18(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

Prototypical answer:

The .thai TLD appeals to all businesses, organizations and individuals in Thai communities. The Thai communities include:
- Individuals who speak Thai and practise Thai culture;
- Organizations and individuals with activities in Thailand; and
- Companies, organizations and individuals associated with Thai people, language and culture.

Specialties:
.thai TLD aims to be preferred TLD choice for Thai communities.
.thai TLD will carry a very strong intuitive association of for the Thai communities.

Service Levels:
BLM provides a platform for Registrars and Service Providers to value-add and upsell solutions and services.

All these services are optional and can be bundled into the offerings of .thai domain names by the Registrars and Service Providers with the aim to improve service availability and reputation of the website or services in association with the .thai domain names.

Underserved Market
In general, the domain name market in Thailand is underserved. With over 20 million Internet population in Thailand, there is less than 300,000 domain names (including all gTLDs and ccTLDs) registered in Thailand. There is obviously a lot of room for growth of .thai domain names in Thailand.

Short and Intuitive
As compared with the country codes TLD, .thai 2nd level domain names are short and appealing to both registrants and end users. It is intuitive with strong association to the branding of website related to Thai communities.

The goals of .thai TLD is to provide a platform for online identity and online presence for the Thai people, the Thai language and the Thai culture.

BLM will adopt Generic Registration Policy with proof of presence requirement (similar with .asia).
BLM will accredit a number of registrars, for the registration and other domain name operations such as renew, update, transfer, delete etc of .thai domain names. A list of accredited registrars will be prominently displayed on the BLM’s website.

The composition of a domain name shall contain a string of minimum 1 (one) character and can contain up to a maximum of 63 (sixty-three) characters, excluding the .thai TLD extension. A guideline of the characters accepted by BLM includes:
- The alphabets from “A” to “Z”. There will be no distinction between upper-case and lower-case characters i.e. “A” is treated as “a” and vice-versa;
- The numerals from “0” to “9”; and
- The hyphen character. It shall not occupy the beginning, end or the third and⁄or fourth character of a domain name.

Proof of Presence
Registrant will be required to declare a ‘Proof of Presence’ stating that they are a legal entity within the Thai communities.

Thai communities, include:
- Individuals who speak Thai and practise Thai culture;
- Organizations and individuals with activities in Thailand; and
- Companies, organizations and individuals associated with Thai people, language and culture.

Upon registration of a .thai domain name, a registrant must declare from where the proof of presence can be established, and what form of proof it is. A suggested list includes, but not limited to: nationality, business registration, organization, government, etc. BLM does not plan to validate the registrants’ proof-of-presence during the registration process, but rather will rely on the dispute resolution mechanism to allow interested users to dispute on the accuracy of the information.

In addition, Registrants must comply with all rules, policies, procedures and guidelines of .thai domain names in respect of registration. BLM may amend such rules, policies, procedures and guidelines from time to time. BLM will ensure that such changes are communicated to its registrants on a timely basis.

.thai domain names are allocated on a “first-come-first-serve basis”, provided the information submitted is complete and all rules, policies, procedures and guidelines relating to the registration have been compiled with. BLM may cancel or suspend a registration accepted by a registrar in its sole and absolute discretion should BLM determine that the registration is not in conformity with BLM’s rules, policies, procedures and guidelines. Each of the registrant and registrar agrees that BLM shall not be responsible for any loss or damages arising out of the rejection and⁄or cancellation of the registration.

The registrant shall provide to his registrar with complete and accurate information and maintain this information during the term of the domain name registration. The failure of a registrant to provide, promptly update or respond to inquires from the registrar in regards to complete and accurate information may constitute to a material breach of the registrant agreement and shall be a basis for cancellation of the domain name registration.

BLM shall not be involved in any dispute that the registrant may have with a third-party. Any dispute arising from the registration and use of a .thai domain name shall be determined in accordance with the abuse handling mechanism in Question 28.

