The APAC Space web conference meeting was attended by 16 participants from the region, including registries, registrars, and at-large community. The meeting discussed the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review (CCT).

The meeting recording and presentation slides can be found at the APAC Space Community Wiki webpage here: https://community.icann.org/display/GSEAPAC/APAC+Space.

Key action items following the meeting are:

  • Discuss and decide agenda for APAC Space @ ICANN60 (Abu Dhabi) on the discuss@apacspace.asia mailing list. Potential discussion topics for the next APAC Space include:
    • Data Privacy & Protection – led by APAC Space subgroup
    • ICANN Structure Post-IANA transition: Empowered Community
    • ICANN Policy Development Process (PDP) on Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services (RDS)
  • Write to discuss@apacspace.asia to suggest additional discussion topics for APAC Space @ ICANN60 (Abu Dhabi)

Introduction

Jia-Rong Low, VP and Managing Director, ICANN Asia Pacific welcomed the participants.

 Introduction to Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review (CCT)

 Jean-Baptiste Deroulez (ICANN) introduced the New generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Program and the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review (CCT).

The CCT Review team consists of 15 members (including Kaili Kan from APAC region representing At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)). The Review team is further divided into 3 subteams with their respective observations:

i)               Competition & Consumer Choice – New gTLDs registrations accounted for about half of the increase in registrations in all gTLDs. However, there were still low registration numbers; more than 90% of new gTLDs had fewer than 50,000 registrations.

ii)             Safeguards & Trust – Need to define “consumer trust” and to collect more data on DNS abuse.

iii)            Application & Evaluation – general lack of awareness of New gTLD Program and complex application process. Need for greater consistency in dispute resolution proceedings.

Key issues being discussed in the CCT Review are: lack of data on several topics such as pricing; DNS abuse; domain name parking; and protection of trademarks.

The CCT Review team is drafting new sections on DNS abuse and Rights Protection Mechanisms in their draft report. They will seek input on the draft report by end-September. The final report will be sent for Board approval in December 2017.

Community is welcome to participate in the CCT Review outreach session at ICANN60 and related webinars.

Community Discussion

  • Low registration of new gTLDs. A community member suggested that the low registration numbers of new gTLDs could be connected to high domain name prices that discourage consumers from finding good domain names. On whether the Review team had considered pricing in their report, Deroulez replied that while the results for consumer choice for registrants were positive, the Review team noted that more data was needed on competitive pricing.
  • Impact on next round of New gTLD Program. A community member highlighted that the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Proposal (PDP) is closely related to the CCT Review due to the impact of the review recommendations on the next release of new gTLDs. She further noted that the draft CCT Review report indicated some key observations as follows:
    • No clear method of measuring “consumer trust”;
    • Lack of full data or information on price competition;
    • While there was general acknowledgment of an increase in competition resulting in new registries e.g., in China, the phenomenon of trading and speculation could have led to a false positive;
    • Majority of new gTLD applications in 2012 came from North American region, which raised the question of whether there should be more new gTLDs in other regions;
    • Apparent mismatch in consumer expectations on usage of new gTLD strings, e.g., “.book” may not necessarily be used for content on literature or books.
  • Timing of CCT Review and relevance of report. Based on ICANN’s Bylaws regarding Specific Reviews, the CCT Review in particular must be conducted after a New gTLD Round has been in operation for one year. A community member raised that this timeframe may be too short to accurately measure the impact of new gTLDs in the market. As the market is constantly changing, the review may not have considered new, more recent data points on registrations (particularly related to a recent trend of contraction in the market). In response to whether the Review team would consider such new data and adjust its report, Deroulez said that the Review team was aware of this concern and were updating their draft report with new data.
  • Decision-making process for next New gTLD round. A community member asked about the decision-making processing for whether there would be a next round of applications of new gTLDs and when this might take place. Community members responded that the ICANN community would determine whether and when a new round will open. Dr. Stephen Crocker (ICANN Board Chair) had previously responded to Registry Stakeholder Group (RySG) regarding setting a deadline to open the next round of new gTLDs.
  • Domain Name Parking. The Review team defined “parked” domains as domains that are not currently in use but are instead used in speculation or still undergoing preparation. More data is needed to understand the impact of domain name parking.
  • Community can write to input-to-cctrt@icann.org for further queries and feedback.

AOB

  • APAC Space @ ICANN60 (Abu Dhabi) will take place on Wednesday, 1 November 2017, 1:30PM – 3:00PM (local time)
  • A pre-dinner APAC Social will take place for ICANN60 participants on Wednesday, 1 November 2017, 6:30PM – 8:00PM (local time)

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