News Review | Six Questions for 2019 & Twelve for 2018 Answered

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-12-30 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) Six Questions for 2019 & Twelve for 2018 Answered,  2)ICANN news: a. EPDP Meeting Jan 3, b. Public Comment Periods Closing in January, 3) GoDaddy $GDDY and more, 4) 2018 in Review, 5) Most Read.

1)  Six Questions for 2019 & Twelve for 2018 Answered

Six Questions for 2019:

1. New gTLD .WEB 

Will Verisign $VRSN + ICANN Crush Afilias?

Editor's note: For $135 million, ICANN will do whatever you want.

2. New gTLD .AMAZON: Bezos vs Brazil et al

Bezos Has $$, BUT Brazil et al Have Power, Who Wins?

Editor's note: when ICANN's current CEO was caught in his own lies, things went south.

3. New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation

Will DCA Trust Finally Get Its 'Day in Court'?
Editor's note: another mess Fadi Chehade & Akram Atallah left behind.

4. GDPR, ICANN Temp Spec & EPDP, WHOIS Access

Standardized Access, Unified Access?
Editor's note: the dysfunctional EPDP grinds on, but ICANN Org has a different agenda.

5. ICANN New gTLD Auction Proceeds

Who Will Be the Big 'Money Grab' Winners?
Editor's note: At ICANN, "It's ALL about the money."

6. IGF 2019 Berlin  25-29 November

Action Or Just More Talk?

Editor's note:the fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be hosted by the Government of Germany in Berlin from 25 to 29 November 2019. The first face-to-face 2019 Open Consultations and MAG meeting takes place on 28-30 January 2019 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. A Call for Issues has been published and submissions are due Thursday 24 January 2019. UPDATE: Among the issues already submitted in the Category: Evolution of Internet Governance:

#22 Quels solutions préconisez vous pour l'évolution de la gouvernance de l'Internet? [What solutions do you recommend for the evolution of Internet governance?]

#37 A middle ground between the vested-interest capture of multi-stakeholderism and government capture of multi-lateralism is badly needed. How can IGF stimulate such innovation? Comment submitted with this issue below (highlighting added)--

The 12 Questions for 2018 Answered:

1. Domain Names: Will 2018 Be As Bad As 2017 or Worse, particularly for new gTLDs (new generic top-level domains)? New gTLDs No Longer In Decline, But Hardly Healthy
2. Will the Internet Society (ISOC) find its way in 2018? New Leadership, But Jury Still Out
3. What's Next for Internet Net Neutrality? More of the Same, See You In Court
4. Should the Internet Governance Forum be allowed to die? Depends on What Happens in Berlin, November, 2019
5. China's 5th World Internet Conference in 2018: Even Bigger, Broader, and Bolder? No
6. Was ICANN ready for EU GDPR compliance on 25 May 2018? No, It Was A Train Wreck
7. Will NTIA extend the Cooperative Agreement with Verisign on or before November 30, 2018, and specifically, what will happen to .com pricing? Extended But Verisign Got More $$$
8. Will ICANN "roll the root zone KSK" in 2018 or "break the internet" in the process? Delayed But Everything Turned Out OK
9. What will be the outcomes of ICANN litigation in 2018? Ruby Glen (Donuts) Lost vs ICANN, ICANN Lost vs EPAG (Tucows), For Everything Else See 2019 Above
10. What will the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division do about new gTLD .WEB, Verisign and ICANN? Nothing, File Closed, No Action
11. What will happen to the ICANN Reviews, including the still suspended SSR2? SSR2 Back In Business, As For The Rest, Nobody Cares
12. Will the global internet community begin taking steps to reform or replace ICANN in 2018, including at PP-18, ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018, Dubai, UAE 29 Oct - 16 Nov 2018, or establish a new root? Only Macron at IGF2018 in Paris Gave A Glimmer Of Hope

2) ICANN News

a. EPDP Meeting Thursday, Jan 3, 2019, at 14:00 UTC (9am EST). Observers use Adobe Connect, or browser or app audiocast. Resources: EPDP Initial Report (pdf) and comments. 

