.amsterdam Pre-Register Domain - .amsterdam Domain Information

The mission of the proposed ".amsterdamʺ TLD is to provide the community, stakeholders of and visitors to the City of Amsterdam with a TLD that will be the new address of the ʺdigital cityʺ, reflecting their bond with the City and its values. The TLD will provide a virtual space in which digital communication and connections are stimulated and business can increasingly flourish: interest groups, institutions, communities, individuals and corporations are stimulated to adopt the new TLD as a valuable tool for business, communication or expression, but also as a means to express their connection to the City in the broadest sense of the word. The international brand awareness and recognizability and uniform spelling of the name of the City will contribute significantly to the adoption and use of this TLD.

The new ʺ.amsterdamʺ TLD aims to provide the stakeholders of the City of Amsterdam with an address that is both recognizable as having a link to the City, while being ‘personal' as well. Being used as a part of Amsterdamʹs branding strategy, a geographic TLD like .amsterdam is expected to create and support the local identity for enterprises, institutions, and individuals and with the aim to result in a stronger sense of community. It is planned that Amsterdam's marketing strategy and the creation of a maximum branding value will be substantially supported by communication activities on domain names such as http://visit.amsterdam, to name but one example. The introduction and the ‘maintenance' of the branding of the TLD will be supported by the City's Marketing department, which has invested significantly in the branding of the City over the past eight years. The Registry will be offering tools for the marketing of domain names in the ".amsterdam" TLD realm to third parties with the aim of maximizing a rapid recognizability of the TLD.

By actively using the City's own domain names as described above, but also highly stimulating (through marketing and agreements) the actual usage of the TLD, the Registry firmly believes the TLD will grow to be of high value to its registrants by means of actual public usage and search engine ranking.

The marketing strategy of the City of Amsterdam will be in line with the "I amsterdam" City Marketing strategy that already has a high recognizability in the City as it has been running for close to eight years now. Furthermore, the City aims to use the TLD for its services to the public. To that purpose a number of domain names will remain reserved for the exclusive use by the City of Amsterdam. Next to that a number of domain names will be reserved and issued in batches to parties with a specific interest in the entire batch of domain names in conjunction with the obligation for the registrant to actively use these domains in line with such specific interest. Thus, the Registry can -for a fairly limited but important range of domain names- guarantee valuable experiences for the public.

Examples of these ‘batches' mentioned above would be "wonen.amsterdam","woningen.amsterdam","koopwoningen.amsterdam" and "huurwoningen.amsterdam". By offering these four domain names for sale as a ‘batch', with the conditions of active use within a short period after purchase (to be determined) we can achieve rapid public availability of these strategic domain names. On top of that, by auctioning these batches, we create a level playing field allowing all interested parties to acquire those names (with the conditions mentioned being a part of the sale), while at the same time offering the new owner the strategic advantage of having acquired a coherent set of domain names, which can be considered to be of premium strategic value. The Registry also believes that this mechanism will prevent domain name squatting for these important domain names. Domain name squatting could otherwise have a very negative effect on the actual use of and the sentiments surrounding the new TLD.

The Registry anticipates that".amsterdam" will add to the current space more differentiation in the way that it provides registrants the opportunity to have a distinct new possibility to show/promote their brand, shop or business, identity or community via a TLD that is "not distant" in many ways. In terms of competition the Registry will provide a TLD that will add more consumer choice in a market dominated by the national ".nl" TLD. In terms of innovation the City of Amsterdam has traditionally been a national leader in providing IT Services to its citizens and will make all efforts so that the new TLD will reflect that ongoing innovation.

REGISTRY'S VISION
The Registryʹs vision is that as the internet has reached global coverage, the internet will enter the ‘capillary system' of society, with a strong focus on local relevance. The TLD we apply for reflects that local relevance and should become the City's platform for business and communication for all of its stakeholders. The Registryʹs mission is to know the local (digital) needs and how the new TLD can facilitate both the commercial, functional and emotional aspects of bringing the new TLD to the City and its stakeholders

The Registryʹs strategy is to collaborate with acknowledged leaders in Internet technologies and service providers to expand Internet capacity in an orderly manner through new charter TLDs.

Market
There are already nearly 5 million ".nl" domain names, and the Netherlands has the highest domain density (number of domains per capita) in the world with currently 0.39 domains per capita and has one of the most extensive internet infrastructures in the world. ".amsterdam" ,being the TLD for the capital city of the Netherlands clearly expects to profit from the extremely high interest in registering and using domains and in the internet as a whole.

