[INSTRUCTION: A Registry Operator's Proposal is to be submitted as part of every new TLD application. In the case of applications for unsponsored TLDs, the registry operator will be the applicant and should prepare and submit the proposal as part of the application. In the case of applications for sponsored TLDs, the sponsoring organization (or, where the sponsoring organization has not yet been formed, organization(s) or person(s) proposing to form the sponsoring organization) will be the applicant. The sponsoring organization should select the proposed registry operator, have it prepare the Registry Operator's Proposal, and submit it as part of the application.

Please place the legend "CONFIDENTIAL" on any part of your description that you have listed in item F3.1 of your Statement of Requested Confidential Treatment of Materials Submitted.

The Registry Operator's Proposal should be separately bound (if more than one volume, please sequentially number them) and labeled: "Registry Operator's Proposal." and must cover all topics described below. This page, signed on behalf of the registry operator, should be included at the front of the Registry Operator's Proposal.]

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

D1 Introduction

The first section of the registry operator's proposal (after the signed copy of this page) should be a listing of the following information about the registry operator. Please key your responses to the designators (D1, D2, D3, etc.) below.

D2 Registry operator details

The full legal name, principal address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the registry operator.

The Global Name Registry, Limited

10 Fenchurch Avenue,

LONDON

EC3M 5BN

Tel: +47 (0)20 7663 5600

Fax: +47 (0)20 7663 5700

Email: Icann@theglobalname.org

D3 Other business locations

The addresses and telephone and fax numbers of all other business locations of the registry operator.

The registry operator does not have any other business location than listed under D2.

D4 Type of business entity

The registry operator's type of business entity (e.g., corporation, partnership, etc.) And law (e.g., Denmark) under which it is organized.

The Global Name Registry, Ltd. is a limited liability company, incorporated under the laws of England and Wales with the company number 04076112 at the UK Companies House.

D5 URL of Registry operator’s principle world wide web site

The Global Name Registry Ltd, URL is www.theglobalname.org.

D6 Dun and Bradstreet D-U-N-S number (if any) of registry operator

The Global Name Registry, Ltd. does not have a Dun & Bradstreet D-U-N-S number.

D7 Number of employees

The Global Name Registry, Ltd. does not yet have any employees. However senior managers from Nameplanet.com have been seconded to The Global Name Registry, both for the preparation of this plan, and for permanent placement into GNR on successful delegation. The number currently seconded is equal to 3.

D8 Registry operator’s total revenue (in US dollars) in the last fiscal year.

The company will be set up for the purpose of running the TLD, so no operations currently exist.

D9 Details of Registry operators owner, managers

Full names and positions of (i) all directors, (ii) all officers, (iii) all relevant managers, and (iv) any persons or entities owning five percent or more of registry operator.

Hakon Haugnes and Lars Odin Mellemseter are the initial directors of The Global Name Registry, Ltd. The latter director is CEO in Nameplanet.com, Ltd. The former director is Vice President in the same company.

The Global Name Registry as yet is not operational, although, it is proposed that the following senior managers from Nameplanet.com are permanently transferred as Officers: Hakon Haughes (VP Business Development), Geir Rasmussen (Chief Technical Officer), & Dominic Chambers (Sales & Marketing VP). The non-executive directors will be Michael Dillon and Julie Meyers.

The Global Name Registry, Ltd. does not yet have any managers.

The registry operator is fully owned (100 %) by Nameplanet.com, Ltd., a limited liability company, registered in England and Wales with the company number 03895286 and with 10 Fenchurch Avenue, LONDON, EC3M 5BN, as the registered business address

D10 Contact for information

Name, telephone and fax number, and e-mail address of person to contact for additional information regarding this proposal. If there are multiple people, please list all their names, telephone and fax numbers, and email addresses and describe the areas as to which each should be contacted.

The contact point for all requests for additional information regarding this proposal from ICANN should be directed to Hakon Haugnes, as per his contact details below:

Email: Hakon.Haugnes@theglobalname.org

The contact point for all requests for additional information regarding this proposal should be directed in the first instance to questions@theglobalname.org

D11 Subcontractors details

The full legal name, principal address, telephone and fax numbers, email address, and Dun & Bradstreet D-U-N-S number (if any) of all subcontractors identified in item D15.3 below.

IBM United Kingdom limited

PO Box 41, North Harbour

Portsmouth

Hampshire, PO6 3AU

Tel.: +44 02392 561000

Fax: +44 02392 388914

Email: david_white@uk.ibm.com. Tel.: +44(0)-7710-031042.

DUNS: Dunn & Bradstreet No.: 210151718

SourceFile

2201 Broadway, Suite 703,

Oakland, California 94612,

Tel: +1 510-419-3888

Fax: +1 510-419-3875

National tax number:943294304

Email: escrow@sourcefile.com

II. BUSINESS CAPABILITIES AND PLAN

D12 Instructions for Business Capabilities and plan

D13.1 Registry Operator’s Capabilities

Detailed description of the registry operator's capabilities. This should describe general capabilities and activities. This description also offers the registry operator an opportunity to demonstrate the extent of its business and managerial expertise in activities relevant to the operation of the proposed registry. The following items should, at a bare minimum, be covered:

D13.1.1 Company Information

Date of formation, legal status, primary location, size of staff, formal alliances, references, corporate or other structure, ownership structure

The Global Name Registry is being established as the operational company to apply and run a new TLD, .NAME. This company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nameplanet.com Ltd. The following sections, to D13.1.4 refer to the parent company Nameplanet.com Ltd:

NamePlanet.com Ltd was formed in December 1999, and is a private limited company registered both in Norway & the United Kingdom. The Head Office is in London; Norway acts as a branch office. Nameplanet.com also has representive offices in Germany (Frankfurt) & Sweden (Stockholm). The primary location is London, although the servers are located in Oslo.

The company currently has 35 employees, 26 in London, 9 in Oslo

The company has a close technical relationship with IBM and UUNET, which provide hardware and hosting facilities

Nameplanet.com Ltd is a privately owned company, with the shares almost evenly between investors and founders or employees. The actual split is shown below:

WITHDRAWN BY APPLICANT

D13.1.2 Current Business Operations

Core capabilities, services offered, products offered, duration of provision of services and products.

NamePlanet.com became fully operational in February 2000, and since then has experienced exceptional growth, with over 650,000 users now registered to the service around the World.

The Nameplanet.com vision is to enable as many people as possible with the same last to share a domain name. Nameplanet.com effectively buys 'cyber real estate' in the form of domain names and then build virtual skyscrapers renting out the floors to individuals in cyberspace. Nameplanet.com aims to build a web-based personal communications service built around a community of individuals with the unique benefit of having their own name as their Internet address.

Nameplanet.com is a "full service" company with capabilities in the following key areas:

Marketing

Although Nameplanet.com commenced operations in Norway, it has since relocated to London and developed an international marketing capability. Marketing is currently focused on the four key markets: Norway, Sweden, UK and Germany. PR is the primary channel being used to generate awareness and consumer understanding of what Nameplanet.com offers, PR via an experienced PR manager is managed through one the world's largest consultancies, Burson Marsteller.

In addition to PR, Nameplanet.com has made extensive use of affiliate programmes in the USA and Europe to cost effectively attract new users to the site. Nameplanet.com currently has total base of 500 affiliates delivering 25,000 new users per month.

The targeted use of banner campaigns has been used to raise awareness, improve image, and recruit users. These campaigns are constantly monitored, and have been used in most European countries.

Nameplanet.com has a clear identity that uses an iconic "thumb print" device that is intended to communicate that Nameplanet.com will allow consumers to have their personal ID on the web. Nameplanet.com has used both qualitative and quantitative research surveys to improve consumer insight within the company, in order to develop services that match the needs of our consumers. In addition we have a very active support service that handles incoming suggestions from users.

In summary the marketing efforts of Nameplanet.com have in a very short space of time developed a brand that is the 3rd best known web mail provider in Norway (Source: Nettavisen). It has also managed to attract 650,000 users with a relatively small marketing budget, by creative use of PR and a valuable viral effect that drives forward the recruitment of new users.

Sales

Nameplanet.com uses both a direct sales force, two banner networks, and a dynamic opt-in email partner to maximise revenues from some 18 million page impressions a month.

The direct sales force of 6 is based out of Oslo, managed by a highly experienced sales manger (from the Norwegian telecom operator, Telenor). The company is currently developing direct sales in the 3 Scandinavian markets, and relying on banner networks for the rest of the world.

Content including Product & Service provision

Nameplanet.com has a very active product development department that is following a programme of continually improving the Nameplanet.com offer.

Existing Products and Services

Web Mail (introduced February 2000)

The primary offering is a web-mail service. This offers consumers a comprehensive free email service that can be accessed anywhere in the world from the WWW. The service includes address book, 5mb disk space, folders, sender block option and other features.

Personal Web Address (introduced September 2000)

Nameplanet.com is offering the world’s first free personal web address service, this allows users to convert their current Nameplanet.com email address (e.g. David@Wellings.com) to a web address www.David.Wellings.com. An opportunity is also given for users to click to partner sites where web home pages can be created and hosted.

WAP Service (introduced May 2000)

Users can access their web mail by using their WAP mobile phone. This allows users to send as well as receive messages, and is free to users, (although normal phone charges apply).

E Cards (introduced September 2000)

Users can also send e cards, this allows them to send humorous or occasion based cards to friends and family from their Nameplanet.com email.

Future Services (October-November 2000)

Nameplanet.com intends to introduce a number of new features in the near futures, including, POP 3 access and additional storage (paid for), voice mail, and free IP calls to North America, instant messaging and chat.

Finance & Administration

Nameplanet.com has a full service financial and accounting department, providing financial and management accounts for both operational territories (Norway & UK). There is also an arrangement in place with Worldpay.com to accept consumer payment via credit cards for premium services. In addition Nameplanet.com have a legal counsel providing in-house advice, and executing commercial contracts with suppliers, partners, and customers.

Domains

Nameplanet.com has an unrivalled knowledge and capability with domain management and use.

The company has the world’s largest number of personal domains and has developed a bespoke database management system to ensure it has sufficient coverage of names amongst the population.

Technical

Nameplanet.com:

Has successfully acquired 700,000 users after 8 months of operations, who are all using a personal domain name to solve a web-mail and web-page solution which has fully developed and operated in-house;

Is currently operating a 2.3 Terabyte ESS backend system, and a high availability active-active failover front-end system designed to scale to millions of users;

Encrypts private information in real-time;

Operates currently a system handling more than 90 transactions per second;

Has extensive experience with backup, which is taken daily and transported offsite;

Has extensive experience with running DNS, since the company is handling the full DNS service for the personal domains of all 700,000 users;

Has entered into a strategic partnership with IBM and minimised variations in equipment used;

Has ensured 99.85% uptime since the service was launched February 1.

D13.1.3 Past Business Operations and Entity History

History, date of formation, legal status, type of entity, initial services, duration of provision of services and products.

As stated in D13.1.2 Nameplanet.com was established in December 1999 as a new venture providing personal domain web mail. No previous business operations existed.

