2019-02-28

UPDATE Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited v. ICANN re: new gTLD .WEB

Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited v. ICANN re: new gTLD .WEB
Editor's note: the latest "document dump" posted by ICANN in the pending Independent Review Process (IRP), although with redactions. The IRP was commenced on 26 November 2018; two panelists have been appointed; awaiting appointment of remaining panelist. No hearings are currently scheduled (as of Feb 25, 2019).


Claimant's Sur-Reply to Verisign, Inc. and Nu Dotco, LLC's Requests to Participate as Amicus Curiae in Independent Review Process (embed above)


ICANN's Reply to Claimant's Response to Verisign, Inc. and Nu Dotco, LLC's Requests to Participate as Amicus Curiae in Independent Review Process (embed above)

Nu Dotco, LLC's Reply in Support of Its Request to Participate as Amicus Curiae in Independent Review Process

Verisign, Inc.'s Reply in Support of Its Request to Participate as Amicus Curiae in Independent Review Process

Claimant's Responses to Procedures Officer's Questions Concerning the Drafting History of the Supplementary Procedures 28 January 2019

Claimant's Response to Verisign, Inc. and Nu Dotco, LLC's Requests to Participate as Amicus Curiae in Independent Review Process

2019-02-27

Huawei, China, Trade, Cybersecurity, 5G, & Trump (video)

Cisco CEO on 5G, Huawei, & Cybersecurity

Cisco $CSCO CEO on 5G technology: The reality is going to match the hype. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins discusses the concerns surrounding Huawei, cyber security and his outlook on 5G technology. Video above published by Fox Business Feb 22, 2019.

Profile: Chinese Tech Giant Huawei

Huawei has been rocked by political and legal turmoil at a time when it also happens to be poised to build the worldwide 5G revolution. Is the timing a coincidence, or a coordinated attempt to knock China's biggest company down a peg? This is the story of how Huawei went from a small-time parts reseller to the homegrown tech giant China always hoped for, and the west always feared. Bloomberg.com video above published Feb 21, 2019.

Tech Wash: Donald Trump soft-pedals on Huawei

Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Feb 22, 2019.

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DISCLAIMER

2019-02-25

ICANN, New gTLDs, Trademarks, RPMs, & Website Content (video)

ICANN and the New Top-Level Domains

ICANN and the new generic Top-Level Domains (new gTLDs)
Washington College of Law, Feb 25, 2019, 1:30 - 5:30 pm EST.
Editor's note: Accompanying ICANN's expansion of the internet's top-level domains (TLDs)--adding more than 1200 new generic top-level domains (“gTLDs”) to the internet's DNS (domain name system)--are new intellectual property (IP) rights protection mechanisms (RPMs), which may have a profound impact on the rights of IP owners, domain name registrants, and the public, and change the internet itself, see e.g., Copyright Law Versus Internet Culture | eff.org.
AGENDA:
1:30: Welcome: Christine Haight Farley, American University Washington College of Law

1:40: Trademark Protections in the New gTLDs
  • Michael Karanicolas, University of Toronto 
  • Brian King, MarkMonitor
  • Rebecca Tushnet, Harvard Law School
  • Brian Winterfeldt, Winterfeldt IP Group 
  • Mary Wong, ICANN
3:00:  Break

3:15:  “Walled Gardens:” Should gTLDs Become Private Platforms?
  • Becky Burr, ICANN Board & Neustar
  • Sarah Deutsch, ICANN Board
  • Kathy Kleiman, Center for Information Technology, Princeton University
  • Jeff Neuman, Com Laude/Valideus
  • Mitch Stoltz, EFF 
4:30: Closing: Patricia Aufderheide, American University, School of Communication

Sponsors: American University Washington College of Law; American University School of Communications; Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property; Internet Governance Lab.

At this conference, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz will join policy experts and domain name industry leaders to discuss domain name companies' role in regulating website content.--eff.org


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DISCLAIMER

MWC19 LIVE, Mobile World Congress 2019, Barcelona Feb 25-28

 #MWC19
MWC19, Mobile World Congress 2019, Barcelona Feb 25-28
  • Mobile World LIVE Keynotes
  • What's the latest on #5G? Join the #ReutersMWC chat Feb 26 at 3 pm ET/9 pm CET moderated by @jennifersaba with @Kevin_Jackson, @laurenyoung and more experts during #MWC19 to find out.
  • Venue: Fira Gran Via, Av. Joan Carles I, 64 08908 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain  (map below)



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2019-02-24

News Review | ICANN EPDP Chair Quits After Vote on Final Report Delayed

graphic "News Review" ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-02-24) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) ICANN EPDP Chair Quits After Vote on Final Report Delayed, 2) Other ICANN news: a. Namazi New GDD Sr. VP, b. New gTLD .AMAZON, and more, 3) a. Google's Extortionate Domaining, b. Booking.com Trademark Case, 4) ICYMI: Personal Data, Data Protection, Data Privacy, Access to Data, and more, 5) Most Read.