Statistics
The City of Amsterdam has registered:
-780.152 inhabitants
-72.000 enterprises
-18.000 enterprises with Amsterdam in their name
-400.000.nl domain names registered to addresses in the Amsterdam Region
-20.000 .nl domain names with Amsterdam in their name
-14.000 .nl domain names ending with "amsterdam"
-350 hotels
-150 neighborhoods
-5.000 streets
-7.000 shops
-100's of foundations and associations
These numbers reflect a clear indication of the quantitative potential for domain name registrations and use of the TLD at the same time. We are confident there's far greater potential than the numbers in our business plans - addresses can become domain names (like http://rokin14.amsterdam), which has the potential to multiply the number of domain names sold in the business plan by an order of magnitude.

The Registry has in total a wide target audience. At the end of the first year the Registry estimates a potential of 7.000 domain names. By organizing a sunrise, landrush and open registration that will follow, all efforts are made to maximize the amount of domain names being bought and used at the moment of the launch. During sunrise trade names and trademark holders can be the first to claim their domain name. This will generate a positive sentiment, by guaranteeing that rightful prospective owners will not need to take reactive and costly actions, but are guaranteed the ownership of a domain name in a well established, well branded and positively acknowledged TLD, tied to one of the best known cities in the world.

During landrush the Registry will start selling specific generic domain names that are likely to encounter a higher than average level of interest for purchase. This in order to prevent the domain names to fall into the hands of domain name squatters, limiting the actual use of these important domain names.

After that, the remaining domain names will be issued on a first come first serve basis.

The Registry projects that the number for registrations in the new .Amsterdam TLD would reach at the start 3.500 in 2013, climbing to 7.000 at the start of 2014 and 14.000 at the start of 2015

The ".amsterdam" TLD will benefit registrants, Internet users and others in a number of ways.

i. The goal of the proposed TLD is to provide the City of Amsterdam, her citizens, trademark holders, partners, cultural and other target audience to promote themselves through the domain names with the TLD ".amsterdam". The most powerful benefits for the target audience is that they have a new, easy and powerful way, namely the ".amsterdam" TLD, to connect with each other, search for local identities, enterprises or other City related activities. The reputation of the City is very powerful due to its history of over seven centuries and the current "I amsterdam" branding strategy, which in itself is already a likely motivation to register domain names - the City generally is "something to be proud of" and this will likely to be perceived as to be reflected in the TLD. The international brand awareness, recognizability and uniform spelling of the name of the City, will also contribute significantly to the adoption and use of the this TLD.

ii.
The Registry anticipates that ".amsterdam" will add to the current space more differentiation in the way that it provides registrants the opportunity to have an important new means of showing and/or promoting their brand or shop, identity or community via a TLD that reflects a locality and a bond (to the City and its citizens) in a positive way. This TLD is family of and yet distinctly different from the ".nl" TLD - the most successful TLD in The Netherlands. In terms of competition the Registry will provide the community, stakeholders and visitors of the City of Amsterdam with a TLD that will strengthen their bond to the City and its values and adds more consumer choice in a market dominated by the national ".nl" TLD. Many of the domain names desired by local businesses had been taken by companies elsewhere in The Netherlands and the introduction of the ".amsterdam" TLD gives them a good chance to claim a ‘prime' domain name for their business again. In terms of innovation the City of Amsterdam has traditionally been a national leader in providing IT Services to its citizens and would like the new TLD to reflect that ongoing innovation. With respect to domain name registration the innovative element can be found in the concept that a number of domain names will be reserved and issued in batches to parties with a specific interest in the entire batch of domain names in conjunction with the obligation for the registrant to actively use these domains in line with such specific interest. An example would be the grouping of domain names offered for sale in the area of ‘housing': wonen.amsterdam, woningen.amsterdam, koopwoningen.amsterdam, huurwoningen.amsterdam. The prospective buyer of this cluster has the advantage of owning related domain names to maximize his potential, with the obligation to actively publish and refresh those domain names within a short time frame and with a high frequency after acquisition.

Also, the purchaser of a domain name will be offered the option to receive a gift card, so the acquired domain name can become a present to friends or family - the branding campaign of the City will be used to emphasize these kinds of possibilities.

