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

Prototypical answer:

Afilias Domains No. 1, 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

There is currently a profusion of blogs and blog posters on the Internet. Someone wishing to search for a particular blog, blogger or topic sometimes has to engage in a rather involved and convoluted web search.

The purpose of .BLOG is to create an Internet space which will become the gathering place for bloggers to create trusted and easily accessible blogs and blog entries, and ease of access for people searching for specific topics or bloggers. People will come to know that their favorite bloggers or blog topics are easily discoverable under a .BLOG domain, and bloggers will create more and better content, knowing that they will have an expanded and more targeted audience. Over time, as the .BLOG TLD is increasingly adopted and content accrues, search engines will modify their algorithms to specifically target .BLOG sites and content, making the TLD even more accessible and useful.

Due to the proliferation of the “blogosphere” already in existence on the Internet, we anticipate that this space will take some time to catch on and create a recognizable brand and an identity on the Internet, with a unique following and participation base distinct from the general blogosphere. Also, with many existing venues where bloggers can register for free or at minimal cost, creating a blogosphere of well over a million domains, it is most likely that initially only early-adopting bloggers desiring to create a unique Internet presence will make the effort to establish a .BLOG domain. Early adopters will be driven by the desire to take advantage of a memorable, intuitive domain that is unique for bloggers, thus enhancing the uniqueness of their content. Therefore, we anticipate that we will have 47,796 domains under management (DUMs) after three years. The DUMs that will exist, however, will create a high-quality, high value experience for the early adopters, both creators and consumers, which will propel the steady growth of the TLD far into the future.

Similar gTLD applications: (1)