forced to select domain names which do not most accurately represent themselves. For example; BoyScouts of America could not select scouting.com since it is owned by a fantasy football organization. .CLUB will provide for these groups a unique and representative online address that is clearly recognized as a club entity. Similarly, there are no web service providers who offer a service suite that addresses specific club needs. Clubs must source various web services and adapt them to their club purpose. In summary, there is need for;

- Unique domain name identities for clubs, and
- Web service suite designed to address online club needs.

.CLUB - The Registry
First and foremost .CLUB is a Domain Registry business. We will focus to launch the registry and sell through established registrar channels, building upon our extensive experience and relationships in the industry. Second, we will establish the business as a registrar to facilitate the operation as a direct selling and servicing organization centered at www.my.club.

.CLUB - The Web Service Provider
Our vision includes the introduction and expansion of a niche focused web service suite over time, designed to serve the needs of club markets. Our mission is to make it EASY to help clubs set up and manage their club on the web, help them be discovered, deliver engaging functions for their membership, manage and grow their club.

.CLUB DOMAINS, LLC will always make domain name registrations available for purchase separately from any of our web service offerings.


Market Need, Size and Character
Club, similar society and association markets are considerable in number, dynamic in their state of evolution and diverse in their core purpose. What they have in common are people who share common interests, seek to share experiences, learn and benefit through their club memberships.

The niches in this market ecosystem for which our gTLD and value proposition is designed includes a number of club categories, including; 1. Social Clubs, 2. Sporting Clubs 3. Special Interest⁄Hobby Clubs, 4. Country Clubs 5. Buying Clubs, 6. Fraternities and Sororities, 7. Personal Clubs, 8. Professional Clubs, 9.School Clubs, 10. Service Clubs, and 11. Night Clubs.

In addressing each of these niches within the club market, we will employ various research methods through outreach to further quantify, characterize and profile members, obtain contacts and engage operators and members both through direct outreach and by promoting .CLUB online.

While the niches are diverse, their needs share common traits and it is to these needs we see a large underserved market need that we will design and deploy services. Further market need, size and character information and research supporting this plan are submitted in our response to Question 46.

In addition, we provide a description of our market approach and our operational approach for Sales, Marketing, Product and Customer Care in our response to Question 46.

In 18b and 18c we provide information and our vision of how .CLUB will promote competition, consumer trust and choice and how we intend to set policies, processes and practice safeguards to mitigate issues involved in the introduction and expansion of .CLUB.

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