The proposed .thai TLD will impose measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users.

Firstly, all accredited registrars are required to abide by a Code of Practice established by the registry to be used in conjunction with the Registry-Registrar Agreement and all rules, policies, procedures and guidelines published by the registry.

The Code of Practice is a compulsory set of principles and approaches to market conduct for all accredited registrars and their appointed resellers. The objective of the Code of Practice is to promote and protect the interests of the domain name industry, registrants and domain name registrars by:

a) Establishing minimum standards for dealings between domain name registrars and registrants;
b) ensuring that registrants receive accurate, complete and timely information concerning domain name activities including, but not limited to registrations, renewals, transfers and solicitations;
c) Preventing practices that undermine the reputation of the industry and the interests of registrants.

It is mandatory for all domain name registrars to comply with the code of practice herein without exception.
The Code of Practices addresses data privacy of registrants and states the following:
“Domain name registrars must not disclose the registrant’s domain data information, including, but not limited to the domain name, registrant, contact persons, name servers, registration, and expiry and billing information to any third party for any reason or purpose.”
Alleged breaches of the Code of Practice will be dealt with severely under the registry’s Complaints Policy. A breach of the Code of Practice is also a breach under the Registry-Registrar Agreement and may result in the suspension or termination of the registrar’s accreditation.
Secondly, an acceptable use policy shall be implemented by the registry in regards to the WHOIS service. The acceptable use policy shall clarify that the information published in the WHOIS service is only for informational purposes and can only be used for lawful purposes. Users are strictly prohibited to use the information published in the WHOIS service for the following purposes, but not limited to:
a) Advertising and⁄or marketing purposes;
b) Unsolicited communication purposes via email or otherwise;
c) Spamming or speculative purposes;
d) Commercial purposes;
e) Illegal purpose; and
f) Any other abusive purposes.
Any user that is caught abusing the WHOIS service for unlawful purposes will be reported to the relevant authorities for further actions. This will be on a best effort attempt as not every country has implemented relevant policies in regards to SPAM and⁄or use of public information for commercial, illegal and other abusive purposes.

Lastly, two preventive measures can be adopted by the registry to prevent automated scripts from data-mining from the WHOIS service. The measures are as follows:
a) Implement the use of an Image Verification Check (IVC) on web-based WHOIS services where a user is required to type in a random word or phrase that is shown to the user in the form of a graphical picture. The principle is that machines cannot read the words in a graphical picture and only a real person can enter the word or phrase successfully. The technology for IVC has advanced quite a bit over the past few year and is still very effective against data-mining robots today; and
b) Limit the number of WHOIS queries per hour for a particular IP. This helps to thwart data-mining attempts.


The outreach and communication program will certainly help to create public awareness about the projected benefits of .thai TLD for the Thai communities.

Overview of the Outreach and Communications Program

The objective of the Program is to establish .thai TLD as the home of the Thai communities, and set a strong foundation for viral marketing through early adopters of .thai domain names.

The targets of the Program are general consumers, adopters of .thai domain names and Channels (i.e. Registrars), for the reasons of:
• General Consumers (Public Users) – General consumers will be aware of .thai TLD as a specific zone for Thai communities;
• Adopters (Registrants) – Through the Program, the early adopters will reap the benefits and uniqueness of the .thai domain names. With the increase of usage of .thai domain names, the viral impact of the benefits will be multiplied; and
• Channels (Registrars) – The Program will bring awareness to the Channels about the opportunities to value-add on the various bundled services to make .thai domain names for Thai communities. It promotes innovation among Channels to bring additional services to enhance security, availability and reputation.


The Program can be segregated into 2 main parts, namely:
• Marketing Campaign – to bring awareness of BLM positioning and awareness of its projected benefit among adopters and channels; and
• Public Relation – to educate the public about the positioning of BLM and benefits attached with .thai domain names.