Editor's note: The following quotes from the chat transcript (embed below) sum up the dysfunctional EPDP meeting on January 3, 2019:

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): (09:37) "Let us ask the legal counsel to explain how one goes about elucidating purposes of processing. It is a bit late, but we are a long way from bringing this thing home, in my opinion. Better late than never."

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): (09:59) "My comment about seeking legal advice, was to try to explain to us what this process is. We do not have a sound methodology, people are all over the map, in my view because they do not really understand what we are trying to do."

Thursday meeting agenda, EPDP leadership's note (pdf), meeting transcript (pdf); Adobe recording, PCRT (Public Comment Review Tool), notes & action items, and Chat transcript (pdf) embed below:

GNSO Council EPDP page and updates; links to all EPDP meetings' transcripts and recordings on the GNSO calendar; EPDP working group wiki, mail list, action items, Temp Spec, EPDP Charter (pdf), Data Elements Workbooks (pdf).

Editor's note: comments by the GNSO's CPH (Contracted Parties House, i.e., Registrars & gTLD Registry Operators) embed further below, excerpts:

The EPDP Team must limit its focus to the charter if it is to complete its work by the anticipated February 1, 2019 Final Report publication date.

Several working methods have impeded the EPDP Team’s progress. Certain EPDP Team members spent a disproportionate amount of time (including during almost every meeting) discussing -- or trying to discuss -- access. These access discussions and efforts were premature, diverted the EPDP Team’s attention from its critical prerequisite work, and negatively impacted the Team’s progress. The Initial Report reflects this diversion and lack of progress. The EPDP Team has a responsibility to the ICANN community to be diligent about remaining “in scope;” otherwise, the Team risks not completing its work by February 1, 2019.

The EPDP Team has neither agreed upon – nor in many cases even conducted – significant foundational work including defining a minimum data set, performing a data audit, and defining roles and responsibilities of parties. Further, the Purposes put forth as Recommendations in the Initial Report, only stand on the analysis conducted in the workbooks which are overtly framed as ICANN Purposes only.

It is not appropriate for any PDP WG to propose new or materially different policy recommendations in its Final Report without providing the community an opportunity to comment. This is especially true for a subject as complex and important as GDPR compliance in the domain name registration ecosystem.

The Initial Report itself raises concerns. The lack of agreement behind the individual recommendations is clear. The lack of consensus calls is clear ... Although the Initial Report is written to suggest that the EPDP Team developed the recommendations, the CPH understands that it did not. To the contrary, ICANN Staff developed the specific language of the recommendations, many of which could not be tracked back to specific EPDP Team decisions or discussions. The timing of the Initial Report (and the time diverted to access discussions) left little time for the EPDP Team to properly deliberate on all recommendations, the data elements workbooks, or the Initial Report text itself. While the CPH understands the tremendous time pressure the EPDP Team faces, it is important for the integrity of the PDP process that working group members not be surprised by Initial Report recommendations, be able to trace the origin of recommendations, and have adequate time to sufficiently deliberate those recommendations. In addition, the EPDP Team must focus on creating a report that lends itself to a clear, implementable Consensus Policy. The Initial Report is simply too ambiguous. (emphasis added)

CPH Comment embed in full below:

b. ICANN Public Comment periods ending in January, 2019

Note: dates subject to change by ICANN org. Closing time is 23.59 UTC on each date shown:

• Application for New Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) Dispute-Resolution Service Provider 4 Jan 2019 

• Policy Status Report: Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP) 7 Jan 2019 

• Maximal Starting Repertoire Version 4 (MSR-4) for Root ZoneLabel Generation Rules (RZ-LGR) 10 Jan 2019 

• Work Track 5 on Geographic Names at the Top Level - Supplemental Initial Report of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process 22 Jan 2019