1) ICANN EPDP Chair Quits After Vote on EPDP Final Report (Phase 1) Delayed 
"For a set of personal and professional reasons, I am writing to resign my post as Chair of the EPDP for Registration Data. I was honored to be selected by the GNSO Council leadership for the post and attempted to live up to the position expectations and requirements at every moment since I began in July. I will stay on for as long as it takes to find a replacement Chair and smoothly transition the responsibilities ..."--resignation email from Kurt Pritz to GNSO Council Chair Keith Drazek, February 21, 2019, after deferral of the GNSO Council vote on the EPDP Final Report (Phase 1) (pdf) until March 4, 2019, as requested by the Business Constituency (BC) and supported by the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC).
Response from GNSO Council Chair Keith Drazek: Hi Kurt, Thanks for your email, and more importantly for your commitment, sacrifice and service over the last seven months. I will follow up with another email soon, but I wanted to acknowledge receipt of your message and express my gratitude and appreciation on behalf of the GNSO Council. I also appreciate and welcome your willingness to continue as Chair during the transition to Phase 2 and the next Chair. Best regards, Keith.
Prescient email Feb. 20, 2019, below, from EPDP team member Dr. Milton Mueller (NCSG - Georgia Tech), responding to an earlier email from EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz wherein Pritz stated: "I chose not to conflate the number of groups with the voting scheme of the GNSO Council. I think that is the province of the Council, i.e., discussion at the Council level and the voting scheme will come into play there as items with “Strong Support" are considered."
"Sorry Kurt, but that’s not your call. As chair you can designate consensus levels but you do not have the authority to redefine the groups upon which consensus determinations are based. The CSG [Commercial Stakeholder Group] and the NCSG [Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group] both have 6 members on this EPDP team because they are both equivalent stakeholder groups in the chartering process. This was a point of considerable discussion in the formation of the EPDP and the result is not something you can toy with. Doing so leaves you and the whole process subject to legitimacy and bias challenges. The fact that CSG’s 3 constituencies [IPC, BC, ISPCP] insist on independent representation is a choice they have made and can make but it does not change their status as a single SG, a single group for the purposes of consensus determinations. I am sure you don’t want our painstaking work product to be further delayed by procedural and legitimacy challenges, including an independent review process [IRP], but I assure you that is what will happen if you try to disenfranchise an SG by double or triple counting the constituents of another SG." (emphasis and link added)
EPDP Timeline (as of Feb 24, 89 days until the Temporary Specification expires 25 May 2019):
source: icann.org
Analysis & Opinion Editor's note: Kurt Pritz has a long history with ICANN according to his outdated bio on the ICANNwiki, having been appointed as a Vice President of ICANN in 2003. He was heavily involved in ICANN's controversial new gTLDs program as ICANN's Chief Strategy Officer, but suddenly resigned on November 15, 2012, due to an undisclosed conflict of interest. After he left ICANN he became Executive Director of the Domain Name Association, a domain name industry group principally representing the interests of new gTLD registry operators. He resigned from that position in 2015, and thereafter has been involved with various domain name industry firms, including Allegravita, and Architelos (which filed for bankruptcy after being hit with a judgment in a lawsuit brought by registry services provider Afilias), and most recently has been involved with the new gTLD .ART.

I have no idea why Pritz wanted to be EPDP Chair, nor why the GNSO Council appointed him in July, 2018, but I think Pritz saw the handwriting on the wall, and had the good judgment to realize he had already had enough of chairing the EPDP, a task for which he seemed ill-suited from the start. Pritz readily admitted he was far out of his depth, and as Chair, he failed to develop and follow a cogent work plan for Phase 1, apparently relying instead, on ICANN support staff who were as ignorant about the intricacies of the GDPR as he was. Last year, wasting weeks trying to "redline" the Temp Spec per Pritz's directions, EPDP team members repeatedly tried to steer the group back to functionality, with Thomas Rickert finally stating the obvious: "We are trying to fix a document (Temp Spec) that can hardly be fixed." 