The Key Result Areas (KRAs) for the Program would be the financial indicators (sales and profits) and the volume of live sites using .thai domain names. BLM will constantly monitor and review its approach for the Program.

Marketing Campaign

The marketing campaign for BLM consists of:
• Outreach to the Thai Communities;
• Campaign Support Material; and
• Channel Reward Programs.

Outreach to Intellectual Property (IP) Communities

• Association with the Communities
During the initial phase of the campaign, the Registry will reach out the Thai communities to raise awareness of .thai domain names. The primary effort shall aim to establish ‘co-marketing’ initiative with key associations that have regional influence to their local counterparts, where they have conferences and events for outreach to their respective communities.

• Advertising
BLM could participate in the activities of the Thai communities by advertising in the associations’ newsletter, magazines and websites.

• Trade Shows
BLM will participate in the Thai communities’ trade shows to build awareness and preference for .thai domain names among the communities’ members.

Support Material for Marketing Campaign

BLM will develop support material for marketing campaign for its Channels (i.e. Registrars). The marketing material will be helpful for registrars simply because:
• It saves time for registrar to create similar material;
• The Registry could portray a consistent message for .thai domain names; and
• To be used as training material for registrars and their channels to market .thai domain names.

The marketing material shall consist of consistent content, message, diagram and taglines for:
• Presentation – Standard boiler-plate that spells out the information about .thai domain names and its benefits;
• Press articles – Contents for joint press release with Channels;
• Website – Incorporate website contents of standard FAQ, ‘Why dot-thai?’, benefits and etc.;
• Banners – Wide array of banner choices with different taglines for Registrars to choose;
• Newsletter – Contents for periodic opt-in newsletters to be shared among Registrars and Thai communities;
• Email – Contents to be incorporated within email communications by the Registrars to their clients for converting or upselling their prospects or existing clients; and
• Success Cases – A listing of ‘live’ sites that are using .thai domain names, with short overview of the credential of these sites.

Channel Reward Program

BLM will develop a Channel Reward Program with the following characteristics:
• Broad-base – We insist on equal treatment to all registrars, regardless of their size;
• Growth-base – We will reward Registrars based on the percentage of growth, benchmarked on its existing size or regional volume; and
• Time-bound – All reward program shall be time-bound (e.g. monthly or quarterly).

The reward program can also be in the form of Marketing Rebates, where Registrars conduct marketing activities according the guideline given by the BLM. Upon completion of the activities with performance assurance, the Registry shall reimburse partially or fully on the marketing expenses in association with the activity.

BLM will make use of the channel reward features incorporate in the Qinetics’ RegistryASP SRS application that meets the above mentioned characteristics. We strongly emphasize on quality growth to .thai domain names that results in active websites. We will reward Registrars who deliver more growth in quality registration of .thai domain names.

Public Relation (PR) Program
The PR Program aims to educate the general public about the usage of .thai domain names and its associated benefits. It also serves to establish the brand recognition of .thai domain names as the online presence for the Thai communities.

Phases of Implementation

The PR program can be implemented in phases, namely:
• Education – We educate the general public about the usage of .thai domain names. We also educate the Registrars about the opportunity to bundle related services with .thai domain names;
• Awareness – We create awareness about .thai domain name branding and its benefits over other potential domain name choices; and
• Influence – We make use of our Success Cases – adopters of .thai domain names who found success through unique branding, traffic generation and customer engagement. Through these Success Cases, it will create a viral effect on the usage of .thai domain names.

PR Activities

The PR program shall include the following activities:
• Media Relationship – BLM may establish a press desk to satisfy the needs for information about domain names in general and .thai domain names in specific. We shall also target the Thai communities based media and court for long term relationship.
• Editorial contribution – The press desk of BLM shall also serve to contribute relevant articles and success stories of .thai domain names to press and magazine on periodic basis.
• Speaker’s Bureau – As part of our outreach program, the BLM will develop a Speaker’s Bureau program to secure speaking opportunities at events focused on the Thai communities.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)