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. GoDaddy $GDDY Citi analyst Nicholas Jones has given the stock a Buy rating and $82 target, citing GoDaddy's healthy FCF (free cash flow) and capital allocation strategy. Jones also thinks GoDaddy can increase ARPU (average revenue per user) to $230+ by 2029 from about $150 this year. Source: Bloomberg First Word.

b. Domain Registrar can be held liable for pirate site, German Court rules--torrentfreak.com 24 Dec 2018.

c. The web really isn’t worldwide – every country has different access--theconversation.com.

d. How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually--nymag.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News: 2018 in Review 

a. Big Wins for Privacy and Free Speech: 2018 in Review | EFF.org

b. The Year of the GDPR: 2018’s Most Famous Privacy Regulation in Review | EFF.org

c. Using Technology to Protect Online Privacy: 2018 Year in Review | EFF.org

Concerned about online privacy.

US: 83%
India: 83%
France: 78%
Italy: 78%
Mexico: 77%
UK: 76%
China: 76%
Nigeria: 75%
Turkey: 74%
Australia: 71%
Japan: 67%
Germany: 67%
Russia: 61%

(Ipsos)

— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) December 16, 2018

InternetGovernance.org:

d. Civil society groups blast ICANN Org’s push for a “Unified Access Model”

e. An Access Model for Whois Data that Respects Registrants Rights

f. The Looming Battle over the GDPR and the Purpose of Whois in ICANN

g. The 2006 Definition of Whois Purpose: Case study of the “bad old days” in ICANN: “... everyone in the task force agrees the purpose of Whois is to provide a system for a given domain name to be looked up and produce a set of contact information ..."  (emphasis added)

5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

#1 News Review | Greed is Good? ICANN Auctions & The Big 'Money Grab'

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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DISCLAIMER

Afilias Challenges New gTLD WEB Auction Results in Letter to ICANN

UPDATE: 9 September 2016: 2nd Letter from Scott Hemphill (Afilias) to Akram Atallah (ICANN) (pdf) [published by ICANN 20 September 2016] Hemphill is VP & General Counsel of Afilias.

UPDATE: It is now confirmed that Afilias was the 2nd highest bidder for new gTLD .WEB, not Google, as an earlier report had indicated. Therefore Afilias is arguing below that it is entitled to .WEB for a price in the range of $57.5 - $71.9 million dollars (US) based on the bidding sheet.

Registry operator Afilias, losing bidder for new gTLD .WEB, has now objected to Nu Dot Co LLC winning new gTLD .WEB in a "last resort" auction utilizing funding provided by Verisign, see New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is? | DomainMondo.com.

In a letter dated August 8, 2016, but not  published by ICANN until Friday, August 12, 2016, Afilias Vice President and General Counsel M. Scott Hemphill sets forth the position of Afilias, and requests ICANN undertake an investigation and disqualify Nu Dot Co and refrain from proceeding to enter into a registry agreement for .WEB:

Afilias letter to ICANN (pdf) embed below:


See also on Domain Mondo:

• New gTLD WEB Loser, Ruby Glen, Files Amended Complaint vs ICANN 10 August 2016
• New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request 25 July 2016

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review: Verisign's Big Win of gTLD WEB; ICANN Litigation Report

"Funds must be used in a manner that supports directly ICANN’s Mission and Core Values and also allows ICANN to maintain its not for profit status."--ICANN's new gTLDs applicant guidebook--see this week's FEATURES further below.