D13.1.4 Registry, Database, Internet Related Experience And Activities

Registry and DNS experience

Nameplanet.com has, as its core proposition to end users, the free usage of a domain name that corresponds to the user's personal name for email and web page purposes. To be able to offer this service, Nameplanet.com has acquired extensive statistics about the most common last names in the world, for each of the countries in which the service is launched. A large number of domain names identical to the most common last names have then been purchased on different TLDs to be shared among different users, each using it for free. The result is that domain names are being shared among people with equal interests, i.e. Ken Williams and Sven Williams can both use the domain name Williams for their personal purpose, instead of it being held by one user only.

To keep track of domain names covering the last names of over 210 million people in the US alone, and the DNS functionality of hundreds of thousands of domain names, Nameplanet.com has developed a custom database for administering the DNS servers, renewals, MX records etc. This database makes Nameplanet.com confident that all possible actions are taken to ensure a stable operation of the domain names that the end users rely on. Large efforts have been deployed to ensure that all DNS updates, maintenance and transfers of data to DNS servers are done securely and without loss of function.

Nameplanet.com has through the operations in the DNS space secured knowledge and contacts within the arena, both through commercial relationships with several registrars, ccTLD managers, and ICANN-ccTLD relationships. Participation in the ICANN Board meetings have also given insight into the policies and operations of the DNS community.

Internet experience, database operations, IP rights and data protection

The users of Nameplanet.com register on-line and immediately get assigned an address of the type firstname@lastname.com and a web page www.firstname.lastname.com, or other TLDs where the .COM version has not been available. Nameplanet.com has developed fully in-house a custom object-oriented database for the web mail users, and has ensured 99.9% uptime since launch in February 2000. This custom database currently runs with more than 70 transactions per second, and can do tens of thousands of email account and web page account registrations per day. The high-performance web-servers and storage solutions scale to millions of users, and is able to handle increasing data volumes.

By currently operating a web mail solution for 700,000 people, Nameplanet.com has taken extreme precautions in ensuring user privacy, both technically and legally, in terms of storage, encryption, backup, protection and IP rights in various jurisdictions.

Nameplanet.com has recent experience of managing intellectual property rights with regards to domain names, dealing with conflicts that have arisen between people and businesses with the same last name domain name. This expertise applies to the UDRP as well as national IP law of the US and EU countries.

D13.1.5 The Mission Of The Global Name Registry

VIsion

The need for a global personal naming solution transcends the barriers of nation and language. Our enduring commitment to promote individuality and the right to self-expression will create the opportunity for all people in the digital society to own their own names independent of commercial connotations.

What This Means

For some hundreds of millions of people access to computers and the Internet has brought a previously unimaginable enlargement of perspective. In these countries the number online will inexorably grow, certainly passing the 350 million mark before the end of the 2000, and likely to reach 750 million by 2003.

As the people of world come on line - so the demand for domain names will also grow-from 28 million today to over 300 million by the end of 2003 (Source: Network Solutions Predictions - www.dotcom.com).

But the Global Name Registry is about more than allowing an individual his or her own digital identity. It is ultimately about what, with that identity, an individual can achieve.

We believe that individuals everywhere should have the opportunity to participate in the digital society and that a prerequisite to digital citizenship is a fair personal naming solution that puts the individual in control of how he or she is represented and contacted.

Our approach to achieving these ambitious goals is inherently rooted in another aspect of the culture of cyberland: its essentially decentralized spirit. Taking the evolution of the Net and the Web as models, the Global Name Registry sees its role as catalysing the development of a web of initiatives. We imagine that most of these will be local initiatives, though some will be global; many will be grassroots actions, though some may be actions by governments or international organizations.

Functions

What the Global Name Registry can do to help will be even more varied. Our primary objectives will be in three key areas:

To provide a top level domain that is reserved for the exclusive use of individuals not commercial organisations;

To allow only the 3rd level domain to be registered, so allowing a much better control and space allocation of the domain space;

To provide services to ICAAN and the registrars which enable them to sell .NAME;

To encourage competition amongst registrars and resellers to drive acceptance of .NAME in their marketplace.

On a less material level, the Global Name Registry will serve to distribute ideas, to facilitate the creation of networks and, will act intellectually as a spearhead of new ideas honed to protect and promote the creative use of Personal Domain Space.

D13.1.6 Management

Qualifications and experience of financial and business officers and other relevant employees. Please address/include past experience, resumes, references, biographies.

The Global Names Registry (GNR) currently has three employees seconded to it: Hakon Haugnes, Georg Panzer, and Dominic Chambers. In addition two further employees: Ken Trotter and Geir Rasmussen have been identified as the initial officers of GNR.

The recruitment plan in section D13.2.8 describes how additional human resources will be acquired through recruiting. GNR will, from the moment of delegation, extract key competences from the mother company. In addition it will recruit new employees and management and give them proper training to ensure safe and stable operations of the Registry.

The management that is already for the initial phase is:

GNR management CV’s

Dominic Chambers		VP Sales and Marketing
Born	1965	London
Work	2000	Nameplanet.com, Global Head of Sales & Marketing
	1999-2000	Warner Home Video (UK & Ireland), Marketing Director reporting to Managing Director
	1988-1998	Seagram: Marketing Director. Overall responsibility for Seagram's malt portfolio with particular focus in North America
Education	1993	Kingston University, MBA (Part One)
	1984-1988	University of Lancaster, BSc (Hons) 2:1 in Management Science
Languages		English

Geir Rasmussen

CTO

Geir Rasmussen is one of the co-founders of Nameplanet.com and has been CTO for Nameplanet.com since launch of its services. Geir has successfully managed the in-house development of the system which today serves 700,000 users and has had 99.86% uptime since it was first opened for traffic, including external backbone downtime.

Being overall responsible for the design, stability and security of the system, Geir has ensured that Nameplanet.com now has a system that both in hardware and software is scalable to millions of users. Geir will be dedicated to the task of ensuring a fully stable and secure system for registrations and will recruit the appropriate people to develop and maintain the necessary environment and operational conditions for the system.

Ken Trotter		Financial Controller
Born	1957	Britain
Work	2000	Nameplanet.Com Limited, Financial Controller
	1999 -00	Nexpress Solutions Limited, Business Director
	1999 - 00	Alfred McAlpine Plant Limited, Finance Manager
	1993 - 97	Virgin Aerostations / Virgin Airship & Balloon Co
	1990 - 93	The Charndown Company Limited, Finance Director
	1986 - 90	GEC Traffic Automation Limited, Finance Director
	1982 - 85	Cyfas Systems Limited, Financial Controller
	1978 - 82	DOW Chemical Company Limited, UK Management Accountant
	1973 - 77	TI Churchill Limited, Trainee Accountant
Qualifications		ACMA

Hakon Haugnes		VP Business Development
Born	1975	Norway
Work	1999-2000	Cofounder of Nameplanet.com, successfully built the whole domain name infrastructure on which Nameplanet.com is operating, including commercial relationships, financing and technical system design. Project Manager for the new TLD .name ICANN application.
	1999	The Norwegian Defence HQ, re-evaluating the Norwegian defence IT-project portfolio and reworking the IT-strategy in Project "Focus".
	1998	Alcatel Telecom Norway, Business developement on WAP, Screenphone and mobile Internet. Wrote a final thesis in Engineering studies on the porting of CTI services and Internet synergies on to mobile terminals. Obtained top ranking A.
Education	1996-1998	3rd to 5th year of Institute for Cybernetics, Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTNU). Specialisation in technology management and technology business administration. Graduated with top ranking, average 1.7/1.
	1994-1996	Classes Préparatoires at INSA, France. This was a preparation course. Graduated among top 2%.
Languages		French (fluent), English (fluent), Norwegian (fluent), German (reading skills), Spanish (conversational skills)

Georg Panzer		Legal Counsel
Born	1970	Norway
Work	2000	General counsel, Nameplanet.com Ltd., London
	1997-2000	Attorney at Advokatfirmaet Steenstrup Stordrange DA, Oslo. Lead counsel in several Norwegian litigations, involving ISP and competition Law.
Education	1997	Law degree from the University of Oslo. Cand.jur (1st class). Stays at the Universities of Amsterdam, Cambridge, and Vienna
	1999	Lecturer in law at the Norwegian Bar Association and the Norwegian Patent and Trademark Office and other institutions.
Languages		German (fluent), English (fluent), Norwegian (fluent)

Michael Dillon		Non-Executive Director
Internet user since 1991 and a participant in the Internet Service Provider industry since 1994, Michael Dillon’s knowledge of Internet infrastructure, operations and Internet networking technology including security is unusually comprehensive. For two years, from mid-1997 through mid 1999, he was Senior Contributing Columnist for Internet world magazine writing a weekly column as their Internet infrastructure expert. He has also written for Boardwatch and other publications. In the recent years he has worked with many companies including Global Telesystems Ltd, ISP Ltd, Prince Rupert Citytel Internet, Priori Networks Inc, and Okanagan Internet Junction.

Julie Meyer

Non-Executive Director

Julie Meyers is Chief Marketing Officer and Head of International Affairs at FirstTuesday.Com.

Julie launched First Tuesday in 17 cities on September 7th 1999, and has managed the growth to 80+ cities worldwide with a UK staff of 40. She was an Assistant Director at NewMedia Investors (1998/9), where she assisted lastminute.com, WGSN.com and ARCCores in raising expansion and development capital. She is still on the Advisory Board of NewMedia Investors and additionally, Lago Partners, BrightStation, Holtron, iWorldGroup and Global Start-up. Previously, Meyer worked with Andy Cunningham, Cunningham.com where she managed the Motorola PC Marketing Communication program in 1995 and 1996. Julie consulted to Hewlett Packard, 3Com, the OECD and other technology companies in Paris from 1998 to 1993. She has an INSEAD MBA (Dec'97) and a BA and Honors degree from Valparaiso University (1988):

Ernst & Young London Entrepreneur of the Year Award - June 2000. Received "Supporter of Entrepreneurship" in recognition of her ingenuity in bringing internet entrepreneurs and investors together through a series of networking events.

Management Today - April 2000. Britain's Most Powerful Women. Julie Meyer, straight into the list for at No.17. "US-born INSEAD graduate Meyer has become a leading voice of e-business in Britain since founding First Tuesday, bringing investors and e-trepreneurs together." Silicon.com Agenda Setters 2000 - Voted number 30 in a list of Top 50 Industry Agenda setters

Forbes magazine - 30 Dec'99. Highlighted as one of eight people in the technology industry to watch as a trailblazer in 2000. Julie Meyer, "The co-founder of First Tuesday is bringing the spirit of American venture capitalism to Europe's new breed of Internet startups."

D13.1.7 Staff

Current staff size, demonstrated ability to expand employee base, hiring policy, employee training, space for additional staff.

(This section is also elaborated upon in point D13.2.8)

The Global Name Registry LTD was established for the purpose of operating a potential new top-level domain as delegated by ICANN. GNR will be fully supported in the initial period by the parent company Nameplanet.com Ltd. Due to being a new company entirely dedicated to its purpose, the Registry can become independent of other entities and optimally operate the new top-level domain and ensure a competitive regime for registrations.

The Global Name Registry currently has three seconded employees from Nameplanet.com Ltd in-place, with others identified should the application go forward.(See D13.1.6.)