It is actually painful to go back and read those transcripts from last year's EPDP meetings. Almost every meeting reeks of dysfunction and lack of direction, and many EPDP members knew it at the time, and often expressed their frustrations on the record. But that is all water under the bridge now. The EPDP Phase 2 will deal with difficult "access issues" and unfortunately, Phase 1 failed to fix or adequately address many core issues, such as controllership, upon which access policy decisions may be dependent. Ideally, the EPDP team needs a Chair who is both knowledgeable about the GDPR, as well as experienced in GNSO PDP consensus processes and procedures. Perhaps Co-Chairs, with one who is knowledgeable about GDPR, and the other experienced in GNSO PDP consensus processes and procedures.

More info: EPDP team mail list and wikiGNSO mail list and calendarEPDP Final Report (pdf); EPDP Charter (pdf); Bird & Bird legal memos; EPDP legal mail list; ICANN's controllership legal memo (pdf); last week's News ReviewThere will be no EPDP meetings until after the GNSO Council vote on March 4, 2019.

2) Other ICANN News
graphic "ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers"
a. Cyrus Namazi promoted to Senior Vice President of ICANN's Global Domains Division (GDD), succeeding his crony, at Conexant and ICANN, former GDD President Akram Atallah, who resigned last year to become CEO of new gTLDs registry operator Donuts, Inc. The ICANN announcement indicates that Atallah's former title of "GDD President," (given to him by his crony, long-time friend and ICANN CEO, Fadi Chehade, in June, 2013) has been abolished. ICANN didn't disclose whether Namazi is receiving the same extravagant compensation package as Atallah did.

b. New gTLD .AMAZON UPDATE
21 Feb 2019 Letter from Achilles Zaluar* to ICANNBoard (pdf)--*Achilles Zaluar is Director, Department of Technological Promotion, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil--excerpt:
"We regret that our invitation to the ICANN CEO and his team to join Brazil and several other Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) member states in a video conference on 19 February on the “.Amazon” issue was not accepted. Our common goal is still to find a mutually acceptable solution for the “.Amazon” applications .... despite our best efforts, time seems to have ran out to work on a mutually acceptable solution before ICANN 64 in Kobe. We remain committed to do it in the coming months, with a view to develop a solution that fulfills GAC´s request to the ICANN Board. We therefore kindly request that the ICANN Board postpone a final decision on the .Amazon applications to ICANN 65, with a view to allow the eight Amazon countries and Amazon Inc. to find a mutually acceptable solution ..." 
Letter (pdf) from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to Secretary General PS/ACTO Alexandra Moreira:
See also 13 Feb 2019 Letter from Alexandra Moreira to Göran Marby.

c. IDNs: Letter from ICANN GDD Cyrus Namazi to Wang Wei et al. 15 Feb 2019, re: Root Zone LGR Generation Panels, excerpt:
".... The CJK GPs correctly note that visual similarity of strings causing confusability should be resolved by String Similarity Panels during TLD string evaluation, String Confusion Objection and String Contention Mechanisms ... an important part of the Procedure and helps ensure that the RZ-LGR satisfies the “Contextual Safety Principle” which asks to minimize the risk of malicious use of IDN labels. As well noted in your communication, the visually similar strings, which are not deemed identical, will continue to be evaluated by the String Similarity Review processes. Due to the independent nature of the working of the IP [Integration Panel], as stipulated by the Procedure, ICANN org suggests that the CJK GPs continue discussions with the IP in order to find a mutually agreeable solution based on the Procedure. ICANN org will organize a face to face meeting of the GPs and IP at the ICANN64 meeting in Kobe, Japan to continue to support this dialogue."
d. ICANN Notice of Breach to Registrar (pdf), excerpt:

e. 13 February 2019 Letter to ICANN (pdf), excerpt below, and ICANN response (pdf).
"... despite several attempts of communication with the reseller and registrar neither parties are responding to my requests. I act for Mr Khan as his IT consultant. I am unable to access the domain so I cannot prevent it from expiring and I cannot access my account or update nameservers or WHOIS information. This is causing me to suffer an immense loss of business. Please, can you get involved and somehow shake these rogue traders up so that they comply and cooperate?" (emphasis added)
f. Public Comments Close 5 Mar 2019 23:59 UTC on First Consultation on a 2-Year Planning Process | ICANN.org.

g. Technical Study Group (TSG) Advances Draft Model--icann.org: The Technical Study Group on Access to Non-Public Registration Data is developing a detailed draft of the Technical Model for Non-Public Registration Data. "... In the coming weeks, the team members, working together with ICANN org representatives, will further develop the draft Technical Model in order to share it with the community before heading to Kobe. During our face-to-face meeting, we also discussed how to present our work outside of the ICANN community, including to the European Commission. When we finish our work on the Technical Model after Kobe, we will send our report to ICANN President and CEO Göran Marby. We look forward to sharing these discussions with you in more detail at ICANN64 and invite you to a community engagement session we are planning ..."