Domain Mondo's review and look ahead [pdf], starting first with the macro view, the big picture, after cutting through all the noise:

• Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton, during a week of sweltering temperatures in Philly. WikiLeaks' #DNCleaks caused the resignation of the DNC Chair, and even worse, exposed Hillary's "rigged" election in the primaries over rival Bernie Sanders, as well as collusion between the Democratic Party's DNC and establishment mainstream media. Mainstream media distortion and bias are now well-documented and widely recognized, and could backfire this year among a disaffected electorate. TV Ratings: Hillary Clinton's DNC Speech Falls Short of  Donald Trump's RNC Speech in Viewers - HollywoodReporter.com: "DNC Day 4: 33.3 million;  RNC Day 4: 34.9 million." Ipsos poll conducted for Reuters, July 25-29, 2016 (pdf) shows Clinton and Trump tied among likely voters in a 4-way race--Clinton, Trump, Stein (Green), Johnson (Libertarian)--and that Clinton and Trump have identical unfavorable/favorable ratings of 57% Unfavorable / 43% Favorable. See e.g., Clinton yet to tackle voter distrust issue | FT.com. There are 100 days left until Election Day November 8, 2016.

• More terrorist attacks again this past week in Europe, see here and here. Thousands of German protesters prepare for Angela 'Merkel Must Go' demonstration | dailymail.co.uk: "They are calling for her resignation over open door immigration policy - Comes after four brutal attacks leaving nearly a dozen dead in one week - Three of the attackers were among 1.1million who entered as refugees ..."

•  The Rio Olympic Games 2016 begin on Friday, August 5, and end on Sunday, August 21. Many problems, including pollution and crime and terrorism.

•  US economy grows less than expected in Q2 - Business Insider.com; while UK economic growth stronger than expected in Q2 - FT.com. See also Eurozone recovery loses momentum in second quarter | FT.com: "Data cast doubt on strength of revival as French economy grinds to halt ...  [failing] to grow at all in the second quarter ..."

• FEATURES: Dot WEB Auction & Verisign; ICANN Litigation Status Report

UPDATE August 1, 2016: Verisign Statement Regarding .WEB Auction Results: "VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), a global leader in domain names and internet security, today announced the following information pertaining to the .WEB top-level domain (TLD): The Company entered into an agreement with Nu Dot Co LLC wherein the Company provided funds for Nu Dot Co's bid for the .WEB TLD. We are pleased that the Nu Dot Co bid was successful. We anticipate that Nu Dot Co will execute the .WEB Registry Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and will then seek to assign the Registry Agreement to Verisign upon consent from ICANN. As the most experienced and reliable registry operator, Verisign is well-positioned to widely distribute .WEB. Our expertise, infrastructure, and partner relationships will enable us to quickly grow .WEB and establish it as an additional option for registrants worldwide in the growing TLD marketplace. Our track record of over 19 years of uninterrupted availability means that businesses and individuals using .WEB as their online identity can be confident of being reliably found online. And these users, along with our global distribution partners, will benefit from the many new domain name choices that .WEB will offer." (emphasis added)

ICANN new gTLD Applicant Guidebook (excerpt)

.WEB Auction: Early in the week, Ruby Glen, LLC (Donuts affiliate), applicant for new gTLD .WEB, struck out in its attempt to stop the new gTLD .WEB auction but the U.S. District Court threw it a "bone"--"the Court grants Plaintiff leave to amend the Complaint to attempt to establish federal subject matter jurisdiction" (more in ICANN Litigation Status Report below). See also: New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request.

.WEB Auction Results--New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is?--according to ICANN, Nu Dot Co LLC was the winner of the .WEB auction on July 27th with a "winning price" of $135 million. Reportedly, Nu Dot Co may have an agreement to assign its contractual rights in .WEB to Verisign, registry operator of .COM and .NET. If so, this is a real win-win-win for:

• ICANN which will receive the net .WEB auction proceeds to be used for beneficent purposes in accordance with the new gTLD guidebook (pdf) (graphic above); see below.*
• The millions of domain name registrants of more than 143 million .COM & .NET domain names, who will be assured that a trusted registry operator will be operating .WEB in a way that is complementary to existing gTLDs .COM and .NET; and
• Verisign and its shareholders, for adding what many consider the most valuable of all new gTLDs, .WEB, to its offerings. The existing market potential for .WEB is HUGE--for example "web" -- site:*.com - Google Search: returns "about 1,900,000,000 results (0.48 seconds)"--examples: web.airdroid.com and web.whatsapp.com are potential customers for airdroid.web and whatsapp.web respectively. Also don't be surprised to see more new keyword+web .COM domain name registrations before .WEB even launches.

