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And a Look Back at the Key Trends of 2015

Alison Simpson

Sr. Product Marketing Manager

Kiran Malancharuvil

Policy Counselor

Top Domain Strategies for 2016

Key Domain Management Trends of 2015 • Domain Market Growth

• New gTLD Complexities

• Portfolio Optimization

• Domain Security

• ICANN Initiatives

Top Domain Management Strategies for 2016

Agenda

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Key Domain Management

Trends of 2015

Strong Growth in Domain Market

DomainWire Stat Report, January 2016, CENTR.

311.5 MILLION Domain names registered globally

8% Year over year from Q4 of 2014

INCREASE

New gTLD Complexities Challenge Brand Owners

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The Current New gTLD Environment

Source: ntldstats.com January 20, 2016

Top 20 Most Popular Corporate New gTLDs

.sucks .video

.porn .global

.adult .london

.news .website

.online .social

.reviews .网络 (Network)

.sex .club

.公司 (Business organization) .solutions

.nyc .clothing

.support .xyz

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Verticals Register Selectively

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Launch Phases & Withholding of Names

• EAP

• Qualified Launch Program

• Reserved Domain Names

• Name Collision

Brand Owners Pay More

• Sunrise Registrations

• Premium Names

New gTLD Complexities

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Is Anyone Using New gTLDs?

Non-Resolving

Sites, 78.64%

Live or Forwarded

Sites, 21.36%

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Brand Owners Focus on Portfolio Optimization

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Portfolio Strategies Shift

• Rationalizing misaligned portfolios

• Optimizing utilization

• Reducing and containing costs

Goals

• Understand value of existing portfolio

• Effectively promote and protect brands

• Reduce or contain costs

• Capture lost traffic

• Identify domains with resell value

• Benchmark

Why Rationalize and Optimize?

Rationalize Misaligned Portfolios

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• Categorize Domains • Core, Key and Important, Limited

Score > Tier > Review

Understanding Value of Existing Registrations

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Average corporate portfolio contains over 25% limited value domains

Reduce or Contain Costs

What Has Limited Value?

• No Alignment with Trademark

or Marketing Strategy

• Low Risk, Low Value TLDs

High Cost

Restrictive

• Low-- or No– Traffic*

*Be mindful of Internal application/usages

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Capturing and measuring traffic provides important intelligence

• Location of users

• Type of traffic

Resolving domains typically offer a better user experience

• Someone will capture the traffic if you don’t

The volume and type of traffic is a key value indicator

Traffic translates to increased revenue

Why Does it Matter?

Domains Should Be Assets and Not Just Expenses

Domain Utilization

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Domain Security Remains Top Priority

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Registry breaches increase

Domain owners face

evolving threats

Issues resulting from

DDoS, SQL injection and

brute force attacks

Domain Security Remains a Top Priority

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53% of most highly trafficked sites

utilizing Registry Locking

Pre-emptive security measures

can help reduce vulnerabilities

• 2FA, IP Access Restrictions,

Registry Lock

Domain Security Remains a Top Priority

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Threats Targeting Brands

Phishing Activity Trends Report, December 23, 2015, APWG. Verisign Distributed Denial of Service Trends Report, Q3 2015

ICANN Initiatives

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IANA Stewardship Transition and Accountability Initiative

Reviewing the New gTLD Program/Subsequent Rounds

Next Generation Whois – Registration Directory Service (RDS)

Abuse Complaints

ICANN Initiatives Slowly Progressing

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IANA – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

• ICG (IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group) announced

the completion of its work on October 29, 2015 awaiting the

recommendations of the CCWG – Accountability

ICANN Accountability

• Currently GNSO Council is reviewing public comments

Human Rights

Remit/Responsibilities and Policy Development

• How do we keep ICANN as an organization, accountable to the

multistakeholder community?

IANA Transition/ICANN Accountability

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Final Issue Report Published – Draft Charter Approved by Council

• Key Brand Issues

Top-level RPMs

Second-level RPMs

Premium Pricing, Reserved Names

.BRANDs

Contract Enforceability

Consumer Trust, Choice and Competition

Timing

Earliest – 2018(?)

New gTLD Subsequent Rounds

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Estimated Timeline (prior to delays)

23 https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/reviews

Privacy/Proxy Services Final Report Approved

• Relay/Reveal/Disclosure

• Implementation Working Group

Next Generation Registration Directory Services (Whois)

• PDP launched – January 26, 2016

Brand owner participation welcome and encouraged (www.icann.org)

• Gated, centralized model

Whois

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Abuse Complaints and ICANN’s Role

ICANN’s Remit and Responsibilities

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2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement

• 3.18 – Duty to respond appropriately to reports of abuse

• Whois Accuracy Specification

Voluntary Practices of Registrars and Registries

• Standard best practices in development

How to notify third parties

What to include

What to expect

Abuse Complaints - Where to go?

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Domain Strategies for 2016

Avoid Over-Registrations

Implement and Enforce Domain Policies

Important questions to address

• What should be registered?

• When should domains be registered?

• Who is allowed to request a registration?