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
graphic "Names, Domains & Trademarks" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
a. Google Does Domaining Like Big Time Extortion | i-programmer.info: "Google Domains has the rights to the .dev Top Level Domain and intends to make as much money from it as possible - $11,500 just for early access to the scramble to register the most desirable names." 

b. Trademark case of Booking.com v. USPTO (pdf) embed below,  decided Feb 4, 2019 (45 days for Petition for En Banc Rehearing). See also Unprotectable Generic Trademarks + Top-Level Domains = Protectable Trademarks--jdsupra.com, and Fourth Circuit Confirms Booking.com is Protectable But Company Must Pay the USPTO’s Fees on Appeal--jdsupra.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 
graphic "ICYMI Internet Domain News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Personal Data, Data Protection, Data Privacy, Access to Data:
  • OpenSRS’ Tiered Access Directory: a look at the numbers--opensrs.com: "We have received more than 2100 data access requests since our Tiered Access system started last May, and of these requests ... 65% of all requests came on behalf of a single requestor; only 21% of these requests resulted in the provision of data, as the majority did not provide sufficient legitimate purpose, nor did the requestor respond to our request for more information. Perhaps surprisingly, 70% of data access requests are not fulfilled because the requestor did not respond to Tucows’ requests for additional information ..."
  • Patients, health data experts accuse Facebook of exposing personal info--thehill.com.
  • Access  to Data: What’s the Emergency? Keeping International Requests for Law Enforcement Access Secure and Safe for Internet Users--eff.org.

Copyright Law Versus Internet Culture--eff.org.

India: Not just porn, Indian users say telecoms are blocking access to many websites. Most of the complaints have come from Indians using Jio connections, followed by Airtel--scroll.in. See also India Proposes Chinese-Style Internet Censorship--NYTimes.com.

Press freedom organisations urge Nigeria to keep internet on during election period--ifex.org

5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com: 
graphic "Domain Mondo" ©2017 DomainMondo.com



-- John Poole, Editor  Domain Mondo 

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DISCLAIMER

2019-02-23

Tech Review 1) Big Tech's Privacy Problem, 2) Amazon Air Expands (video)

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2019-02-23)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Big Tech's Data Privacy Problem, 2) Amazon Air Expands, Look Out FedEx and UPS!, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: a. Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN, b. EU, ECB & Italy,  4) ICYMI Tech News: Google's Waymo, Amazon, Samsung, IBM, eBay, Uber, Walmart, HFT Speed Bump, Zillow, Brick-and-Mortar Meltdown, Password Managers Vulnerabilities. 

1) Big Tech's Data Privacy Problem

Sean Parker, former President of Facebook and current Chairman of The Parker Foundation (parker.org), discusses big tech's data privacy problem--"Amazon not guaranteeing you any privacy"--CNBC International TV video published Feb 13, 2019.

See also: The U.S. government's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Facebook are negotiating a record, multibillion-dollar fine for the company’s privacy lapses--WashingtonPost.com.

2) Amazon Air Expands, Look Out FedEx and UPS!

Amazon $AMZN aims to compete with FedEx $FDX and UPS $UPS in the logistics and shipping industry. That's what analysts told CNBC.com after Amazon Air recently expanded to 50 planes and announced it will open a $1.5 billion air hub in Northern Kentucky in 2021. Amazon is handling up to 26% of its own shipping, meaning FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service are losing a portion of Amazon's business. FedEx says it's not worried, but Morgan Stanley reports the major shippers have already lost 2% revenue to Amazon Air. CNBC.com video above published Feb 16, 2019.