UPDATE: *What happens to the .WEB net proceeds out of that $135 million "winning price"? 27 July 2016 New gTLD .WEB Auction | ICANN.org: "The proceeds from New gTLD Program auctions, which will total more than $230 million [with .WEB net proceeds included]--[UPDATE: Total Net Auction Proceeds now held by ICANN $233,455,563]--are being reserved. The multistakeholder community will develop proposals for how these proceeds could be distributed. A community-based drafting team is currently working on a charter for a Cross-Community Working Group that will create recommendations for Board consideration"

ICANN Litigation Status Report (July 31, 2016):

Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN lawsuit filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California re: new gTLD .WEB. Status: Plaintiff's motion for TRO denied; Plaintiff granted leave to amend its Complaint and establish federal subject matter jurisdiction, by August 8, 2016, failing which, the action may be dismissed without prejudice. Analysis and opinion: this case was a loser from the get-go unless Plaintiff, an affiliate of new gTLDs registry operator Donuts, has more facts in support of its claims than indicated in the pleadings thus far. Plaintiff's failures to 1) properly plead federal subject matter jurisdiction, and 2) promptly serve and give notice to ICANN, as required by the court's rules, are telling.

DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN lawsuit filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California re: new gTLD .AFRICA. Status: jury trial (10-12 days) scheduled to begin February 28, 2017. Interlocutory appeals re: preliminary injunction are pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Dismissed defendant and appellant ZA Central Registry's opening brief was due July 22, 2016, but has not yet been posted on ICANN's website. The answering brief from appellee DotConnectAfrica Trust is due August 19, 2016, with optional reply brief due September 9, 2016. Analysis and opinion: this case stands as a black-eye and stain upon ICANN under the leadership of former CEO Fadi Chehade and his crony, Akram Atallah, who is still President of ICANN's Global Domains Division (which administers the application process for new gTLDs such as .AFRICA). In this case, ICANN--its Board of Directors, officers, staff, as well as the GAC--failed the global internet community. Hopefully ICANN has learned from this experience and will, in the future, maintain fairness, impartiality, objectivity and transparency, and also be cognizant of the inherent conflicts of interest, in all of ICANN's processes. ICANN should steer clear of geopolitics. Full Stop. Period. It is not the job of ICANN management to curry favor with governments--Brazil, China, U.S., France, E.U., etc.,--or any special interests, e.g., TheDNA.org, INTA.org, InternetAssociation.org, or any other particular party or stakeholder(s), on any matter within the scope and mission of ICANN. The job of ICANN is to carry out its mission only in accordance with the global public interest. That said, this litigation may produce good legal precedent for future enforcement of ICANN's release contained in the new gTLD guidebook (pdf). Ultimately, I expect .AFRICA will be delegated to ZA Central Registry unless this litigation produces more revelations of misconduct by ICANN or other parties.

Ben Haim v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Calderon-Cardona v. Democratic People's Republic of Korea; Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Stern v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Weinstein v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Wyatt v. Syrian Arab Republic filed in United States District Court for the District of Columbia re: whether ccTLDs .IR (IRAN), .SY (SYRIA), and .KP (North Korea), are property subject to judicial attachment. Status: on appeal, oral arguments were heard January 21, 2016, now waiting for a decision from U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Analysis and opinion: This case is a wild card with potentially negative ramifications for ICANN. The U.S. government intervened with its own amicus curiae brief (pdf) in support of ICANN, but its motion to participate in oral arguments was denied by the appellate court. Ultimately, this case could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. UPDATE August 2, 2016: US Court of Appeals Decision re: ICANN & Iran, Syria, North Korea ccTLDs | DomainMondo.com - Court of Appeals affirms District Court decision that the ccTLDs are unattachable, handing ICANN and the "global community" a legal victory in a case that could have jeopardized the IANA stewardship transition.

