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

Prototypical answer:

As companies, organizations and individuals continue to become more independent of physical location, they will need a domain name that reflects their presence on the Internet.

The word “cloud” is a general term that has become synonymous with the Internet or a piece of the Internet. Hence, .cloud could apply and mean different things to different markets.

The key market for .cloud are companies, organizations and individuals who need a domain name which is generic, non-geographical and not specialised.

We believe .cloud will appeal to a wide audience, including businesses of all sizes and consumers. It could help identify companies and organisations that provide services in the “cloud”. Likewise, .cloud could be ideal for consumers who wish to “name their cloud” or their personal piece of the Internet. A .cloud domain could also help identify networking or interest groups who are connected by the “cloud”, i.e. entrepreneurs.cloud – a networking group for entrepreneurs.

The gTLDs introduced since 2000 has to some extent been specialized. Examples of this are: .BIZ which is intended for domains to be used by businesses,.ASIA for the Asian region, .MOBI for content for cell- and smartphones in addition to sponsored TLDs such as .CAT for the Catalan culture and language. .MUSEUM is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) used exclusively by museums, museum associations, and individual members of the museum profession.
.cloud will have a non-specialized approach and will address the need for having a general presence on the Internet.

The .cloud gTLD will be an unrestricted registry and is categorized as a “first come - first served” top level. The registration policy (reference #18B) does not prevent individuals to acquire a .cloud second level registration, but the pricing policy for .cloud may not be tuned for the private mass market. However, the business model for .cloud includes a pricing scheme that still makes it possible for individuals and organizations with a low budget to register their preferred domain name on the second level.

The .cloud top level will be introduced to the market with an option to register second level domain name in non-ASCII (IDN registrations). The languages and scripts that are available are the most common for the Europe and US. IDN registrations are common in the present gTLD market and enabled for the majority of European ccTLDs.

.cloud will be governed under Norwegian law and jurisdiction where there is a high focus on consumer protection and privacy. Please also see our response to Q18-B5.

The .cloud TLD will be introduced in a proper way and maintained by CloudNames.

The CloudNames management team have a long experience in the domain name industry. Rolf Larsen, CEO of CloudNames, founded the ISP RiksNett in 1995 (which was later acquired by the Swedish Telco Telia) and Active 24 (aka Active ISP) in 1998. Both companies challenged existing telco and hosting companies in Europe. Active 24 became one of the first ICANN-accredited registrars and grew to one of the top 5 hosting companies in Europe within 2 years. CloudNames’ CFO, CTO, VP Products and Services and other members of the staff have extensive experience working in both RiksNett and Active 24

Similar gTLD applications: (1)