The parent company, Nameplanet.com, has in 8 months successfully expanded to 35 employees and has divided into two offices in two countries. At the same time, the company has ensured a stable and secure service for its userbase, which has been growing at 5% a week, reaching 700,000 after eight months of operation. Throughout this growth, the company has successfully managed to secure and recruit key personnel in technical, marketing, finance and management areas.

Employees and management not taken from Nameplanet.com will be recruited by recruitment agencies. The hiring policy and recruitment is described in detail in D13.2.8.

The company will set aside 2% of turnover for staff training and will comply with the most recent employment legislation in the E.U.

Space for additional staff

Provision has been made within the Nameplanet.com offices to accommodate all the initial staff of GNR. The office space, in central London, is an attractive location for new employees. The office space available to GNR will be scalable and allow expansion for both companies.

Hiring Policy

GNR will have a comprehensive HR policy, in step with the most recent EU legislation.

GNR will make use of professional recruitment agencies. The agencies will receive a written brief, and a set procedure will be set up in-house to ensure that there is consistency in evaluation;

GNR will operate an equal opportunities hiring policy in line with current US and EU legislation;

All new employees will be offered share options in the new organization.

Employee training

The company will have a progressive policy towards staff training. It will dedicate 2% of revenue for the purpose of individual and team training;

A senior employee in Sales and Marketing will be designated as a champion for staff training.

D13.1.8 Commercial General Liability Insurance

Address/include amount of insurance policy, provider of policy, plans for obtaining additional insurance.

Insurance will be taken out covering the following:

Negligence or breach of contractual duty to use reasonable care and skill;

Negligent misstatement or misrepresentation;

Breach of copyright or intellectual property rights;

Defamation;

Breach of confidentiality;

Dishonesty and malice of partners, directors or employees;

The costs and expenses of investigating, settling and defending a claim;

Web site damages;

Damage to computer network ;

Director and officer liability against personal liability.

We have a quote on the above from AIG Europe (UK) Ltd and Hiscox Insurance Company Ltd through our insurance broker:

Lark Insurance Group

Wigham House

Wakering Road, Barking

Essex, IG11 8PJ

D13.2 Business Plan

Business plan for the proposed registry operations. This section should present a comprehensive business plan for the proposed registry operations. In addition to providing basic information concerning the viability of the proposed operations, this section offers the registry operator an opportunity to demonstrate that it has carefully analysed the financial and operations aspects of the proposal.

D13.2.1 Services To Be Provided

(See E9 for Policies in respect to Services to be Provided)

New registrations

The Registry will enter new domain names into the database on request from any Registrar. The registrations will be on a first-come, first-served basis, and will in case of high, simultaneous demand be served in a round-robin order, with queuing allowed for each Registrar.

The Registrar will hold a prepaid account with the Registry that will be debited monthly with applicable fees for processed registrations. The application software and database management systems will not accept registrations from a Registrar for whom pre-paid amounts have been exceeded. The system is designed to avoid unpaid registrations and cancellations, which would make the DNS unstable and create the potential for unsatisfied users.

Registrations will be on third level only. Any combination of more than one (1) letter, with the exception of the prohibited list (see E5.2) will be accepted as valid. The destination DNS server will be selected by the Registrant.

Registrars will hold all personal information as it relates to the Registrant. The end-user information that will be held is described in E4.1.7. The Registry does not demand such information for the registration process.

New registrations will be inserted into the DNS continuously after which the propagation time will determine when the domain becomes active.

Transfers between Registrars

A registrant is free to change Registrar at any time. The policy in respect to transfers is described in E4.1.8

Accreditation of non-ICANN accredited Registrars

Only ICANN accredited Registrars will be eligible as GNR Registrars.

Registry interface client software

Registrars will be free to use the current Registry-Registrar software as implemented by Network Solutions and the alterations to interface with GNR system will be minimal.

Further, an enhanced software for connection to the GNR Registry will be made available to Registrars free of charge, along with a password, Registrar ID, protocol implementation and API. It is encouraged that the Registrar also uses a Virtual Private Network (VPN) interface encryption card to ensure secure communication between the Registrar and the Registry. There also will be an automated string notification system and a registry search (see E1.4.7 WHOIS).

DNS services

The second level DNS will be operated and controlled by the Registry.

Third level DNS records will point to DNS servers as set by the Registrant.

WHOIS service

The WHOIS service is described in D15.2.8 and in E1.4.7.

Renewals

Initial registration will record an expiration date and time in the database. It is the Registrar's responsibility to notify users of expiration, although reports can be generated by the Registrars at any time to determine expiration dates for any given domain.

Registrars are able to renew a domain in the same mechanism in which they were able to register the name. Renewals will be allowed up to the maximum term as described in E4.

Accounting information

The Registrars will have access to a special page where information about their domains can be extracted. Reports are generated and content is updated daily from the Registry database. The information given is typically number of registrations, listings of registrations, nameservers, billing and account information (remaining credit, billing information to Registrar, contact information, etc.), expiration dates and modification dates of domains.

Registry web

The Registry will have web pages with public, common access. The pages will describe the Registry, give our public statistics, contact information, WHOIS information, etc.

The web page for GNR is www.theglobalname.org

Registry-Registrar interface set-up assistance, if needed

The Registry can assist new, ICANN accredited registrars to set up the Registry interface through consultancy support, installation of software, web integration and testing.

Dispute Resolution

The Registry policy for handling disputes is described in E6.

D13.2.2 Revenue Model

A full description of the revenue model, including rates to be charged for various services.

The revenue model is based on several primary sources:

New registration

Renewal registrations

There are other ancillary revenue sources, which are incidental to the total revenue for the Registry:

Domain transfer fees

Registration fees

Registrar renewal fees

Registry interface set-up assistance

Registry interface client software

Descriptions of the revenue model for each of the services and the rates charged are included in the sections below. For a detailed description of the revenue associated with each of the above items refer to D13.2.12.

D13.2.2.1 NEW REGISTRATION FEES

For each new registration, a fee is charged to the registrant, via the Registrar. The fee for each registration is based on the pricing assumption shown in the chart below. All registration fees are payable annually in advance at the time of registration or renewal. The price varies over time based on the assumed demand for new registrations as detailed in D13.2.5. The prices specified above, are for a one year registration.

These price changes are driven by the rate of new registrations in combination with the rate at which existing registrations are renewed to determine the total number of active registrations held on the Registry. For further details on the assumptions of the rate at which registered domains are renewed, please refer to D13.2.12.2. The price charged to the Registrar can be reduced over time as the cost of operating the Registry is relatively insensitive to the total number of registrations on the Registry. The greater the number of new registrations and subsequent renewals, the lower the price can be driven due to the cost of the Registry being spread over a larger number of registrations. For further details on the costs of the Registry, refer to D13.2.11.

D13.2.2.2 REGISTRATION RENEWAL FEES

At the end of the initial registration period, assumed to be one year, the Registrant will need to renew their registration to continue their right to the domain. It is possible that some Registrars may offer alternative (longer) initial registration periods, although for the purposes of the revenue model, all registrations are assumed to be for one year, as this would provide a more conservative maximum cash requirement assumption.

The renewal price will be the price then prevailing as published by the Registry, assumed to be based on the pricing structure shown below, subject to the assumptions on demand and registration renewals. The renewal fee is payable annually in advance of the original registration.

The pricing forecast

D13.2.2.3 DOMAIN TRANSFER CHARGES

The need to provide a service for registrants to transfer their registration from one Registrar to another, or from themselves as owner to another owner is a service that any Registry would be required to provide. A fixed fee of USD $5 is made for this service to update the Registry database, which is charged to the Registrar. For details of the revenue this generates, refer to D13.2.12.

D13.2.2.4 REGISTRAR REGISTRATION FEE

The primary channel to market is through the Registrar. Therefore, it is crucial that they are able to become a Registrar for the Registry with the minimum of barriers (on the assumption that they do meet the necessary assessment criteria for approval).

To meet this objective, for ICANN approved Registrars, no fee will be charged by the Registry. This also assumes that they will not require any support to implement the Registry-Registrar interface, nor elect to implement the revised communication protocol being developed by GNR.

If Registrars are subject to registration fees, the cost of accessing a number of TLD's would quickly become prohibitive for many.

D13.2.2.5 REGISTRAR RENEWAL FEE

For the purposes of determining the operational effectiveness of GNR, it has been assumed that no revenue would be generated from the Registrars for the total term of the financial projections. This includes both initial registration charges and subsequent renewal fees.

D13.2.2.6 ANCILLARY FEES

For the purposes of financial projections, GNR has assumed nil revenue from ancillary fees. However, it is recognised that some Registrars will require support in establishing their Registry-Registrar interface systems, and that it would be inappropriate for GNR to subsidise these Registrars at the expense of others. Therefore a fee will be charged at cost, but it is not anticipated that this would in any way either contribute to earnings or revenue to any significant level.

Likewise, those Registrars wishing to implement GNR's interface software would be expected to make a contribution to the cost of providing the software, probably in the region of USD $5,000 per annum. However, as this is also never intended to represent anything more than a cost recovery process, this has been assumed for financial planning purposes to have nil contribution.

D13.2.3 Market Definitions

D13.2.3.1 MARKET OVERVIEW

The Internet domains market has seen an extraordinary rise over the last two years, growing at 64% a quarter on average (Source: Network Solutions). To many consumers the words "dot com" are seen as the definitive Internet tagline, with aspirational connotations to the boom years at the turn of the 21st Century in the United States.

As the Internet continues to grow and consumer experience increases, understanding of domains, the online real estate, will improve. In the USA, with over 50% (source: NUA) of the population online, only about 1% (source: Network Solutions) of people have a personal domain, and even fewer have a personal or family home page. Domestic Internet usage is set torapidly increase over the coming months. This phenomenon is driven both by a better commercial provision of domain names since the end of Network Solutions' monopoly as a registrar, and consumers wanting to have an identity on the web. The widespread use of individual home pages has the potential to enhance communication by providing a platform for a vast range of consumer applications.

It is considered that the introduction of a global personal TLD will provide many ISPs with a global brand to which consumer services can be attached. Furthermore, there will be more space to provide users with a good quality and memorable address. These factors will catalyse the rate at which domestic consumers register personal domain names.

For the purpose of this document, "the market" is considered to be the total number of domain names sold for personal use. This section will analyse the competitive scenario in that market; then it will investigate the geographical, demographic and behavioural dimensions of Internet usage; finally, a segmentation hypothesis will be made on the most attractive target consumers wishing to buy a personal domain.

D13.2.3.2 COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT

Between TLDs

The Division of registrations between the gTLDs (Source:InterNIC)

At present, nearly 60% of all domain names registered are on .COM. Country-specific TLDs are popular in those areas, outside North America, where online populations are large. However, Network Solutions estimate that by the end of 2002 more than half of all new domain name registrations will take place outside the USA. It is assumed that registration on .NAME will follow this trend of internationalisation.

By increasing the number of global TLDs, ICANN is giving consumers a greater opportunity to register a personal domain name.

Between Business and Personal use

It is becoming easier for consumers to register a domain name because:

The distribution has become much wider due to the increase in the number of registrars and subsequent growth in the number of affiliate sites;

The cost to the consumer of domain names continues to fall;

The service proposition being offered to consumers is more sophisticated as packages are bundled together which allow almost effortless registration, design and management of personal websites;

Consumer knowledge about the opportunities and advantages of having a personal domain are increasing.