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite +0.7% | S&P 500 Index +0.6% | DJIA +0.6%
 "a dramatic turnaround that has given investors renewed faith in the nearly 10-year bull market"--WSJ.com February 22, 2019.
Wall Street's Charging Bull
graphic of Charging Bull | DomainMondo.com
Investor Notes: 
a. Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN
On Amazon's Nixing New York for HQ2: "I’m confused. I really can’t understand why anyone would want to build a corporate HQ in Queens? Have you been there?"--Bill Blain

b. EU, ECB, & Italy:
Italy headed for 'vicious' debt crisis--government actions eroding investor trust--omfif.org.
"... the news changes our perceptions. The trick is to separate the chaos of new flow from the tau of markets. Markets are linear functions of buy/sell – they are not necessarily about common sense. To illustrate: last week I wrote about Italy, pointing out just how hopelessly its ensnared and entrapped within the strait-jacket of the Euro, with little prospect of growth, employment or upside. Yet Italian bonds are one of the top performing assets – AND WILL REMAIN SO – because the ECB can’t afford to let Italy go, and Europe sliding back into downturn pretty much ensures they’ll continue to bailout Italy and likely resurrect QE in some form ..."--MorningPorridge.com
ECB considers restarting stimulus mechanism--marketwatch.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Google’s Waymo risks repeating Silicon Valley’s most famous blunder--how to build a minimum viable product for driverless cars--arstechnica.com; and Google to unveil Project Stream, its "Netflix-Like Game Streaming Service" at a Game Developers Conference keynote on March 19--fortune.com.

Amazon has secured central London retail space for its checkout-free Amazon Go food stores, in what would be the first expansion of Amazon's automated convenience shops outside the United States--thegrocer.co.uk.

 Smartphones Are Boring
Samsung trying to reinvent itself as a top-tier supplier for 5G wireless networks and bridge a big gap with market leader Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia.

Cisco $CSCO--'Nothing But Network' Is Taking Cisco To A Very Good Place--seekingalpha.com.

IBM Watson Anywhere initiative makes Watson AI services available across AWS, Azure and GCP, in addition to their own IBM Cloud offerings.

eBay $EBAY: hedge funds and institutional investors place bets on the e-commerce platform.

Uber (uber.com) sues New York City over the law that caps the number of ride-hail cars and pausing the issuance of licenses to drivers for 12 months--theverge.com.

Why Walmart farms out same-day grocery deliveries to low-cost freelance drivers--reuters.com.

"Flash Boys" HFT Speed Bump (a 3-millisecond trading delay), to be implemented in the ICE Futures U.S., Inc. (IFUS) (pdf), gold daily and silver daily futures markets. Comments must be submitted on or before March 15, 2019.--CFTC.gov.

Zillow (zillow.com), a new breed of high-tech real estate flippers “iBuyers” using algorithms (and a healthy dose of Silicon Valley venture capital) to buy at massive scale--bloomberg.com.

Brick-and-Mortar Meltdown--“I prefer not to scare you at this point, okay. But it’s something that we’ve been able to withstand”--Simon Property Group CEO David Simon. See also "No Light At The End Of The Tunnel."

Personal Tech: Severe vulnerabilities uncovered in popular password managers--zdnet.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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2019-02-22

Michelle Meyer & Mark Zandi - Next U.S. Recession, in 2021? (video)

What Will Cause The Next Recession - Michelle Meyer On Elevated Risks

Bank of America's Head of U.S. Economics Michelle Meyer predicts a slower global economy in 2019 compared to last year, especially China, which is likely to have some impact on the United States. But despite the risks being higher, the economic data shows an imminent recession is not in the cards. She also explains why wages have improved, "The labor market is tight," she says. And it's not just for high-skilled workers, but for lower income jobs as well.

What Will Cause The Next Recession - Mark Zandi Says Student Loan Debt

CNBC video above published Jan 14, 2019: Chief economist of Moody's Analytics Mark Zandi says the $1.5 trillion of outstanding student loan debt has created a 'crisis' for young Americans. It's part of the reason millennials are waiting longer to start families, buy houses, and launch businesses. It might also lead to the end of the US economy's 'virtuous' cycle in 2020. To solve the problem, he suggests shifting focus from providing student loans to increasing the supply of education options – including trade schools, online learning, and community colleges. Editor's noteMark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, hasn’t contributed to any Republican “for any federal office since 2008” and was an “Obama adviser and Clinton donor.”



Editor's note: post originally published under title What Will Cause the Next Recession? Michelle Meyer & Mark Zandi (video). 

