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

Prototypical answer:

The .bar gTLD will enable all entities who identify themselves with the term ʺbarʺ to have a specific zone on the Internet. The word “bar” represents many different types of establishments, products, services and activities; therefore the .bar gTLD holds wide appeal and will be utilized across several diverse markets. The .bar gTLD will provide innumerable benefits to the entire bar universe (businesses and consumers alike) by providing simple, easily identifiable, memorable, and intuitive domain names. The .bar gTLD is expected to appeal to all entities who identify themselves with the word or the concept of a “bar,ʺ including but not limited to: sushi, espresso or tapas bars (places where food is served and consumed); juice, smoothie, cocktail, martini, and espresso bars (places where drinks are served and consumed); nail, wax or beauty bars (places where beauty treatments are performed); sports, jazz or beach bars (places where people gather to drink and be entertained); candy, chocolate and energy bars (products); and related products and entities. Thanks to its broad spectrum of uses, it will provide a designated namespace where these entities and those that provide corollary products and services can register short and intuitive domain names related to their activities while allowing consumers to search for and easily locate them. Its use will include but will not be limited to websites, emails, online applications, online transactions, social media, directories and any new usages of domain names.

According to National Restaurant Association (USA) forecasts, snack and non-alcoholic beverage (i.e. juice or smoothie) bars will register the strongest growth (4.1 percent) in the limited-service sector, with 2012 sales predicted to total US$ 27.7 billion in the United States alone (2012 Restaurant Industry Forecast, p. 28). The same publication predicts sales of almost US$ 19 billion in the bar and tavern sector – also in the United States alone. The Barnes Report on ʺWorldwide Drinking Places and Bars Industry 2012ʺ indicates that there are over 300,000 such establishments in 47 major markets worldwide, yielding almost US$ 41 billion in sales. These are impressive figures – especially when considering that these “bar” sectors do not even begin to encompass the entire bar universe. Bars of all varieties struggle (and often don’t succeed) to obtain an appropriate domain name in the current TLD space. With web presences becoming increasingly important both as business drivers (via online reservations and appointment booking, for example) and sources of information about bars and various bar industries – it is crucial that a new domain is launched to address and service this growing and underserved market.

By offering a zone specifically designed for and dedicated to establishments and products self-identifying as “bars” and the vast numbers of consumers that patronize them, the .bar gTLD will provide increased consumer choice (opening up new and appropriate domain names both in ASCII and extended Latin IDN scripts), a reduction in the price spent on obtaining domain names (circumventing the exorbitant fees charged for valuable domains on the secondary market in the traditional TLD space), and improved user experience (permitting registrants to obtain better and more appropriate names at the second level while enabling consumers to easily identify the domain name for which they are searching).

The .bar gTLD will not only benefit owners of the many types of bars by allowing them to obtain the most appropriate domain name possible as their web address – currently difficult and ⁄ or expensive in the traditional TLD space where valuable or appropriate names are no longer available on the primary market – but because the .bar gTLD is designed specifically for all varieties bars and corollary products and services, it will also direct consumers to the domains they are seeking, thereby reducing consumer confusion. It will assist with the reorganization of the DNS along more intuitive and economical lines and provide a digital signpost directing the public toward bar-related domains of all variety.

Similar gTLD applications: (0)