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

Prototypical answer:

Afilias Domains No. 4, the Applicant, is a subsidiary of Afilias Limited, and will be referred to throughout this application as Afilias for simplicity of review by ICANN.


Mission and purpose

The mission of .DESI is to provide an Internet homeland for the diverse and dispersed peoples of the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh). These peoples self-identify as “desi,” the Sanskrit word for “one from our country.” That the term is broadly recognized is illustrated by MTV’s 2005 decision to use “MTV DESI” as the name of the MTV service directed at this large and growing target market.

Just as .CAT today provides a cherished place for the Catalan language community, .DESI’s purpose is to establish an easily identifiable place where Desis can congregate on the Internet to celebrate Desi culture, languages, food, socializing, and other interactions that are unavailable today.

.DESI will serve:
• Desi individuals, by providing an Internet space populated by others who share cultural, language, music, entertainment and other characteristics that are apart from the mainstream and tailored to their interests and tastes;
• Desi businesses, who are established to serve this market, and who will be able to reach the market more efficiently and serve it more directly than they can in the general market;
• Desi professionals, who offer tailored services to address the unique needs of this audience, and who will benefit from a space shared by others of similar understanding.
• Desi entertainers, whose unique offerings (for example, Bollywood) enjoy particular appeal among Desis.
• Desi travelers, who wish to find the local Desi hot spots, food places, and other attractions as they roam the globe.
• Many others who share the values and dreams of Desis across the world.

We believe there is a large and readily identifiable pool of businesses and individuals who will quickly realize the intrinsic value of the .DESI TLD and will wish to create their own sites and addresses in the TLD. These Desi-oriented entities will immediately — by actions designed to further their own interests — begin building the .DESI brand on a global basis. While we anticipate that early adopters will be primarily from the diaspora and hence be outside of the Indian sub-continent, eventually use will develop in the homeland itself.

While the potential for the development of this TLD is enormous, we believe it will take some time for the idea to percolate amongst the population of Desis around the globe. Therefore, we forecast having approximately 25,000 Domains Under Management (DUMs) by the third year of operation. Our financial responses in questions 45 though 50 go into detail on our funding, cost and revenue projections.

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