.Store
domains
By 2014, one company
may exclusively own all the following fine shopping domains. These could
number more than one million.
Presented
here is just a partial list. The dot store registry will own every conceivable
dot store domain in existence, with no requirement to divest them to
any other business in the world. Whether they are depends on who becomes
the successful applicant.
Exactly
the same principle applies to the dot shop registry, which could also
likely be the same company. This is the truth as it currently stands.
Just one company may exclusively own every .store and .shop
domain name in the entire world, covering every product in existence.
In marketing
terms, the monopolistic advantage of owning such a valuable shopping
string would be immense. The owner could leverage the innate prestige
and authority of the string across every shopping category. With total
control over the string, no scammers or cheats would be permitted, thus
building further trust. A trust not universally applicable in the dot
com string.
And with
advanced web technology, the websites don't even need to "exist"
in the traditional sense. Rather, they can be dynamic — served
on demand powered by some kind of semantic product engine.
...So theoretically,
you could type BrownLeatherShoes.store into your browser, and
a dynamic virtual site would instantly display with thousands of shoes
for sale.
Amazon,
already the world's largest online store, has applied to own both the
.store and .shop strings.
".STORE
will be a single entity registry, with all domains registered to Amazon
for use in pursuit of Amazon’s business goals. There will be
no re-sellers in .STORE and there will be no market in .STORE domains.
Amazon will strictly control the use of .STORE domains."
Amazon
.store application — Question 28: Abuse Prevention and Mitigation
"A .STORE
registry will...
• Enable
Amazon to protect its intellectual property rights."
Amazon
.store application — Question 18(a): Describe the mission/purpose
of your proposed gTLD
So in theory,
instead of going to Amazon and searching for shoes under "Apparel"
or "Clothing" or "Footwear", you would be able to
find your item via direct navigation in your browser. By visiting MensShoes.store
and countless other sites. All in the knowledge that your shopping experience
would be backed by the reliability and trust that you can expect from
a professionally run company like Amazon.
These strings
aren't limited to mere physical products. All geo names like America.store
& London.store and concept names like Sport.store
and Luxury.store will also be owned by one single registry and
very likely with exclusivity. This would undeniably be anti competitive.
Every future product yet to be invented will also be pre-owned.
As far
as is known by Super Monopolies, the successful winning
registries of domain strings like .store will be able to prohibit
competitors from any access to the string, such as ebay.store, Macys.store,
Harrods.store, Walmart.store and DavidJones.store, iconic
retailers in various countries. The stakes are high — the application
fee for a seat in the high rollers room is $185,000 — winner take
all.
Examples of broad
category domains.
A few general
examples of valuable category defining .store domains:
Examples of concept
and geo domains.
Countless
concept and geo & location sites are destined to be created:
Examples —
the broad apparel category.
Every shopping
category is covered, using apparel as an example:
Examples —
electronics category.
Electronics
and computing is another major category with countless sub-categories:
It's exactly the
same deal with the .shop category.
Every example
on this page applies equally to the .shop gTLD. Here is yet another
premium selection of names:
The .store category
is just one of the hundreds of new gTLDs under consideration. Many
of the serious issues and commercial implications described here also
apply to the other strings. Various companies are seeking sole ownership
of various gTLDs to build a competitive advantage over their rivals.
NOTE: There
are many applications for product strings which you can see in the applicant
list here.
They include major retail products like: .toys, .phone, .book, .movie,
.tires, .wine and .watches.
Applicants for
the .store registry:
There are
seven applicants for the dot store string. You can see ICANN's full
list of applicants here.
It's hard to imagine anyone outbidding Amazon for this particular string,
since this is their core business. Google could, but it's hard to imagine
why they would.
NOTE: If
you look at ICANN's list of applicants, you may need to research who
the applicants actually represent. For example, the "Charleston
Road Registry" is Google.
Applicants for
the .shop registry:
There are
nine applicants for the .shop string. There are even two additional
applications for .shopping.
SPECIAL
NOTE: The author has not read the individual applications for the
above, and does not know which applicants if any are applying for
exclusive ownership of these domains. The author does not state or
imply that any of the applicants is seeking to establish a monopoly
in the wide-ranging field of "store" or "shop".
Only that it is not expressly prohibited by ICANN's application process,
and that some of the world's largest corporations intend to acquire
and implement various gTLDs privately and exclusively. The global
commercial consequences of this unprecedented scenario are unknown.
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