Network Solutions predict a significant growth in the proportion of personal registrations as a percentage of total registrations. This is substantiated by market research which indicates that 67% (Source: Network Solutions) of people surveyed plan to register a personal address in the coming year.

Proportion of personal domains registered on the Internet. (Source: Network Solutions.)

Between Registrars

The number of registrars has grown quickly from 1 in 1999 to 119 in 2000, as the market has evolved. We believe this number will grow as the demand for domains in countries such as Italy, Japan and France increases.

The Global Name Registry believes that a wide number of registrars with expertise in the local markets in where they are active will lead to competition that will be healthy for the domain name industry. Competition will ensure that the newest services and applications are brought to consumers at the best price, which will encourage a rapid adoption of personal domain names.

The distribution of Registrars across the ten largest Internet populations. (Source: ICANN)

Between communication and naming platforms (e.g. telephone numbers or postcodes)

As more and more personal business is transacted online, it seems likely that an individual's personal "address" and identity on the web will become increasingly important. Already personal banking and insurance services are widely managed over the web, and as the sophistication of these services develops, people will need a more advanced interaction platform than a simple e-mail address. It is not inconceivable that personal business in the future might be completely transacted through the medium of an individual's website. Furthermore, the address of this site will be an important personal identifier; just as someone's telephone number is today.

Secondly, the convergence of communications media to IP channels suggests that using an individual's web address might be the most convenient way to get in touch or to leave a message in the future.

D13.2.3.3 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND SEGMENTATION

Geographical and Linguistic opportunities

There are nearly more people online in the United States than in the rest of the world put together, but rapid Internet adoption since the millennium in populous countries such as China, Japan and Germany suggests that this will not be the case for very much longer.

The rate at which people have come on line in the USA (Source: NUA)

Online penetration is an indicator of the level of development of Internet usage in the ten largest online markets. It is clear that there is still a lot of catching up to be done in Western Europe and East Asia to reach the level of Internet sophistication that can be seen in North America and Australia.

Percentage of total population online (Source: NUA )

Whilst it is dangerous to make assumptions about national culture, the fact that nearly 70% of all .COM registrations have been made in the United States suggests that other countries have been less able or inclined to register international TLDs.

Using the data presented, a prioritisation model was used to demonstrate which markets would be most attractive for the new TLD at launch. The prioritisation matrix maps channel strength (which is a function of the number of resellers, the linguistic logic to the particular market, and the cultural impact of .NAME) against market attractiveness (which is dependent on market size, market growth, Internet sophistication and the degree of regulation).

Market prioritisation matrix (Source: The Venture Practice)

Analysing the ten countries with the most people online at the moment, the matrix shows that USA, UK and Germany are the most promising markets. Moderately exciting markets are Japan, Canada and China and less exciting ones are France, Italy, Korea and Australia.

Channel Opportunities

In countries where there are a large number of registrars operating, The Global Name Registry will evaluate the channels so that internal resources can be focused at the best opportunities. This is initially likely to represent 10 or so in the USA and 2-3 in each of the other markets.

Our most attractive channel partners will be categorised as follows:

1. Declared interest, 'they get it' and are enthusiastic

2. They have made a strong verbal commitment to support and promote .NAME

3. Large installed base of Personal Domain Names already

4. Already successful - particularly in the customer acquisition

5. Operates in one of the top 10 markets.

Consumer Opportunities

What types of people are registering web sites at the moment?

Gender

Data from Network Solutions suggest that whilst the male/female split online is about 50-50, 77% of consumers currently registering web addresses are male. Clearly there is an opportunity to directly target women to register .NAME domains.

Gender divide of domain registration (Source: Network Solutions)

Age

Registrations by age (Source: Network Solutions)

Currently the majority of consumers registering .COM are in the 25 - 44 age group. It is suggested that younger consumers, who perhaps are more accustomed to the Internet, have been put off registering on .COM because of its intimidating commercial feel and high cost. It is suggested that .NAME will be a more inclusive proposition for younger consumers and that increased competition between registrars will reduce the price of registration.

Income

The price of registration should not be a factor preventing people from owning their own names. Network Solutions data about the characteristics of consumers currently registering personal TLDs demonstrates that the majority of registrants have a household income between $20,000 and $60,000 a year. Consequently, it is likely that .NAME will be positioned to target middle income individuals and families.

Income profile of domain registrants. (Source: Network Solutions)

D13.2.3.4 SUMMARY SEGMENTATION

This basic segmentation suggests that the most promising consumer segment for .NAME might be young non-working people, quite possibly female, from middle income families either in USA or Western Europe.

Geographical dispersion of target markets.

Anecdotal description of the segments

Caricatures of target consumers have been created to illustrate the range of applications of the new TLD that could be valuable to different types of people.

Caricature of target consumers to illustrate potential usage.

D13.2.4 Marketing Plan

D13.2.4.1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The marketing plan is divided into six sections:

1. Value propositions:

This demonstrates the consumer need for a new TLD specifically for personal use. It then discusses the value propositions that GNR is making to consumers, the channels of distribution, and the wider Internet community.

2. Pricing strategy:

GNR proposes a sunrise pricing strategy that manages demand and creates a co-marketing fund to be used by registrars.

3. Channel strategy:

Efficient management and development of channels will be critical to the speed of adoption and the long-term success of .NAME. A channel strategy is presented to demonstrate the effective management of this process.

4. Communications strategy:

The communications strategy, focusing on the development of the .NAME brand and channel marketing. The two fundamental objectives of this process are to stimulate market demand by establishing .NAME in users’ minds and to establish an extensive network of fulfilment.

5. Promotional strategy:

This section proposes the development of a co-marketing fund to be directed at consumers via registrars for local marketing activities during operations.

6. Knowledge Management:

The registry is an organisation based on the gathering and management of a large amount of data. The process by which knowledge is captured and drawn out of this data will be outlined in this section.

D13.2.4.2 VALUE PROPOSITIONS

Consumers Needs

To better understand the value of the new TLD, specifically designed for personal use, a questionnaire was sent out to Nameplanet.comusers across the world. Nameplanet.com has 700,000 users that provide a good sample of global Internet users which give us an indication of consumer sentiment. Nearly twenty thousand responses were completed across four language groups (English, French, German, Norwegian).

The Need for .NAME

49% of those questioned expressed a positive interest in owning a website of the form www.firstname.lastname.NAME. Interestingly, the need for an e-mail address of the type mail@firstname.lastname.NAME was seen as less important with 29% of people expressing a positive interest. The difference between these is numbers is perhaps explained by the scarcity of individual names on website.

62% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they would often use their firstname.lastname website and email address

Consumer Value Propositions

The most compelling proposition to consumers, with 68% of those surveyed agreeing or strongly agreeing, is that the firstname.lastname .NAME format is easy to remember

The proposition that consumers rank second is the personal feel, without commercial implications, of .NAME websites and e-mail addresses. (58% of responses are positive)

56% of respondents value .NAME because it is "for life". 43% like the fact that a firstname.lastname.NAME would allow better management of communications as new forms of technology such as mobile phones or televisions go on the web.

Other value propositions that have been identified are that the new TLD is independent of geography, a "people's champion" promoting a fairer allocation of Internet real-estate.

GNR Domain management

In order to maximise available domain space, GNR will only register on the 3rd level not the 2nd level. This will allow for greater control, and greater availability of names for users (e.g. smith.NAME will not be registered, david.smith.NAME will be).

This innovation in domain management will be used to promote .NAME to both end users, and the registrars (who will benefit because of the increased availability).

Channel Value Propositions

The Global Name Registry recognises that to make .NAME a success on the Internet, it will be essential to offer a service proposition to the distribution channel, the registrars. It is intended to make it extremely easy for them to propagate the delivery of personal domains to consumers. To do this the registrars must have support in the areas of policy, marketing and operations.

The Internet Community and ICANN

It is possible that the advent of .NAME will provide the focal point for businesses to create new applications and services in the personal communications area. The current DNS has no specific domain dedicated to individuals. The development of .NAME will also provide a global brand easily be identified as being for individual uses.

The Nameplanet.com user research indicates that 18% have heard of ICANN's plans to create some new TLDs. This indicates that there is good awareness, & some excitement within the online public about this expansion of the Internet.

D13.2.4.3 PRICING STRATEGY

Background

The Global Name Registry will look to follow the current pricing conventions in the domain market. The new global TLDs to be introduced by ICANN are likely to have far lower levels of consumer awareness than the existing global TLDs, .com, .net and .org. GNR proposes that registrars are charged a development premium to be spent on developing consumer awareness, according to the following guidance:

The management of demand in the Sunrise Period

The launch of new global top-level domains is an unprecedented event in the short life of the Internet. The orderly management of the sunrise period is a key consideration of GNR’s application. In particular, the registry must control the land grab on the most popular names. It is, therefore, proposed that a registrar development premium should be charged on the initial million registrations to manage demand. The initial registrations will be charged at a premium, this will be a sliding scale for the first million registrations, (see detail in promotion strategy) these monies will be used by the registrars to help accelerate the adoption ballistic of .NAME after the Sunrise Period.

Acceleration of adoption

GNR will ensure that there is a publicity and registration adoption campaign prior to launch in order to:

Generate public awareness in .NAME

To ensure a positive and well informed press

Ensure distribution channels are in place

The price of domain name registrations will have to reflect this sunk cost in marketing prior to launch.

Access to an individual's personal name

It is recognized that to achieve GNR's global aspiration of, A .NAME for everyone, pricing in the medium and long-term must be acceptable to the general online population.

Global Name Registry's profit objectives

In order to ensure stable management of the registry, it is considered necessary for GNR to have a fair profit margin of 20% in the latter years.

D13.2.4.4 CHANNEL STRATEGY

The Channel Environment

The expansion of the registrar market since 1999 has created in a very short time a highly competitive market both between domain suffixes and between registrars.

The development of strong and vibrant channels not only promotes healthy competition, but also represents the most effective way for GNR to generate. NAME awareness and market share most effectively.

The number of registrars has grown quickly from 1 in 1999 to 119 as of 2000. We believe the number will certainly grow further as demand for domains in countries such as France and China increase .

As the market matures and competition increases, we are beginning to see segmentation both in their user bases, their business models and their channel strategies. For example, BulkRegister.com is targeting intermediaries with its wholesale strategy while Register.com and Network Solutions are targeting mainly businesses through a network of partners and affiliates.

The balance of power in the channel resides in a few operators based in the US and Europe. Between them Network Solutions, Register.com, and Bulk Register represent over 60% share for all domain registrations in Q2 2000. All three operate large partner and affiliate programmes. Network Solutions registers domain names through 240 companies in over 30 countries in its Premier Program, and over 41,000 companies in its Affiliate Program. And now thanks to its sale to Verisign it has access to 3,500 ISPs and ASPs and 25 international affiliates.

Affiliate and partner networks will become increasingly important for propagating .NAME through the Internet to consumers. As an example, Register.com believe that at a minimum, 15% of their business in the next year will come through affiliate programmes.

Benefits of focusing the marketing via the Registrar channel

The benefits of a channel approach are these:

1. Registrars and affiliates are already aggressively growing the market with large marketing campaigns. For example, Register.com plans to spend $70 million in fiscal 2000.