• Who is allowed to approve a registration?

• What’s the process to register a domain?

• What’s the process to purchase domains from third parties?

• Where do names point?

• What’s the process for deciding which names to let expire, or sell?

• Budget limitations?

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Consolidate Portfolios

Work with Marketing, IT, eCommerce, and Legal to identify

registrations

Compare trademark holdings against domain name

registrations

Utilize Reverse Whois to uncover lost registrations

Align Domain Strategies with Policing and Enforcement Programs

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Ensure domain registration and renewal strategies are

aligned with policing and enforcement programs

Alignment

Registration & Renewal Strategies

Ensure proper levels of coverage

Categorize brands

Align with trademark strategy and marketing strategy

Policing and Enforcement Programs

Leverage policing and blocking

Monitor for abuse

Leverage URS or UDRP

Domain backordering

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Categorize brands

• Core

• Key

• Important

• Limited

Align with trademark and marketing strategy (search and

keyword)

Ensure Appropriate Levels of Coverage

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Acknowledge that defensive registrations no longer ensure

protection

• Registering every variation, typo-squat, and misspelling is

impossible

Utilize blocking

• Be aware that short or generic brands may not be eligible

Monitor for abusive registrations

• Take action ONLY when necessary

• Start with C&D

• Leverage URS or UDRP

Leverage Policing and Blocking

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Using Rights Protection Mechanisms

C&D

• Cost effective

• Automated through Brand Product

• Compliance is voluntary

URS

• $375 filing fee

• Applicable only to new gTLDs

• Suspends domain(s)

UDRP

• $1,500 filing fee

• Applicable to all gTLDs and some ccTLDs

• Transfers domain(s)

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Low cost solution to automate registration of expiring domains

Domain backordering 10-12 years ago

• Registration of deleting domains upon true expiration

Domain backordering today

• Providers have exclusive rights to re-sell domains

• Multiple requests through the same provider result in auction

• Using multiple providers is key

Domain Backordering

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When to consider purchasing a domain over enforcement • New product or service launch

• Registrant also has ownership rights

• Lack of provable bad faith

• One or more of the UDRP requirements can not be met

• Other avenues are not available or practical

• Dispute policy non-existent or too expensive

• Tight deadline

• Cost to purchase is low - Be mindful of rewarding infringers

Best Practices • Purchase anonymously

• Determine budget and strategy

• Expectations should be in line with a domain’s value

• Consider the owner and how the name is being used

• Set internal policies and controls

Domain Acquisitions

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Secure and Protect Critical Assets

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Preemptive security measures provide peace of mind • Two-factor authentication

• Registry and portal locking

• IP access restrictions

• Forced password updates

• Automated email notifications of domain name changes

Operational policies • Logins, passwords or auth codes never revealed

• Limit account access

Secure and Protect Critical Assets

1. Lock core domains at the Registry level wherever possible

2. Employ 2FA for accessing domain management / DNS management portals

3. Implement DNS monitoring to identify unauthorized changes at the registry

4. Never share login credentials for domain / DNS management portals

5. Disable ability to edit core domains for all users

6. Continually manage and review secondary user accounts

7. Require mandatory password updates

8. Implement IP access restrictions

9. Receive automated notifications of every domain name update

10.Utilize a corporate-only, hardened registrar

Security Best Practices

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Check global availability using

trusted Whois

Determine coverage based

upon brand value and promotional

strategy

Utilize third-party registrar when

confidentiality is required

Be Aware of Timing

Treat New Brands with Care

41 | Confidential

Maximize the Value of Existing Portfolio

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Where are your domains pointed?

Domain Utilization

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Where Do Corporate Names Resolve?

Capture Lost Traffic

Every Domain Should Have a Purpose

49% 44%

4% 3% CompanyContentDoes NotResolveParked Page

PPC, Other

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Best Practices

Domain Utilization

Align utilization with search optimization strategy

Leverage use of Web-forwarding

Example of common approach to where to forward secondary

domains

• Misspellings, Typo squats, Variations => Core Sites

• Product names => Product Pages

• ccTLDs and IDNs => Native Language Pages

• New gTLDs => Home or Product Pages

• Derogatory Pages => Feedback or Blank Pages

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Optimization Best Practices

Perform Yearly Rationalization Exercise

Consolidate and Score

Selectively Register or

Recover High Value Domains

Implement and Enforce

Policies

Ensure Domains

Resolve to Relevant Content

Leverage Blocking

and Policing

Retire Low-Value, Low-

Risk Domains

Sell when appropriate

Regular Review

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New gTLD Cost Containment

Select registrations and renewals

Leverage Blocking

Police and take action when necessary

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Stay Informed and Get Involved

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More Information

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Consider Active Participation

ICANN Business Constituency

• Bizconst.org

Intellectual Property Constituency

• Ipconstituency.org

Brand Registry Group

• Brandregistrygroup.org

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Q&A

Featured Speakers

Alison Simpson

Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Domain Management

MarkMonitor

Kiran Malancharuvil

Policy Counselor

MarkMonitor

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Thanks You!

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www.markmonitor.com

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