Other News:

• TheDomains.com reported this week that top-level domains .COM and .NET, both operated by Verisign, were the first "foreign" TLDs to be added to China's government-required real name verification (RNV) system, for use inside China by Chinese citizens.

• Comments close this coming week at ICANN on:

• Reference Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) for the Second Level: Close Date 1 Aug 2016 23:59 UTC.
• PTI Governance Documents: Close Date 7 Aug 2016 23:59 UTC.

• Q2 2016 Earnings Releases & Webcasts with coverage on Domain Mondo this coming week:

• GoDaddy $GDDY Aug 3
• Web.com $WEB Aug 4

• Five most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this week on DomainMondo.com:

1. News Review [24Jul]: IANA Transition & ICANN Corruption, Capture, and Control
2. Q2 2016 Earnings Webcasts July 28: $GOOG $AMZN $NSR $VRSN
3. New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is?
4. Facebook $FB Q2 2016 Earnings Results & LIVE Webcast July 27
5. New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request

• 5 Other Reading Recommendations:

1. Amazon’s Profits Grow More Than 800 Percent, Lifted by Cloud Services | NYTimes.com: "... big profits thanks to the lucrative cloud computing business. On Thursday, Amazon reported net income of $857 million in its most recent quarter, the third quarter in a row in which it has shown a record profit. Its net income for those three months was also more than nine times the amount for the same period last year ..."
2. Yahoo And Verizon | SeekingAlpha.com: "The deal puts the price tag at $4.83 billion. The move pulls Verizon further into the digital media realm. For Yahoo, it's a stunning fall from an Internet giant to a has-been put through a long sale process." See also: Rise and Fall of Yahoo $YHOO, What Happened, Missed Opportunities.
3. Made in China: Four horsemen of the iPhone apocalypse | ZDNet.com: "Today it's the $100 value handset. Tomorrow it will be the $200 premium smartphone. There's nothing left for the traditional device OEMs with those kind of margins. Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi and Lenovo are coming, and Apple and Samsung can't stop them."
4. Why [Public] Pensions’ Last Defense Is Eroding | WSJ.com: Low interest rates "... pension critics have more ammunition to argue for more aggressive benefit cuts, said Daniel DiSalvo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank that supports 401(k)-style options for public pensions." See also Congress must address public pension plan unfunding - Pensions & Investments | pionline.com.
5. What this divergence of margin debt and stock prices tells us--prior peaks in margin debt were followed by a collapse in margin debt, and a spectacular crash in stocks--"But this time, it’s different ... Seven-plus years of “whatever-it-takes” central-bank-created global liquidity, QE, and interest rate repression to zero, and below zero, have changed the assumptions and dynamics of everything ... business sales have been declining since mid-2014. Earnings have been declining for about that long ... the S&P 500 aggregate price-earnings ratio, based on GAAP, has soared to over 25, a dizzying number that sets off all kinds of alarm bells. And yet, the global flood of liquidity keeps pouring into this market, and fundamentals no longer matter, sales and earnings no longer matter, risks no longer matter, and money is free, or nearly free, for institutional investors ... foundations have crumbled. And all bets are off."-- WolfStreet.com

Keep up with the U.S. Election 2016 on Domain Mondo's election page.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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DISCLAIMER

New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is?

UPDATE August 1, 2016: Verisign Statement Regarding .WEB Auction Results: "VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), a global leader in domain names and internet security, today announced the following information pertaining to the .WEB top-level domain (TLD): The Company entered into an agreement with Nu Dot Co LLC wherein the Company provided funds for Nu Dot Co's bid for the .WEB TLD. We are pleased that the Nu Dot Co bid was successful. We anticipate that Nu Dot Co will execute the .WEB Registry Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and will then seek to assign the Registry Agreement to Verisign upon consent from ICANN. As the most experienced and reliable registry operator, Verisign is well-positioned to widely distribute .WEB. Our expertise, infrastructure, and partner relationships will enable us to quickly grow .WEB and establish it as an additional option for registrants worldwide in the growing TLD marketplace. Our track record of over 19 years of uninterrupted availability means that businesses and individuals using .WEB as their online identity can be confident of being reliably found online. And these users, along with our global distribution partners, will benefit from the many new domain name choices that .WEB will offer." (emphasis added)