2. Registrars are already developing compelling offers and services to niche segments which is driving uptake and accessibility e.g. email forwarding, diary management and web page creation.

3. Registrars already have large international networks of partnerships and affiliates though which they run co-marketing programmes

4. It is in the interests of the channel to develop new routes to customers (e.g. The Postal Services) and to seed new platforms (e.g. G3 wireless and Interactive Televisions).

Types of channel

There are different types of channel through which GNR is able to get to market.

1. Existing registrars

Such as Register.com who provide technology, registration services and both branded and unbranded (white label) marketing services to their resellers and end user communities directly. These may be sub-segmented by their Geography and segments they target. Above and beyond registry services GNR would seek to enter into some sort of formal relationships with the 10 largest to ensure that .NAME received adequate share of mind.

2. Resellers and affiliates

who do not have registrar status and use the Registrars to fulfil the demand they generate. These are typically smaller companies or individuals who can deliver 10's or hundreds of referrals per month in exchange for a 'referral fee'. Over time these will generate a large proportion of the sales of .NAME simply because they are closer to the target audience ( in many cases they are the target audience.)

3. Potential registrars

such as large Portals, Infotainment sites, Women's portals (Women.com, I Village.com), Geographical portals (Sino.com), alliances between ISPs and Retailers (e.g. Freeserve.com, Buy.com), Corporate's with innovative employee policies who wish to fully outsource email management (e.g. Apple).

Potential registrars are likely to have large numbers of consumer constituents who may or may not be currently on the Internet (e.g. cable companies), affinity groups (such as the RNIB which has 1.2 million members in the UK and the AARP, which is one of the largest member organisations in the USA)

4. New platforms

such as Wireless (Phone and PDA) , Bluetooth and Interactive TV which may use GNRs Personal Naming Solution as the protocol upon which to base their communications and addressing (Imagine for a moment using a mobile phone and saying phone@anthony.booth.NAME instead of a telephone number). In this case GNR would work with Registrars to form deals with companies such as Ericsson, Motorola, DoCoMo and the emergent Mobile operators across Europe and Asia.

Channel Objectives

Immediately

1. To identify and actively recruit the minimum number of channel partners necessary to create and satisfy the available demand

2. To incentivise the channel to 'push' .NAME aggressively into the market using sophisticated co-marketing techniques.

Longer term

3. To research and help new registrars in markets where there is large demand and small number of registrars

4. To investigate and help Registrars develop new platforms for the use of .NAME naming solution for their users.

D13.2.4.5 SERVICES DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Objectives

GNR will develop a range of services for each of the registrar segments in order to:

1. Make it easier to become a registrar (if they are not already a registrar)

2. Make it attractive for existing registrars to support .NAME and to make it easier for them to go to market. (Please see section D13.2.1)

Methodology

GNR will use a number of Service Development techniques which have been developed by The Channel Practice (WPP Group) which identify the stated needs and values of the respective segments (e.g. new and existing registrars) and match high value services against.

D13.2.4.6 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

In the Networked Economy, effective knowledge management and decision making processes are what separate organisations such as G.E. from the rest. The speed at which an organisation learns and deploys that learning is heightened by the fact that many organisations are operating, simultaneously, in:

Multiple geographical marketplaces with

Multiple products configured in different ways for

Multiple segments.

Understanding what information is useful and designing the process whereby it is captured, analysed and utilised is as vital as the data itself. Without such a process an organisation stands to suffer from:

Information overload (when there is too much data)

Inappropriate or underused information (when it is the wrong data)

Non-matching information (when the data is badly captured)

Lack of information authority (when it is not possible to be sure of the data provenance)

The benefits of a knowledge led approach are:

Rapid organisational learning

No loss or recreation of learning

Continual focus and alignment of the organisation with the maximum opportunities.

It will be important for GNR to manage knowledge on channels and end-customer behaviour efficiently to continually optimise the relationship between the Registry and registrars.

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

D13.2.4.7 COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

Communications Objectives

The primary objective is to ensure rapid recognition and understanding of .NAME, and to ensure that .NAME rapidly reaches one million registrations. Once a million registrations have been reached a powerful viral effect will help to sustain future growth.

To raise the spontaneous and prompted awareness of .NAME to significant level amongst Internet users (10% spontaneous, 30% prompted)

To ensure that the press have a full & positive understanding of the need and purpose of .NAME

To create a local "presence" in the target markets

The majority of marketing communications will be undertaken by the Registrars

GNR's relationship with consumers will be via the registrars. They have a direct relationship with users and affiliates. Consequently, they will monitor and react to movements in consumer taste and market demand. The registrars also have an existing database of users that have registered domains in the past, a flow of site traffic amongst users looking to register domains, and a network of affiliate sites. The largest registrars are also developing a significant off-line presence (e.g. Register.com) and are raising awareness amongst the general public not only of their web site, but also of TLDs.

GNR's role is to provide the registrars with a full marketing back-up service. This would include PR support, data transfer, market intelligence, and co-marketing money that should be used to acquire new customers. The registry would also provide .NAME branding & identity materials for online and offline campaigns to develop consumer awareness.

A global approach

The Internet is growing rapidly. The consequent geographic spread calls for a realistic and practical approach to marketing communication.

GNR will not have the resources to do tactical promotion and territory marketing. The majority of the marketing is to be undertaken by the registrars in the 10 focus markets.

Public Relations will form a major part of the plan

GNR will set up two in house PR offices, one in London (GNR HQ) and one outside Europe. It is the intention that after the launch year PR will be directed from a professional in-house team.

In the period leading up to launch and after, GNR will secure the services of a global PR consultancy to ensure that the resources are in place to roll out .NAME effectively over a very large territory.

Ogilvy PR have accepted to be a strategic marketing partner engaged for a five-month period, and to be directed out of London.

Ogilvy PR will be given the following objectives for the launch PR programme:

To co-ordinate activity over the 10 focus markets

To ensure that all relevant local press are provided with materials and news stories that are relevant to their territory

To execute successful launch events in the 10 focus markets, these will be directed primarily at local press, both news and specialist press, but also the local registrars

To provide a full briefing on Internet domains, and the objective of the release of the new TLDs, in particular the introduction of .NAME

To focus on the consumer lifestyle side of the Internet, including personal identity on the web for email,

The use of personal/family home pages, and growing ascendancy of the web over traditional mail service

To design and execute innovative launch events in the focus ten markets. These events will be attended by the senior mangers of GNR

To set up one-to-one interviews with key journalists in the focus markets to ensure quality news coverage

Advertising

Traditional media advertising is not the most effective route, due to the lack of financial resources to achieve an impact in so many international territories. Furthermore, the message is complex and is better suited to PR rather than media advertising.

Creative development process

A well-defined identity and consumer positioning for .NAME, will be essential for a clear message to be generated for the press to communicate to consumers, and for the registrars to communicate to their users and community. GNR will be undertaking the following process:

1. Developing a brief that takes in the diverse back grounds and needs of the top 10 markets;

2. Research the current trends in the domain community, and examine how .NAME is to positioned vis a vis the other new TLDs;

3. Make it clear that that .NAME is exclusively reserved for personal not corporate use and will be domain for all personal communication services on the web;

4. Three integrated design agencies will be briefed and asked to pitch for this work;

5. The successful agency will then work on the project with the following outputs:

Identity for .NAME

Usage of the identity in on and off line media

Clear positioning of .NAME for press usage

A guidelines/branding resources pack for use by the registrar community

Some initial creative work is listed over the next few pages.

Brand structure

We have devised a desired brand map for GNR communications and the .NAME brand. This comprises:

Company values:

These values represent what our company stands for - emotionally and practically

They provide a reference point internally (for all of us) and externally (for are "members" and partners)

They should embody how our company wishes to be perceived

Product Values

These values are the tangible manifestations of our product/service

They describe the key functionalities and characteristics of the service

These key attributes must be borne in mind as the service is set up and developed

Tonal Values

These values will represent GNR's tone of voice

This is how you would want our members to describe the brand's personality as if it was a human being

They are the words that describe our tone in all our communications, e.g. E-mails, press releases and ads

The tonal values are a fundamental part of the design brief to the website development company, advertising and PR agencies.

Core brand essence

The final piece of the jigsaw and the foundation stone of our brand positioning the core thought that we can own in the minds of our existing customers and prospects

It should be a thought that no current competitor owns

This is the one thing that is inherently true and relevant to what we are and what our service offers

Positioning statement

This is the phrase that should be used as an internal and external statement to position .name in the marketplace and versus the competition.

Tagline

This is the line which will appear on all our external communications - it is the thought we leave all our constituents with.

Company values (for The Global Name Registry):

Trustworthy: we are an honest and reliable company; we respect our community and value their contributions; we will go to great lengths to protect their privacy

Sustainable: we have an experienced management team who are seeking to build a lasting company of value. We have developed a long-term vision and set of goals; we are not short-term or opportunistic

Cross-cultural: we are creating a global company, consisting of like-minded people from a wide range of countries and cultures.

Flexible: we are responsive to the needs of our constituents in particularly the Registrars.

Quality: we will deliver a quality service for Registrars at a fair price.

Product values (for .NAME):

Freedom: a .NAME domain name gives you the freedom to express yourself free from commercial connotations.

Control: a .NAME domain name puts you in control of how you choose to get in touch.

Fair: unlike .COM, .NAME is only for individuals

For life: You can own your own .NAME for as long as you choose.

Affordable: For much less than you would pay to have access to a telephone you can own your own personal digital identity.

Tonal values (for .NAME)

Friendly: .NAMEs are easy, and friendly - in fact they just "are"

Expressive: They express "youness" - your self and your identity

Memorable: A .NAME is the easiest way to be remembered - not like some of the URLs people use !

Individual: Like you , a .NAME is unique.

Core brand essence

"digital self expression"

Positioning statement

".NAME is my identity on the internet. It allows me to choose how I am represented in a digital world."

Tag line

" A .NAME for everyone"

Brand expression
Promotional strategy

It is the intention for the active promotion, and selling of .NAME to be driven by the registrars. The registrars have the transactional relationship with the user, and they will have the most effective approach to local promotion their local market.

Business development funds (Channel Co-Marketing Programme)

In order to ensure that there is effective promotion and awareness of .NAME, GNR will create and manage a co-operative business development fund. It will have the following objectives:

1. To reduce the time it takes to get 1 million registrations from 18 to 9 months in order to give .NAME the largest possible head start

2. To equitably distribute marketing funds to those companies best placed to spend them most effectively (i.e. the most successful Registrars) to generate demand while not requiring significant upfront capital from GNR

3. To be seen to be rewarding and promoting innovative, successful marketing of the Registrars

4. To incentivise Registrars to focus resources on promoting the .NAME product

5. To drive awareness of the .NAME brand by making a stipulation of receipt of funds that the .NAME brand be prominent (i.e. such as Intel Inside, Oracle etc.)

This will operate in the following manner:

The base price for .NAME will be set at $5 for the initial period.

In order to manage demand, and ensure a substantial promotion budget is generated, GNR proposes the following co-marketing charging framework (see the figure below).

Total co-marketing fund generated $ 4,075,000

This fund will then be spent by the registrars in their territories on advertising and promoting .NAME both on and offline.

The registrars will then be able to claim the marketing cash back based on the number of registrations and compliance with the GNR promotional agreement.