iii.
The goals of the proposed TLD in terms of user experience is that the TLD will first of all strengthen the bond between the target audience and the City of Amsterdam. It should provide the citizens, companies, institutions and communities with a domain that enhances their communities and/or commerce, while allowing them to express their ties to the City. The ".amsterdam" domain names should therefore be highly visible in the City and online and the major source for any information on the City. Promotion will include all imaginable marketing materials, gift cards (allowing a domain name to be bought and given as a present) - all of which will contribute to the goal of rapid acceptance, recognizability and usage of the TLD. Part of the marketing strategy is to offer domain name holders tools to market the activities on their newly acquired domain name as well. The Registryʹs plan envisages the use of an extensive public relations campaign -starting with the City of Amsterdam's existing marketing campaign "I amsterdam"-, direct mail to target audiences, use of promotional strategies (gifts for the first domain name, such as t-shirts with the .TLD) and media. The Registry also recognizes that marketing for ".amsterdam" ultimately depends on its relationship with registrars as equal partners. Registrars will be the primary point of contact with potential registrants on these TLDs, and the Registry will utilize the channels already developed by registrars of its technical partner SIDN. An important aspect for the user experience will also be that availability of domain names via a broad range of registrars and resellers. SIDN cooperates with around 1.800 registrars on the ".nl" TLD. Amongst them are a number of Netherlands based and also many international ICANN Accredited Registrars who provide domain registration services directly and via resellers to registrants. The response under the Dutch ICANN Accredited Registrars with regard to the ".amsterdam" initiative has been extremely positive and a high availability of registrars and resellers offering ".amsterdam" domain names is therefore to be expected.


18b iv
The registration policies in order to reach these goals the Registry aims to put in place several specific guidelines in the registration process.

The Registry plans to set up the following registration policy:

I - pre-launch
This phase will be used for determining optimal pricing strategies after consultation with registrars, local media partnerships and the branding of the TLD. As there have been relatively few TLD's other than ".nl", we feel we need to place emphasis on setting our ".amsterdam" TLD as a brand.

II- sunrise
During sunrise tradenames and trademark holders can be the first to claim their domain name. This will be a positive experience in the sense that the rightful trademark or tradename holders can prevent someone else claiming their domain names. Thus In this way internet users will find the relevant information of the holder that they expect at this domain name.

III - landrush
This period is both critical in generating the right kind of positive public attitude towards the new TLD as it is for the business plan of the Registry. Therefore most resourcing of the companies involved with be aimed at preparing for and execution during this period. The Registry will reserve several domain names for the City of Amsterdam, which they could use for the promotional activities and offering its services to the public. These reserved domain names for the City of Amsterdam contribute directly to the City of Amsterdam's city marketing goals and those of her Partners. For Example schiphol.amsterdam and airport.amsterdam (Amsterdam Airport)

Next to that a number of domain names will be reserved for the City of Amsterdam and its institutions, several domain names are sold in batches to parties with a specific interest in the entire batch of domain names in conjunction with the obligation for the registrant to actively use these domains in line with such specific interest. Examples of these ‘batches' mentioned above would be "wonen.amsterdam", "woningen.amsterdam", "koopwoningen.amsterdam" and "huurwoningen.amsterdam". By offering these four domain names for sale as a ‘batch' during the landrush period sale, with the conditions of active use within a short period after purchase (to be determined) we can achieve rapid public availability of these strategic domain names. On top of that, by auctioning these batches, we create a level playing field allowing all interested parties to acquire those names (with the conditions mentioned being a part of the sale), while at the same time offering the new owner the strategic advantage of having acquired a coherent set of domain names, which can be considered to be of premium value.

IV launch -
The remaining domain names will be sold on first come, first serve basis.
Wide promotion for the use of the TLD appealing to both wide audiences and specific markets, has the goal of broad acceptance and achieving at least the amount of growth that was projected in the business plan. Promotion will include all imaginable marketing materials, gift cards (allowing a domain name to be bought and given as a present) etc.

While registration and auctions will remain a key element of the Registry's business the first year, they will be supplemented by an increasing focus on the provision of a complete range of services, by either the Registry or the Registrars, to enable its customers to grow their e-commerce.

v. With regard to the protection of the privacy or personal information of registrants and users the Registry will not impose any specific measures. The Registry will consider applying for the permission to restrict WHOIS in accordance with the limitations requested by Fundació puntCAT, the registry operator for the .cat TLD.

The registry refers to the RSEP procedure initiated by Fundació puntCAT on October 5, 2011 under the name ‘Whois changes according to EU data protection legislation'. As the registry is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, it is, as the .cat and .tel registries subject to the EU Data Protection Legislation which is in this case implemented into Dutch law. In short the acceptance of this amendment to the regular WHOIS will lead to the non disclosure of the data associated to the domain names registered by individual registrants that choose so.

The registry chooses however to request the allowance to provide such amended whois services at this stage only as an alternative to the regular whois services that the registry will implement if reaching an agreement on the amended whois services may not be feasible as a result of the current application procedure or if the evaluation of this application is seriously hampered by any discussion or the necessity of extended evaluation.

Although the amended whois is a serious and important element for the Registry, it is at the same time more important for the registry to obtain the delegation in due time. In that case the Registry expects that Registrars will offer Privacy Protect services to (prospective) registrants and will apply for an amended WHOIS via the ICANNʹs Registry Services Evaluation Process (RSEP).

The Registry will adopt a number of operational rules and other measures to eliminate or minimize social costs and other negative consequences and costs imposed on consumers.