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2019-02-20

GoDaddy $GDDY Q4 FY2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast Feb 20, 5pm EST

GoDaddy $GDDY Q4 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast Feb 20, 5pm EST
Financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2018, will be released on Wednesday, February 20, 2019, after the stock market closes, followed by a LIVE webcast and conference call 5:00 p.m. EST. To hear the call, dial (833) 286-5800 in the United States or (647) 689-4445 from international locations, with passcode 6529529. The webcast replay of the call will also be available on GoDaddy's investor relations website at investors.godaddy.net.
GoDaddy Inc. (GDDY) CEO Scott Wagner on Q4 2018 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com: "On the top-level domains, are there any trends you can point to far as a domain buyers bundling multiple TLDs?" Answer: "On the first question, honestly there is no trends that are big enough to mention on this call." 
UPDATE Feb 20: Presentation (pdf) and Press Release of Financial Results, excerpt:
  • Total revenue of $695.8 million, up 15.5% year over year, or 16.0% on a constant currency basis.
  • Total bookings of $732.4 million, up 11.3% year over year, or 12.5% on a constant currency basis.
  • Net cash provided by operating activities of $128.5 million, up 23.2% year over year.
  • Unlevered free cash flow of $126.8 million, up 16.1% year over year.
  • Customers of 18.5 million at December 31, 2018, up 6.8% year over year.
  • Average revenue per user (ARPU) of $148, up 6.6% year over year.
  • Domains revenue of $314.3 million, up 11.6% year over year.
  • Hosting and Presence revenue of $270.0 million, up 18.0% year over year.
  • Business Applications revenue of $111.5 million, up 21.5% year over year.
  • International revenue of $240.3 million, up 15.9% year over year.
Operating Highlights
  • GoCentral, GoDaddy's website builder, had a year of strong feature expansion, evolving from an easy-to-use website builder to a syndication platform managing customers' presence across the social, reputation and e-commerce landscape.
  • GoCentral saw robust subscription growth in 2018, driven by improvements in conversion, retention and awareness. Engagement with features such as appointments, online store, and integrations with third-party platforms rose dramatically throughout 2018.
  • GoDaddy became the largest global host of paid WordPress instances and continues to invest in making WordPress simple, secure, and accessible to entrepreneurs and Web Pros alike.
  • GoDaddy continues to invest in the WordPress ecosystem through its products and contributions to the open source WordPress framework.
  • GoDaddy launched a partnership with Open-Xchange for a new branded email offering focused on emerging markets, complementing its partnership with Microsoft O365 in mature markets.
  • Improvements in conversational marketing continue to drive new and expanding campaigns to reach existing customers, enabling GoDaddy to better identify and serve the need states in its customer base.
  • GoDaddy announced Fara Howard as Chief Marketing Officer. Ms. Howard will lead all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, including brand and performance marketing, community engagement, and customer lifecycle management.

$GDDY
GoDaddy Inc. (godaddy.com) also announced that Ray Winborne, GoDaddy Chief Financial Officer, and Andrew Low Ah Kee, GoDaddy Chief Revenue Officer, will present at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco on Monday, February 25, 2019 at 12:00 pm PST. (3:00 pm EST). The live audio webcast will also be available on GoDaddy investor relations website investors.godaddy.net. Following the presentation an audio replay will also be available on the investor relations website.

GoDaddy, the world's largest domain name registrar, has over 18 million customers worldwide and more than 77 million domain names under management. To learn more, go to GoDaddy.com.

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2019-02-19

Inside the Gorilla Glass Factory of Corning $GLW (video)

Inside Corning's Gorilla Glass Factory

A rare look inside Corning’s oldest glass factory where it makes Gorilla Glass for iPhones and a variety of other devices. The factory, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, runs 24/7 and human hands never touch the glass — only air and robots.

In the middle of bluegrass and bourbon country in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, is Corning's oldest glass factory. It was built in the 1950s to create lenses for glasses and then in the 1980s it transitioned into making LCD glass panels. But about six months before the first iPhone was released in 2007, Steve Jobs made a call to the CEO of Corning and asked the company to create glass that could withstand scratches and breakage for a new Apple product. Before that, phones were typically covered in plastic. Corning quickly developed Gorilla Glass, and this factory went through a complete transformation. The same company that developed the glass for the Edison bulb in 1879, is now making the glass that covers 6 billion smartphones, tablets, screens and wearables worldwide for Apple, Samsung, LG, Sony and Huawei and a variety of other manufacturers. Watch the video to get a rare look inside the factory to see how Gorilla Glass is made. CNBC.com video above published Feb 9, 2019.

Corning Incorporated
NYSE: GLW
$GLW
Domain: corning.com
Investor Relations: investor.corning.com
Industry: Glass & Ceramic Materials
Founded: 1851
Headquarters: Corning, New York, U.S.
Employees: 46,200
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