The GNR promotional agreement will clearly state the guidelines as to how the money is to be spent. This will include: using the .NAME identity, spending the funds on off and online media (with proof), and not price reduction.

In terms of how the money is spent, that will be to the discretion of the registrars, who have a knowledge of efficient techniques in local markets.

The Co-Marketing programme

Registrations	Total registrations fee $	Co-marketing fund
100,000	20	$1.5m
200,000	15	$1m
350,000	10	$0.75m
500,000	8	$0.45m
750,000	6.5	$0.375m

D13.2.5 Estimated Demand For Registry Services In The New Tld

Projected total demand for registry services in the TLD, effect of projected registration fees, competition. Please provide estimates for at least 10%, 50%, and 90% confidence.

A top-down approach based on existing historical data and personal domain forecasts for .com TLD registrations have been made to estimate the demand for personal domain names up to the end of 2004. It is assumed that a proportion of these future registrations will be made under. Name. Consequently, the demand for .Name TLDs is illustrated.

D13.2.5.1 ASSUPMTIONS

Three models are presented:

A 50% (most likely) model that illustrates demand under the most likely forecast criteria

A 10% (best case) model that illustrates demand under the most favorable circumstances

A 90% (minimal) model that illustrates demand under the most calamitous circumstances

The model is built-up from historical data on the proliferation of .com TLDs over time. Implicit are four key assumptions:

Assumptions for growth rate of domain name registrations

Assumptions on the proportion of domains registered for personal use from 2001 until 2004

Assumptions on the proportion of the domains registered under .com

Assumptions on the share that .NAME achieves of the total number of personal domain names being registered each quarter

D13.2.5.2 TRENDS AND DATA

Growth of domain name registrations on the Internet

The .COM boom in early 2000 saw a sharp increase in the rate of TLD registrations (150% in the first quarter of 2000). It is forecast that the registration rate will continue to grow in the short term, but at a more sustainable rate of less than 20%. It is considered that growth rate will decline in the middle of 2003

It is predicted that registration growth rate will peak following ICANN's issue of the new TLDs, and fall of over the following years

Data gathered on the amount of Internet users per TLD around the world demonstrates that there is large opportunity for TLD registration all over the World, especially in Western Europe and East Asia

The amount of people on line per domain name. (Source: NUA)

Consequently, the following TLD registration growth forecasts were made for the conservative, optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. Historical data comes from Network Solutions (see www.dotcom.com).

Proportion of domains registered for personal use

The data from Network Solutions demonstrates that the proportion of TLDs being registered for personal use is increasing, and is forecast to represent nearly 30% of all registrations by the end of 2003.

Even in the United States, which has the largest online population and the most mature market in the world, less than one in a hundred people connected to the Internet have a personal website (source: Network Solutions - see www.dotcom.com)

It is increasingly easy to register and manage a personal TLD because services are being bundled together in such a way to break down the barriers which prevent the majority of the online population owning and running their own sites.

In all large countries there are many more consumers than businesses. It therefore makes sense that there will be more personal domains than commercial ones long term.

Taking account of the Network Solutions forecast and the trends discussed, the following scenarios were developed.

The proportion of the Internet registered under .COM

The proportion of the Internet registered under .COM is going down as country code TLDs become more popular and countries outside the United States come online. The introduction of a set of new TLDs will continue this process. We are already seeing the registrations on .COM move outside the USA. A forecast has been preapred based on existing data.

.NAME's share of the total personal TLD market

Predictions have been made to estimate the market share of the total personal TLD market that .NAME will win. Considering the following factors, market share forecasts have been built for the three scenarios:

Consumer propositions

There will be a better chance of getting your own name

.NAME is specifically designed for personal use, and web operators will focus offers and activity.NAME.

.NAME has a distinctive, accessible brand

Proliferation rate

The co-marketing program with registrars will incentivise them to invest in their local market, which will speed up adoption of .NAME, and ensure that local market activity is undertaken.

The degree of viral propagation will be a key determinant of the proliferation rate. Registrars will be recommended to position .NAME in affiliate channels which attract the target user segment, where this viral effect is most likely to occur.

Cost and competitive considerations

The initial period of operation (the first million registrations) GNR will charge a premium, this is to manage demand in the sunrise period, and minimize speculative buying. In the period following a million registrations the unit price will fall over the time of the delegation.

Competitive challenges could come from other new global TLDs and country code TLDs. Consequently, the demand may go down as further competition comes to the domain space.

D13.2.5.3 THE 90% CONFIDENCE DEMAND MODEL

This model demonstrates demand in the minimal scenario.

TLDs growth slows down rapidly and is in decline by the end of 2003

Personal domains never represent more than 30% of the total new domains being registered

Market share starts at 5% with the hype at launch. It dwindles to 3% before rising to 10% at the end of 2004

Registration peak at 0.66 million for the third quarter of 2004. Total cumulative .NAME registrations by the mid-2005 will be 7.2 million.

D13.2.5.4 THE 50% CONFIDENCE DEMAND MODEL

This model demonstrates the most likely case.

TLD registrations grow fast before 2003. After 2003 the number of new registrations starts to contract quite rapidly

Personal domains rise to 39% of the total new domains being registered by the end of the license period

Market share starts at 15% with the hype at launch. It falls to 5% quite quickly before rising to 15% by the end of 2004

Registrations peak at 1.9 million for the third quarter of 2004. Total cumulative .NAME registrations by the mid-2005 will be just over 20 million.

D13.2.5.5 THE 10% CONFIDENCE DEMAND MODEL

This model demonstrates the best case.

TLD registrations grow very fast before 2003. After 2003 the number of new registrations starts to

contract gradually

Personal domains rise to 39% of the total new domains being registered by the end of the license period

Market share starts at 25% with the hype at launch. It falls to 15% quite quickly before rising to 35% by the end of 2004

Registration peak at 5.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2004. Total cumulative .NAME registrations by the mid-2005 will be just over 58 million.

D13.2.5.6 ONGOING VALIDATION

This demand model will continually be measured against and updated with actual data to evaluate the performance of the registry.

D13.2.6 Resources Required

Resources required to meet demand. Provide a detailed estimate of all resources (financial, technical, staff, physical plant, customer service, etc.) required to meet the estimated demands, using at least the 10%, 50%, and 90% confidence levels.

The resources to meet the demand are shown in detail in the financial appendix D.Appendix.1. These are broken down into sections that detail the financial costs associated with the resources required:

Cost

Technical

Employees

Capital.

All resources are based on the most likely demand model and specified in details. A significant proportion of costs are incurred prior to the launch of the Registry and therefore cannot be based on actual demand levels. As demand levels are established, adjustments can be made to the expenditure on variable costs to more appropriate amounts to meet the actual demand levels. The financial appendix D.Appendix.1 shows how this would be varied based on best case, most likely and minimum levels of demand.

D13.2.6.1 COSTS

This encompasses the marketing expenditure as detailed in D2.4. The technical expenditure shows the summary of ongoing operation costs detailed in D13.2.6.2. The employee summary is based on the employee costs detailed in D.13.2.6.3. Other expenses include the costs associate with other operational expenses and includes:

Audit and accounting fees

Legal and professional fees

Bank fees

Insurance costs

The majority of these are self explanatory, and represent the budgeted cots of providing professional services that are expected in a commercial operation.

In addition, the following operational expenses are also incurred:

Training budget

Management and Incentive budget

Doubtful debts allowance

Interest charges/income

Depreciation

Annual ICANN fee

The training budget is based on 2% of the total revenue from the Registry. For further details on the use of this budget refer to D13.2.8.

The management and incentive budget is based on 5% of the total revenue from the Registry. This will be used to provide an incentive element to the sales force for results based activities in building the sales channel. In addition, an element of this will also be used to provide an incentive structure to other parts of the operation, and the achievement of specific objectives of the management team as is usual in a commercial business. These will be set in advance and their achievement managed to the available budget.

An allowance has been made for doubtful debts, of 1% of the Registry revenue. This is substantially lower that for a usual commercial business operation, however this is in recognition of the fact that in the principle all registrations will be prepaid. However, a small allowance is believed to be prudent.

Depreciation is calculated on the basis of pooled assets, depreciated over three years on the reducing balance. This avoids the requirement to individually depreciate each acquisition. As new capital items are acquired, they are added at cost to the pool. The pool is then depreciated on a monthly basis to calculate the revised pool capital balance for the subsequent monthly depreciation. As items are sold or disposed of, an adjustment can be made to the pool to reflect this.

Interest charges are based at 10% of short-term borrowings. Although the total cash requirements of the Registry are met through equity funding, a commercial rate of interest has been assumed on the cash requirement of the Registry to ensure that a fair comparison can be made to the viability of the Registry when compared to alternative funding sources. Likewise, where a cash surplus is generated, this is also assumed to be used proactively to offset other expenditure. Cash on deposit is assumed to generate a return of 3%.

The ICANN fee is also included here, based on the assumptions in D13.2.11.

D13.2.6.2 TECHNICAL

The technical resources and costs of the operation are specified in the financial appendix D.Appendix.1 and technical specifications D15. All costs under this section are assumed to be operational costs incurred on an ongoing basis.

D13.2.6.3 EMPLOYEES

The HR resources required are summarized in the financial appendix D.Appendix.1. The figures show the base salary for each of the individuals required by the Registry. To this is added an element for fringe employment costs such as National Insurance (Employer Tax), and other items that make up the total salary package such as private health care, health insurance, statutory sick-pay, and other taxable items. This is budgeted at 22% of annual base salary.

It has been assumed that a specialist recruitment service will be used to identify, select and recruit all the necessary employees for GNR. Therefore an allowance of 25% of the average annual salary has been included to cover the specialist fees for each employee recruited.

For each employee, an allowance has been made (detailed in the financial assumptions of D.Appendix.1) for general expenses (stationery, entertaining, etc.), telephone costs, travel, office premises and facilities.

D13.2.6.4 CAPITAL

The capital resources and cost of this operation are specified in detail in the financial appendix D.Appendix.1 and technical specification D15. All items in this section are assumed to be capital investment and are one of the primary drivers for initial cash expenditure as detailed in the cashflow projections. They are depreciated on the basis specified in D13.2.6.1 and the depreciation is charged to operational costs. Included in this section is a capital allowance for each new employee, used for the purchase of items such as individual computer equipment, desks etc.

D13.2.7 Plans For Acquiring Necessary Systems And Facilities

Describe plans for acquiring all necessary systems and facilities for providing the proposed services at each estimated demand level. Provide details as to the scope, cost, and vendor for any significant planned outsourcing.

All systems and facilities for the operation of the Global Name Registry will be purchased, installed and implemented upon delegation of the .NAME TLD. Implicit in the design is the capacity to cope with substantial future growth. The impact on systems and facilities is limited to levels of demand downstream of the initial implementation. Optimistic or "best case" demand level estimations are accommodated in the initial configuration and an ability to scale down (or defer) upgrades has been included in Years 2-4.

Although a smaller, lower capacity system could have been proposed, the incremental cost was considered unwarranted against the risk of system instability in the event of greater than expected level of demand. All proposals from suppliers can be found in Appendix D.2.

SUPPLIERS – Hardware

IBM have been selected as the prime supplier for hardware components.

In addition to the IBM equipment, Cisco equipment.