UPDATE August 2, 2016: Total Net Auction Proceeds now held by ICANN $233,455,563 (including .WEB).
Original post starts here:

"An auction will be facilitated by Power Auctions LLC on 27 July 2016 to resolve string contention for one new generic top-level domain (gTLD) contention set: .WEB/.WEBS. This set is an indirect contention set consisting of both the WEB and WEBS strings. An indirect contention set is when two applications are both in direct contention with a third application, but not with one another. Eight applicants have completed all necessary prerequisites to participate in the “method of last resort” auction, and the auction will proceed on 27 July 2016. Within seven days after the completion of the auction, the results, including a results report, will be posted to the Auction Results page of the New gTLD Microsite. In addition, the Auction Proceeds page will be updated within seven days to reflect the proceeds and costs related to the Auction."--ICANN

UPDATE July 28, 2016: ICANN reports *NU DOT CO LLC is the Winning Bidder of .WEB with a winning price of $135 million,  and in addition "The Application in the “B” position was eliminated after Round 10, causing the Contention Set to divide and causing the Application of Vistaprint Limited (for .WEBS) to be deemed a Winning Application." See embed below:



*Nu Dot Co may have an agreement to assign its contractual rights in .WEB to Verisign, registry operator of .COM and .NET, based upon a report in DomainNameWire.com. The Verisign 10-Q filed July 28, 2016, disclosed:

"Subsequent to June 30, 2016, the Company incurred a commitment to pay approximately $130.0 million for the future assignment of contractual rights, which are subject to third-party consent. The payment is expected to occur during the third quarter of 2016." FORM 10-Q - VeriSign, Inc.

If true, the third-party referred to above, would be ICANN. In addition, all of this may have some bearing on whether Ruby Glen (Donuts) decides to amend its complaint and continue its U.S. District Court case--see New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request | DomainMondo.com.

Is $135 million too much to pay for new gTLD .WEB? That depends. As Warren Buffett says, "Price is what you pay, value is what you get."  Finally, to put this in historical perspective:

Verisign acquires Network Solutions for $21B - March 7, 2000: "VeriSign Inc. agreed to acquire Network Solutions Inc. for $21 billion in stock."

8 Applicants (for more info on each applicant see the bottom of this post):

1. Nu Dot Co
2. Charleston Road Registry (Google)
3. Web.com
4. DotWeb (Radix)
5. Ruby Glen (Donuts)
6. Afilias
7. Schlund Technologies
8. Vistaprint (WEBS applicant)

Contention Set WEB/WEBS (source: ICANN.org)

How we got here--an abbreviated history--there's a long history to new gTLD .WEB and not just beginning in 2012 with ICANN's expansion of gTLDs from 22 generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) to more than 1000:

• New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request | DomainMondo.com (2016)
• Vistaprint Loses New gTLD dot WEBS IRP, dot WEB SCO, ICANN Prevails | DomainMondo.com (2015)
• IMAGE ONLINE DESIGN, INC. [IOD] vs. ICANN (2013) (pdf) see also IMAGE ONLINE DESIGN, INC. v. INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS | Leagle.com: "... On November 16, 2000, ICANN's Board of Directors issued its decision on new TLDs, identifying seven selected for the "proof of concept phase." The TLD .WEB was not selected. (Id.) At some time during the deliberations in 2000, the then Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr. Vincent Cerf stated, "I'm still interested in IOD. They've worked with .WEB for some time. To assign that to someone else given that they're actually functioning makes me uneasy ..."
• A recent comment on CircleID.com: ".web may not be usable in California ... IOD had an operational .web registry here in California dating from a very long time ago ... Whether you believe in competing root systems or not, .web by IOD was an operating business here in California well before ICANN, and it has existing contractual relationships. One (such as myself) might consider anyone operating another .web named service in California as an interference with my existing contractual relationships ... in which an established, older business has established a common law use of a name in business. One would hope that rather than stomping on pre-existing, and quite legal, prior business uses of .web in California that the new aspirant would reach out to the prior vendor and users and seek an accommodation or release."--Karl Auerbach

