The .airbus Dot
Brand
Airbus
S.A.S. is one of the world's leading aircraft manufacturers and a leader
in the aerospace and defence industries. It has 55,000 employees around
the world.
Airbus
currently owns close to 700 domains like airbus.com, airbus.aero, airbus.cn
and airbus.de.
The .airbus
TLD will be operated as a restricted registry to promote its authenticity
and brand identity. Airbus plans to use second level domains to promote
its products and communications, so domains like Helicopters.airbus
for example are likely to be launched and communicated. Airbus emphasises
the trust that will ensue from use of its own dot brand, since, being
the sole registrant of .airbus domains, deceptive or illegal websites
can be prevented in the name space.
Over time,
consumers will come to recognise the validity and authenticity of all
.airbus websites.
THE MISSION
AND PURPOSE OF THE NEW RESTRICTED .AIRBUS gTLD IS TO BENEFIT INTERNET
USERS BY ENSURING INCREASED TRUST AND CONFIDENCE THROUGH THE ELIMINATION
OF USER CONFUSION AND ASSURANCE OF BRAND AUTHENTICITY...
... .airbus
will be used by Airbus to provide product information, services and
resources to consumers in a way that promotes reassurance, trust,
convenience, visibility and utility. The .airbus gTLD will provide
an authoritative internet space for Airbus, its affiliates and partners
that are associated with the brand.
Airbus
plans to launch around 100 .airbus sites in the first year, and "the
number of registrations is likely to increase up to 450 domain names
as Airbus develops and implements new services and marketing campaigns."
The company
points out the registration limitations and problems of the current
domain name system. Possessing its own dot brand will enable Airbus
to circumvent this growing problem.
It is
often difficult to register a domain name in existing domain space
due to unavailability of the desired name, as such limiting the organisations
visibility in some markets. This problem is amplified for organisations
such as Airbus who work across many different jurisdictions and geographical
markets. Even when the desired domain name is available, it may come
with a high price tag associated with a purchase of such desired name
from a third party.
Airbus
plans to use innovative marketing to promote its products & services
and build its brand reputation. This strategy will include geographic
names when permissable and IDNs in multiple languages. Over time, this
communication will encourage web users to visit the new, official, .airbus
sites.
The proposed
new gTLD will be publicised by a media plan to promote recognition
of the new gTLD within the internet community to be a trusted site
and as a sign of authenticity.
During the initial stage of the operation of the proposed new gTLD,
it is anticipated that internet users will be re-directed to current
websites.
Airbus
believes that its proposed brand TLD will facilitate a higher level
of trust and implied authenticity for visitors to the new company websites,
without affecting convenient and efficient navigation and interaction.
By being a closed brand registry under sole ownership, the .airbus string
will counter various security and privacy issues.
...criminal
activities over the internet including data breach, hacking and phishing
activities have also become more sophisticated resulting in loss of
consumer confidence beyond mere monetary harm.
 Geographic
Dot Brands
Airbus
SAS will comply with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement by initially
reserving from registration certain specified country and territory
names within .airbus domains.
However,
the company points out that geographic identifiers can benefit consumers
by providing simple and intuitive addresses for Airbus content. This
will be targeted, relevant, local content.
Further,
the Applicant draws a distinction between a brand domain applicant such
as .airbus and a generic TLD applicant like .health*. The public interest
v. public harm aspects of each category is after all quite different.
A domain
like USA.airbus, since every similar domain is authenticated by Airbus
SAS, would be in the public interest.
A domain
like USA.health (in an open registry model) could potentially be against
the public interest since it could be misleading and operated by a fraudulent
operator.
* Example
by this website, not Airbus.
The application
proposes several possible methods in which Airbus may apply to various
governments, ICANN and the GAC to be able to use country domains. The
company has an interest in using some two-character label or country
& territory terms at its discretion.
...AIRBUS
SAS assumes that several of the recommendations directed towards new
registry operators, in general, are less applicable in the case of
Single-Registrant operational models such as .airbus than in a completely
open Registry model.
Airbus
makes it clear that it wishes to respect any sovereign government's
interest in any geographical domain. The Applicant also states: "AIRBUS
SAS will not use geographic names until ICANN has approved such use."
Generally,
it is extremely unlikely that AIRBUS SAS's tightly controlled use
of any cc.airbus or countryname.airbus domain name could be confusing
or detrimental to users, or otherwise offensive to any country. Nor
is it likely to be detrimental to the operator of a country code top
level domain.
NOTE: cc
= country code
Possible .airbus
Brand Domains
Aircraft.airbus
Satellite.airbus
Aerospace.airbus
Helicopters.airbus
Jobs.airbus
SpareParts.airbus
Engineering.airbus
Military.airbus
Awards.airbus
Notes
Brand
names mentioned on this site are registered trademarks or trademarks
of their respective corporations. This site claims no association
with or endorsement by any of these corporations and their marks are
mentioned only to illustrate opinion presented in the public interest.
All quotations
on this page are from the respective companies' official ICANN brand
TLD applications unless otherwise stated.
Many possible
theoretical dot brands are mentioned (in English). There are also countless
possibilities in other languages. This has significant potential value
for international navigation.
This site
is focused on reporting the strategic impact of the brand domains on
internet communication, competition and commerce, and some comment is
speculative.
It is not
a comprehensive overview of what some of the world's largest corporations
have chosen to reveal about their plans for the implementation of their
proprietary domain strings.
ICANN is
particularly concerned with the technical, financial, security and legal
issues associated with the new TLDs. These issues are beyond the scope
of this website.
For a comprehensive
overview of the brand domains and their impact on the web, refer to
ICANN's website and the individual applications (large parts of which
are publicly published).
If you
have a particular interest in an individual company, the public aspects
of their applications are available for download via these ICANN links:
You can also search a complete list of applicants there.
ICANN
new gTLD applications
ICANN
official website
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