Software

The supplier of web based software, ESS and DNS server software will be Nameplanet.com

Queuing software will be the IBM MQ series

The billing software supplier is The Sage Group Plc

GNR will be developing software to manage the communication links with the Registrars, WHOIS and DNS server update software and high-level database interface.

Services

GTS, or IBM for Hosting

Integration

The integration of all the components will be managed by Nameplanet.com and the GNR internal resources.

D13.2.8 Staff Size/Expansion Capability

Plans for obtaining necessary staff resources

It is intended that with the exception of the CEO, the senior management for GNR will be obtained from Nameplanet.com.

As indicated in section D13.1.6, the Sales & Marketing Director, the CTO, and the financial controller have all been selected for transfer to GNR.

The Nameplanet.com will commence hiring the Technical Department, marketing & sales staff once ICANN have confirmed that the delegation has been given to GNR.

CEO recruitment

The first priority will be for the recruitment of a CEO. The Nameplanet.com staff will secure the services of its executive recruitment partner Korn Ferry International. The CEO it is hoped will be in place by February 2000. This individual will have the following profile:

Substantial general management experience (5 yrs plus)

Track record in delivering results from a start-up position

Ability to manage a substantial capital and marketing expenditure budgets

Experience in managing distribution channels

Experience and/or in depth knowledge of the online/domain environment

News Media handling experience

The recruitment of the CEO is crucial to the future of the company, the directors both executive and non executive will set up a 2/3 person recruitment team to assess the candidates and recommend employment. The CEO will also be offered a small equity stake in the company, to ensure a commitment to delivering on time and will be part of a 4-year contractual arrangement.

Technical department

The CTO of Nameplanet.com Geir Rasmussen will have responsibility of recruiting the technical department. A range of technical recruitment firms will be used to recruit a sizable team in a short space of time. It is intended that the technical team be in place as soon as possible; if there are difficulties in obtaining such skilled people then the existing Nameplanet.com technical personnel will be seconded. The technical team includes the following:

Two Database developer

Systems developer

Software developer

DNS/ Bind administrator

Marketing

Technical secretary

QA person

Registrar sales relationship and Marketing department

The key priority is the recruitment of a seasoned Internet sales person. This individual would have particular experience of managing online channels. The successful recruitment and management of registrars particularly in the Sunrise period will be crucial to the success of. NAME. The priority recruitment will be for the lead US registrar business manager; this individual will then take responsibility for recruiting the European counter-part and lastly Asia-Pacific.

Hiring Policy and employee training

The GNR will have a comprehensive HR policy, in step with the most recent E.U. legislation.

GNR will as stated above make use of professional recruitment agencies. The agencies will receive a written brief, and a set procedure will be set-up in house to ensure that there is consistency in evaluation. GNR will operate an equal opportunities hiring policy in-line with current US and EU legislation. All new employees will be offered share options in the new organisation.

Employee training

The company will have a progressive policy towards staff training. It will dedicate 2% of revenue for the purpose of individual and team training. A senior employee (Sales & Marketing tba) will be designated as a champion for staff training.

Space for additional staff

It is intended that GNR take up excess space that NamePlanet.com Ltd occupies for the initial period of operation (3-4 months), after that time GNR will locate some permanent offices in the London area.

D13.2.9 Management Personnel

As stipulated in section D13.1.6, key mangers are being seconded from Nameplanet.com to GNR for the preparation of the application. It is intended that these Officers transfer to GNR on successful delegation.

As stated in D13.2.8 The GNR will be focusing its energies in obtaining a heavy weight CEO, to lead the development of GNR, and ensuring that commitments are met in the allocated time.

D13.2.10 Term Of Agreement

We assume the same term as NSOL, four years.

D13.2.11 Expected Costs

Expected costs associated with the operation of the proposed registry. Please break down the total estimated operational costs by the sources of the costs for each estimated demand level. Be sure to consider the TLD's share of ICANN's cost recovery needs. (See <http://www.icann.org/financials/budget?fy00?01?06jun00.htm#IIIB)

The expected costs of operating the Registry are based on a number of factors

Marketing

Hardware hosting and operation

Operational staff

Management staff

Hardware systems (Capital purchases)

Other expenses

Based on the demand levels identified within the marketing plan of section D13.2.4, at 10, 50 & 90% confidence levels, the costs are detailed with the resources required for each demand levels in section D13.2.6..

The TLD recovery of ICANN's cost is budgeted at $250,000. This is based on the total budget of requirements for ICANN, and assumes a worst case scenario where only the TLD registry's were to be responsible to meet this budget.

D13.2.12 Expected Revenues

Expected revenue associated with the operation of the Registry. Please show the expected revenue, computed at each demand level.

The revenue for GNR is based on several sources:

New registrations

Renewal registrations

Domain transfer fees

As explained in D13.2.2, the revenues that are dependant on the demand are new registrations, renewal registrations and domain transfers. The bases for the estimated demand levels that drive these revenues are detailed in D13.2.5. All other revenues are assumed to be nil, as they are primarily driven from a cost recovery basis that should net out to nil. In any event, they would be insignificant when compared to the primary revenue streams for the Registry.

D13.2.12.1 NEW REGISTRATION REVENUE

Revenue for new registrations is a function of the demand for registrations and the price point for that demand level at that time. In effect, for each given demand level, there is a corresponding price for a registration, which changes over time as the level of demand increases. The monthly revenue is then a function of the number of registrations per month multiplied by the price for the demand level during that month. For the specific figures refer to D.Appendix.1.

D13.2.12.2 REGISTRATION RENEWAL REVENUE

It is assumed that all new registrations will run for 12 months from the date of initial registration. At this point, they will be due for renewal by the registrar under instruction from the registrant. As per D13.2.2, the price for renewal will be the same as the price for new registrations at that time, dependant on the demand level.

However, there are a number of factors that will reduce the renewal rate below 100%:

The registrar is unable to contact or locate the original registrant

The personal circumstances of the registrant have changed

The registrant no longer wishes to hold that particular domain

Numerous other possible causes

When calculating the number of renewal registrations, a factor has been applied as shown below to all renewals that become due at that time. The effect of this factor, is that it dampens the rate at which registrations grow over time. It is intended to ensure that the revenue outlook is suitably conservative.

As the Registry is assumed to be accepting registrations from the start of the sixth month, no registrations are due for renewal until month 18, at which point 65% are assumed to renew. Over time, as the registrars processes improve and increased marketing and PR investments take effect, the level of renewals will increase. This will be primarily driven by the registrars and their resellers, on the basis that they will be better off building their revenue from retaining their customer base, rather than trying to generate new customers. A smoother growth in the renewal rate could have been used, however this would have increased the level of total registrations. Therefore, for clarity of understanding, the above profile has been used.

The revenue from renewal registrations is therefore a function of the price at that time and the renewal rate. For the specific figures refer to D.Appendix.1.

D13.2.12.3 DOMAIN TRANSFER REVENUE

Given the nature of the service being provided by GNR, it has been assumed that there will be a very low level of domain transfer activity. This is based on the assumption that given the nature of a personal domain, there would be relatively little requirement for ownerships to change. Likewise it is anticipated that transfers between Registrar's will also be minimal. On this basis, a flat fee of USD $5 is charged for each transfer. The level of transfers is assumed to be 0.01% of total registered domains per month, each of which generates a USD$5 fee. As can be seen from the specific figures in D.Appendix.1 this generates an insignificant level of revenue, again emphasising the conservative nature of these assumptions.

D13.2.12.4 REGISTRAR REGISTRATION FEE

As detailed in D13.2.2, it is anticipated that the Registrar's will be not generate any revenue, and that if charges are made these are for cost recovery purposes only and therefore to not constitute a revenue stream for the purposes of calculating the viability of the Registry.

D13.2.12.5 REGISTRAR RENEWAL FEE

The same principle as specified in D13.2.12.4 applies.

D13.2.13 Capital Requirements

Capital requirements. Quantify capital requirements in amount and timing and describe how the capital will be obtained. Specify in detail all sources of capital and the cost of that capital (interest, etc.). Evidence of firm commitment of projected capital needs will substantially increase the credibility of the registry operator's proposal.

The capital required by GNR on a cash accounting basis is shown below for all three demand scenarios. The total cash requirements, depending on the scenario, vary between $6.5 million and $7.5 million. The maximum cash requirement of $7.5 million is reached in the best case scenario in month eight of operations, due in a large part due to the higher level of investment in marketing. The minimum cash requirement of $ 6.5 million is reached during month nineteen in the minimal demand scenario, as the result of a slow build-up of registrations.

Funding, therefore, has been obtained to a level of $7.5 million. This meets the total cash requirements of the registry of the registry for ALL demand scenarios, and is the only funding required. This has been provided through a combination of investors.

In the minimal demand scenario, this provides for an additional 15% capital over and above the maximum estimated cash requirements.

In the most likely demand scenario, this provides a contingency of nearly 8% in the capital requirements of the Registry.

In the best-case demand scenario, a substantial incremental investment in marketing and capital equipment is assumed which represents nearly 20% of the total capital requirements.

The total cash requirements vary between $6.5M and $7.5M. The maximum of $7.5M is reached in the best case scenario, due in a large part to the higher level of investment in marketing, during month eight of operations. In the minimal registration model, cash requirements of $6.5M are required through to month eighteen of operation.

D13.2.14 Business Opportunities and Risks

Opportunities		Action
Market	The rate of Internet adoption is rising and thus the market for total domain name registrations and personal domain name registrations is forecast to grow.	Ensure that .NAME is positioned to maximise on the potential growth
	ICANN has no current plans to introduce any other personal TLDs which would compete directly with .NAME	The business & marketing plan is built on the assumption that ICANN does not approve another gTLD dedicated to personal use
	In the US less than 1 person in 100 who has access to the Internet has a personal website	GNR will focus on the USA as a lead market, success in the US is critical to .NAME success overall.
	The overall publicity around all the new TLDs (.shop, .biz etc) will create a massive consumer awareness	GNR will focus its marketing communication effort on PR, this will ensure we maximise on the overall publicity
	This is a ‘viral’ market where every new user helps create another – simply by using the product.	GNR will build a strong differentiated image for .NAME in the focus markets, to ensure that we maximise on the viral effect
	Many people cannot have their own name in .com, ,net, .org due to limited and poor use of the space.	.NAME will allow many people to register a personal domain, when up to now they were unable to.
	The growth of TLD registrations has been predominantly driven by business (over 85% of all new registrations are business.) However, domain demand will in future, be driven by individuals not businesses as there are far more of them.	GNR has the capacity for very high levels of demand, however as stated in other sections of the document, it may make practical sense to create multiple strings such as .nom & .san in future years to better cope with demand.