See also: New gTLD Program Auctions | ICANN New gTLDs | ICANN.org
and for more info on each applicant, click the link(s) below:

• 632 WEB 1-1296-36138 (In Auction) NU DOT CO LLC
• 868 WEB 1-1681-58699 (In Auction) Charleston Road Registry Inc. (Google)
• 946 WEB 1-1009-97005 (In Auction) Web.com Group, Inc.
• 986 WEB 1-956-26846 (In Auction) DotWeb Inc. (Radix)
• 1218 WEB 1-1527-54849 (In Auction) Ruby Glen, LLC (Donuts)
• 1360 WEB 1-1013-6638 (In Auction) Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited,
• 1717 WEBS 1-1033-73917 (In Auction) Vistaprint Limited
• 1750 WEB 1-1013-77165 (In Auction) Schlund Technologies GmbH

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DISCLAIMER

ICANN New gTLD APP Auction: Did Google Pay Too Much?

Results of New gTLD Last Resort ICANN Auctions Through February 28, 2015 (source: icann.org)

New gTLD: .APP

Auction Date: 25 February 2015

Winning Applicant: Charleston Road Registry Inc. (Google)

Winning Price: $25,001,000

12 new gTLD (new generic top-level domain) Applicants participated in the .APP Auction:

1. .APP REGISTRY INC. 
2. Afilias Domains No. 2 Limited 
3. Amazon EU S.à r.l. 
4. Charleston Road Registry Inc. (Google)
5. dot App Limited 
6. DotApp Inc. 
7. Lone Maple, LLC 
8. Merchant Law Group LLP 
9. NU DOT CO LLC 
10. Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
11. TRI Ventures, Inc. 
12. Webera Inc.

Domain Mondo had been waiting months to see what happened to the premium new gTLD .APP--one of only two premium new gTLDs (the other being .WEB), different in so many ways from most of the hundreds of other new gTLD dogs.* The BIG question had been whether the mighty Google would come to the table with its hoard of cash and stay to play instead of folding.

*"What are people saying about new gTLDs? gTLDs like . sucks were designed to get money from trademark holders and people with bad reputations. That's it. Don't gTLD people see that this crap is a waste of time? The only gTLD I have ever seen that actually makes sense is gTLD_Sucks ' I would take bow.wow because most of these gTLDs are *dogs. 98% are going to be sent to the vet and be put to sleep. Facebook didn't spend $185,000 because gTLDs aren't worth the attention. Who wants to type somedomainname. facebook?" (source: Jennifer Wolfe Keynote, NamesCon 2015, emphasis added) 

Because this was an ICANN "last resort" auction (with net proceeds going to ICANN) unlike the "private and secret auctions" also allowed under ICANN rules, we know a lot more. Below is the bidding round information for .APP. Google (Charleston Road Registry) was apparently ready to go as high as $30 million ($US), but under the rules, as a second bid auction, won the the auction for $25,001,000. So did Google overpay as it may seem looking at the chart first above? No, in Domain Mondo's opinion, Google got a bargain! It all starts with "need, want, and desire" and Google had all three plus the cash to burn. Perhaps that's why Amazon and the others folded--they knew Google could outbid anyone else in the auction. And unlike private auctions, there was no incentive for low bidders to try and bid the price up so the "losers" could pocket the net proceeds. This is a real win for Google, for mobile and web app developers and startups, and for ICANN's beleaguered new gTLDs program.

Congratulations Google!

Bidding Round Information from .APP Auction Won by Google's Charleston Road Registry (source: icann.org)

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