18 c i. In general the Registry has the goal to minimize social costs by implementing a Sunrise period that is aimed at delivering domain names to those parties that have an established right to those names and at preventing ‘cyber squatting' for specified generic domain names. In order to achieve that goal, we will implement mechanisms for selling those specified generic domain names that guarantee fair, transparent and market based pricing. As the usage by The City of ".amsterdam" is a contributing factor to the overall success of the adoption of the TLD, The City will keep reserved for its own use a set of domain names that are particular to the City, its bodies and its institutions.

Domain names that are considered to be offensive, or have the potential of tarnishing the reputation of the City, will be blocked for use.

As a part of the policy the Registry will prepare a blocked list of domain names that can not be registered. On this list are names that are blocked for legal reasons or by the policies of ICANN. Examples would be 112.amsterdam (with 112 being the European standardized emergency number) and icann.amsterdam. The Registry will also prepare a list of reserved names. On this list will be names we will not distribute at all (like "sex.amsterdam"), or those that we want to distribute to the City of Amsterdam, its political system, officals, offices, institutions and other affiliated bodies or Partners. Examples would be "gemeente.amsterdam", "ggd.amsterdam", "pvda.amsterdam" and "klm.amsterdam".
Overall the City will take a liberal stance on the registration of domain names, realizing that generally speaking not the domain name itself would be objectionable, but the contents of the website running on the domain name. However, as the City in this particular case clearly aims to disassociate itself from certain reputations deemed to be negative, a few domain names related to those negative reputations would be blocked.


Sunrise Period
During the sunrise period, we aim to minimize the social costs to legitimate owners of Trade Names and Trade Marks. Every request for a domain name will be evaluated and judged by an indepependant Sunrise Service Provider.

Land Rush Period
In this phase The Registry will start selling specific generic domain names that are likely to encounter a higher than average level of interest for purchase. Among those specific generic domain names are:

- named parts of the City

- activities related to the City

- communities in the City

- commercial activities in the City


The following selling mechanisms will be implemented:

- sale of single and generic domain names against a price fixed by The Registry. If multiple parties are interested in a single domain name, we will use a bid mechanism to select the registrant.

- Sale of specific domain names that are related to geographical areas of the City (like the names of streets, boroughs, areas and the likes), those of communities, whereby the following factors carry weight in selecting who will be able to acquire the domain name:

o Projected active use of the domain name

o The ability of a person, community or legal entity to claim the right to, or support for the application of that domain name, based on public criteria to be set in advance.

- Auctioning of single and generic domain names, for which no fixed price will be set in advance.

- Auction of clustered, themed generic domain names that represent a higher combined value to the prospective owner. By selling certain domain names as a cluster, we will significantly reduce the costs for the prospective owner, as he or she needs not apply for multiple domain names at the same time.


After that, the remaining domain names will be sold on first come, first serve basis.

18.c.ii
We aim to offer registrants as many cost advantages as is possible by:

- Preventing cyber squatting and therefore inflation of domain name prices by third parties

- Offering all available protection mechanisms for Trade Mark and Trade Name owners in acquiring their domain names, including the offering the tools for acquiring (at a significant discount) all domain names that include the most likely typo's (utilizing a Typo Tool)

- having the domain names offered by as many Registrants as is possible, maximizing competition and attrative pricing for Registrants. The Registry expects in this respect to directly profit from the excellent relations SIDN already has with a large number of registrars.


18.c.iii
We will not offer domain names for any period longer than ten years. Furthermore, we do not intend to offer any contractual agreements with our Registrants regarding price increases.

Measures for protection of geographic names in the .amsterdam top-level are being taken for Country and territory names (conform Specification 5 in the Base Agreement).

Registry Operator will exclude all country and territory names from registration on the second level, the only level in which registrations will be offered by Registry Operator, specified in Specification 5 of the Base Agreement:

5.1. the short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166- 1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union 〈http://www.iso.org/iso/support/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists/iso-3166- 1_decoding_table.htm#EU〉;
5.2. the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and
5.3. the list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names;.

The names on these lists will be shown in the registries' Whois with status ‘excluded'.

Registration of these names will be limited during the entire lifetime of the .amsterdam top level domain to registrants who are designated by the government or public authority of the concerned country or territory. Authentication of representation is based on the existing methodology developed for release of country names in the .INFO top-level domain.
A government or public authority wanting to register their country or territory name under .amsterdam has to get an authentication by GAC Secretariat. This authentication and the name of the designated beneficiary need to be transferred to Registry Operator, who will issue an authorisation number to the designated beneficiary in the country concerned. The domain name can be registered through an accredited registrar with the designated beneficiary as the registrant, using the authorisation number.
The registrant of these domain names can only be changed after registration if the new designated registrant also has been authenticated by GAC Secretariat.