Opportunities		Action
Geographical	In many (over 90) of the 160 country ccTLD’s, individuals are unable to register domain names	Although GNR will focus on the top 10 markets, it will also ensure that it is visible in territories that have restrictive local ccTLD polices towards individuals.
	Online users in China, Japan, France, Australia, Korea and Italy are between 4 and 20 times less likely to have registered a TLD than in USA, Germany and the UK.	There is a lot of potential outside the USA, GNR is planning a comprehensive launch campaign in 10 major markets around the globe
	Users are coming on-line in China, Japan at exponential rates	GNR will have a comprehensive PR campaign in 10 major markets including China & Japan.
Technological	Telephone fixed and mobile addressing systems goes to domain names (UMS)	GNR will keep abreast of technological developments, & ensure that .NAME is best positioned to take advantage of UMS.
	IPV6, Bluetooth and other techs that will give an IP to household appliances, cars, stereos, TVs, etc.	GNR will look to position itself as a spokesperson on these technical advances in the news media
Segment	Women, who account for about 50% of the population, only register 30% of the domain names currently.	Women, particularly in the US will be a high growth segment in future
	The high price of ownership (many $10’s, even $100’s) which was a major barrier to purchase will lessen in future.	The registration on the 3^rd level domain will reduce the likelihood of speculation, and also bring down the overall costs of .NAME domains.
	As of July 20^th 2000 there were 119 registered registrars, up from 5 in June 1999. There are many thousands of affiliates and partners around the world upon which web sites it is possible to register with.	GNR will make full use of the increase in registrar distribution, and facilitate the setting up of more registrars in countries where there is currently poor coverage.
Channel	Sophistication of channel marketing and product offers means that channels are able to offer the Personal Domain Name for free – driving uptake – while still making money. E.g. from email forwarding, web page hosting or advertising/e-commerce.	GNR will maximise the potential of .NAME through the channel and PR, by highlighting the these applications and others

Market risks	Actions
Not reaching estimated demand	Re-invigorate PR effort, focus on fewer markets
Lower interest in domains than had been expected	Review registry pricing, evaluate a price reduction to increase demand
Co-op business development pricing set too high	Re-assess the positioning of .NAME and reassess pricing of .NAME
Unexpected personal domain competition from other new TLD’s introduced in 2001	Review marketing expenditure, and pricing level to revive demand
General downturn in the (US) economy	In the circumstance of a downturn in the renewal level, GNR will work closely with the main registrars to encourage existing users to renew their registrations, actions could include: lower renewal pricing if the user signs-up for two years, increased activity directed at the existing users.
Lower rate of renewals than estimated in the business plan	It is the intention of GNR to drive the marketing activity through the Registrars at a local market level.
We may be subject to claims of alleged infringement of intellectual property rights of third parties	GNR will comply with the industry standard procedures with regard to intellectual property, it will in all circumstances act as a third party, and direct complainants to the usual arbitration channels. (Please see E5 for further details)
Establishing the new business and getting on-line in within the agreed time period.	GNR will greatly benefit from the senior management resource of Nameplanet.com, (see D13.1.6) it is however the intention to obtain the services of additional management. GNR will be looking to obtain a CEO who will be given the full responsibility to ensure that GNRs commitments are delivered on time and to spec.

D13.2.15 Registry Failure Provisions

Definition

This does not concern large incidents such a single server failure. More about downtime for days, full data center destruction or financial breakdown of the company.

There are two sections, technical failure and financial failure.

Technical failure -including:

Full Site destruction

ESS breakdown

BIND failure and/or DNS hacking

Offsite backup destruction and simultaneous ESS destruction

Technical breakdown recovery procedures for less severe cases than full breakdown are described in D15.2.12

Recovery in case of BIND failure and/or DNS hacking

We are using BIND as our primary DNS software, and the functionality of the DNS rely upon the well-functioning of the software. Although it is extensively tested and in use in a large number of DNS servers across the globe, failure in this software could occur and might severely impair the function of the DNS servers running this software.

In the case of BIND failure, we would rely upon the other DNS software we will be running in parallell. (See also section D15.2.9). The registry will be running another domain name resolution software, namely DJBDNS. DJBDNS is a different application than BIND, not developed by the same person or group, and these two applications should not possess the same flaws. In the case of a fatal breakdown of all BIND applications, or a major security hole, we will have redundancy from the DJBDNS server, which should not be affected by the same potential problem.

Should a major BIND problem occur, additional new DNS servers will replace the faulty BIND servers where DJBDNS now would be installed, to relieve the temporary high load on the servers which ran DJBDNS even before the BIND breakdown.

This will ensure that the DNS is properly resolving through this crisis. Recovery in case of partial data center destruction, or destruction of the ESS

In the unlikely event of the whole data-center being destroyed, by fire, bombing, earth quakes or other force majeure that could impact the strongly protected data center severely (ref. also section on the hosting environment which is extremely protected), the system can still be recovered.

It is notable that in all events except for a full Internet breakdown or full destruction of all production centers and external DNS centers, the operation of the DNS and the WHOIS would go on normally, but new registrations and updates to the DNS records would be halted in the case of major destructions in the main data center.

It is highly unlikely that an event would occur so as to destroy the hosting center or otherwise render the database system unaccessible through full destruction. Such an event as a nuclear attack, major earthquake or similar would have other, and more severe impacts on the society than the unavailability of new registrations. The DNS would in such a case still be up.

In the case of an ESS breakdown, where both of the internally mirrored storage areas of the ESS are destroyed, the following procedure would be employed:

Analysis of why the ESS broke down.

The ESS would be replaced with another identical ESS, or a similar storage facility,

The backup that has been taken offsite would be returned and restored onto the storage.

All servers could be rebooted from the central storage where each of the partitions now would be remounted

The offsite log of the transactions done between the last backup and the breakdown would be restored and retraced, resulting in a data collection identical to the one immediately before breakdown.

Testing of the system and consistency checks with the internal and external DNS and WHOIS servers, which would remain up during the whole procedure.

Reopening of full services.

Recovery in case of full data centre destruction

In the case of a full data centre destruction, a similar procedure would be followed, with the exception that a full or at least partial server park would need to be acquired from the provider. The supplier would with reference to service level agreements be able to supply the minimum hardware needed.

Allocation to a new data centre (assuming full destruction of the previous)

Installation of new hardware.

The backup that has been taken offsite would be returned and restored onto the storage.

All servers could be rebooted from the central storage where each of the partitions now would be remounted

The offsite log of the transactions done between the last backup and the breakdown would be restored and retraced, resulting in a data collection identical to the one immediately before breakdown.

Testing of the system and consistency checks with the internal and external DNS and WHOIS servers, which would remain up during the whole procedure.

Reopening of full services.

Solutions to technical failure:

Transfer of operations to other entity, Network solutions, or other TLD registries of the same size.

Replacement of ESS

Backup restore and log restore

Transfer of escrow data to new entity

New technical and operations partner

Simplified systems run (stop registrations in case of problems, keep DNS and WHOIS alive, but freeze data.

D13.3 Pro-Forma Financial Projections

Pro-forma financial projections. Please provide detailed pro-forma financial projections, consistent with your business plan, for the demand scenarios that you estimate under item D13.2.5. The pro-forma projections should show revenue and expense estimates broken down by detailed categories and should be broken down into periods no longer than quarterly.

Pro-forma financial projections, consistent with the business plan are shown in D. Appendix 1, by month over four years for all three demand scenarios.

There are three sections; D. Appendix 1.1Most Likely Demand Scenario, D. 1.2 Best Case Demand Scenario, and D. Appendix 1.3 Minimal Demand Scenario. Complete revenue and expense estimate, as well as full profit & loss, balance sheet and cashflow projectionsare also included for each scenario. All assumptions used are detailed in the section marked assumptions. Summary sheets showing annual figures for all three demand scenarios are also included.

D13.4 Supporting Documentation

D13.4.1 Registry Operator's Organizational Documents

The following organizational documents of The Global Name Registry, Ltd. are both scanned and incorporated below and attached in the Appendices:

Certificate of Incorporation from the UK Companies House (can alternatively be downloaded form the Companies House's website at "www.companieshouse.co.uk"), dated 18 September, 2000

The Subscribers appointment of initial directors, dated 18 September, 2000

First Board Meeting, appointing permanent directors of the company, dated 18 September, 2000

Memorandum of Association

Articles of Association

D13.4.2 References.

A list of significant trade and credit references.

List of significant trade references of Nameplanet.com
Customer	Industry
UUNET	IT
IBM	Hardware
Dorsey & Whitney	Legal
S J Berwin	Legal
Advokatfirmaet Schjødt	Legal
Bulkregister.com	DNS
Active ISP	DNS
Melbourne IT	DNS
NUNAMES	DNS
ASNIC	DNS
Arthur Andersen	accounting
Securitas	security/escrow
CommerceOne	Strategy Consulting
Deloitte & Touche	Auditing
Forenede Økonomer	accounting
Burson Marsteller	PR
Scandinavia Online	Marketing
Din Side	Marketing
Nettavisen	Marketing
Aftonbladet	Distribution
Opasia	Marketing
McCann-Ericson	Marketing
Venture Partners	Investors
Four Seasons	Investors
The Carlyle Group	Investors
Linkshare	Marketing
TV2	Distribution
Itavisen	Distribution
Hjemmenett	Distribution
The Globe.com	Marketing
DK	Design
WorldPay	Online payment
MediaRing	Online content
Mamut	Online content
Ericsson
HQ Global Serviced Offices	WAP
Korn Ferry	Office and expansion
Futurestep	Recruitment

D13.4.3 Financials

Annual report. The registry operator's most recent annual financial report (or similar document). Audited financials are preferred.

GNR is a newly established and incorporated company and as such has no audited financial records available to date. However, the organisations that are helping to establish GNR have a solid financial background.

Marketing

Sales

Content including Product & Service provision

Existing Products and Services

Web Mail (introduced February 2000)

Personal Web Address (introduced September 2000)

WAP Service (introduced May 2000)

E Cards (introduced September 2000)

Future Services (October-November 2000)

Finance & Administration

Domains

Technical

Registry and DNS experience

Internet experience, database operations, IP rights and data protection

VIsion

What This Means

Functions

Dominic Chambers

Born

Work

Education

Geir Rasmussen

Ken Trotter

Born

Work

Hakon Haugnes

Born

Work

Education

Georg Panzer

Born

Work

Education

Michael Dillon

Non-Executive Director

Julie Meyer

Non-Executive Director

Space for additional staff

Hiring Policy

Employee training

New registrations

Transfers between Registrars

Accreditation of non-ICANN accredited Registrars

Registry interface client software

DNS services

WHOIS service

Renewals

Accounting information

Registry web

Registry-Registrar interface set-up assistance, if needed

Dispute Resolution

D13.2.2.1 NEW REGISTRATION FEES

D13.2.2.2 REGISTRATION RENEWAL FEES

D13.2.2.3 DOMAIN TRANSFER CHARGES

D13.2.2.4 REGISTRAR REGISTRATION FEE

D13.2.2.5 REGISTRAR RENEWAL FEE

D13.2.2.6 ANCILLARY FEES

D13.2.3.1 MARKET OVERVIEW

D13.2.3.2 COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT

Between TLDs

Between Business and Personal use

Between Registrars

Between communication and naming platforms (e.g. telephone numbers or postcodes)

D13.2.3.3 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND SEGMENTATION

Geographical and Linguistic opportunities

Channel Opportunities

Consumer Opportunities

Gender

Age

Income

D13.2.3.4 SUMMARY SEGMENTATION

Anecdotal description of the segments

D13.2.4.1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

D13.2.4.2 VALUE PROPOSITIONS

Consumers Needs

The Need for .NAME

Consumer Value Propositions

GNR Domain management

Channel Value Propositions

D13.2.4.3 PRICING STRATEGY