Re[2]: [wg-c] Private TLDs

["William X. Walsh" <william@dso.net>]

Thursday, August 12, 1999, 1:04:08 PM, John Charles Broomfield <jbroom@manta.outremer.com> wrote:


>> Kent Crispin wrote:
>> 
>> > Do you think there might be some demand for private TLDs?  Maybe
>> > more than a few hundred?
>> 
>> The demand for private TLDs is not clear. But it is possible that such
>> a demand will develop, and that it could pass into the thousands.
>> I suspect that you will use this in an attempt to scare some of our
>> more conservative colleagues into rejection of an open, registry-driven
>> market for TLDs.
> (...)
>> The most reasonable way to anticipate the scale of demand for
>> private TLDs would be to look at the number of large, privately-
>> managed corporate networks. They run in the low thousands.
>> Their number is declining with the rise of Internet and VPNs.

> A while back, only established networks dared request their own SLD. Now
> just about anyone who wants to even have the slightest "serious" look when
> doing business "needs" their own domain name on their business card. (I'm
> not going into debating whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm just
> stating that it is so, the proof being that there are 6million? .com names).
> Entities requesting their own SLD started slow, but now it's really up to
> speed (and accelerating).
> Just about all estimations of growth of ANYTHING on the internet have been
> generally 1-5 magnitudes of order too low, so why not not for companies
> demanding their own private TLDs too?
> Only those that have their own established network need a private TLD...
> sure, same thing a few years ago for private SLDs...

> Thing is that once one comapny gets their own TLD (say AOL with ".aol"),
> then others will also want their own TLD, and will rightfully argue that if
> X can have a privatly owned TLD, why can't they?

Only if they are willing to sign the contract involved, that includes
the assignment of that TLD and related IP to another party should they
not fulfill the terms of the contract.

I seriously doubt there would be many private companies wanting
something like .ibm if it could end up being run by someone else if
they decide they want out of the business, or if they don't meet up to
the standards specified for whatever reason.


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