The .citi Dot Brand
Citigroup
Inc. is a global banking company operating in 160 countries. Its products
and services cover a wide range of offerings to meet financial challenges,
field opportunities and connect millions of people.
Citigroup's
mission as a global citizen is to serve individuals, communities, institutions
and countries. Its application emphasizes innovation. "Applicant
enhances its clients' and customers' lives through innovation that harnesses
the breadth and depth of Applicant's information, global network, world
class products and services..."
The Applicant
is considering using the .citi domain string to enhance the scope of
its famous and trusted brand.
The application
makes the key point that economic inclusion and universal access to
financial services is vital to ensuring that democracy and human rights
reach their full potential.
...the
purpose of the proposed gTLD ("the TLD") is to further assist
Applicant in accomplishing its mission of providing secure online
banking and financial services, economic inclusion, and financial
access through providing customers, clients, affiliates and subsidiaries
with a technologically secure and advanced environment in which to
learn about and access the products and services provided by Applicant
and managing their financial lives.
Upon launch
of the .citi TLD, Citigroup will conduct an initial period of research,
use the TLD for internal testing only, and monitor market trends and
consumer behavior. If this evaluation is positive, only then will the
Applicant provide banking and financial services to the public via .citi
domain names.
The applicant
sees great potential value in having its brand in its new domain names,
and the range of shorter names possible will make them faster to type.
The appendage
of the TLD (.citi) indicates to users what they can expect to find
at that website under the TLD, namely, premier and secure financial
and banking goods and services offered solely by the famous and reputable
Applicant. It also has another added benefit in that web addresses
will become shorter — one impact of a dearth of 'good' web addresses
has been for them to get longer over time.
Further,
the Applicant may proceed "without having to incorporate a non-branded,
non-industry-related term such as .com, .net, or .biz."
Citigroup
believes that great value will accrue from operating its own TLD domain
system, since they will signal to internet users that they are safe
and secure because they are owned in their entirety by the company.
This is fundamentally important: "Because banking and financial
websites have been the targets of fraudulent online activity..."
Consumers
want the most trusted source possible for sensitive services such as
finance. "The goal of the TLD... is to continue to promote Applicant’s
reputation for excellence and high levels of security and advanced and
enhanced technical capabilities." The end result would be that
"customers can reduce their concerns regarding corruption, security,
spam, phishing or false or inaccurate information..."
The Applicant
currently uses a very wide variety of media to communicate with the
public, from press releases to web videos, from apps to social media,
from TV ads to billboards etc. It is envisioned that the new .citi TLD
will be incorporated into these media efforts with the aim of increasing
consumers' knowledge and experience.
The new
TLDs will focus on internet visitors, not Citigroup's aims.
By focusing
on the end user, Applicant will ensure that it is providing the best
specialized user experience possible. To do this, Applicant will employ
customer focused testing to determine what their expectations are
for an Applicant-branded TLD experience and then tailoring the TLD
to its end users.
 Geographic
Dot Brands
After a
thorough review of the Registry Agreement guidelines on the reservation
of certain defined geographical names, Citigroup intends to initially
refrain from registering country domains at the second level (left of
the dot).
...Applicant
will, in connection with its registry services operator and registrar,
initially reserve from registration by any party names with national
or geographic significance at the second level and all other levels
within the TLD during the TLD's Sunrise Period and Trademark Claims
Period.
This launch
policy may well change within a short time frame.
Applicant
may allow the reservation of domain names identical to the above-identified
geographic names only by Applicant. Thereafter, Applicant will ensure...
that the geographic names will be used only... for promoting, providing
information about, andžor offering Applicant's goods and services
directly to the customers or potential customers from the relevant
country or territory indicated by the domain name.
Possible .citi
Brand Domains
Bank.citi
Investment.citi
Loans.citi
PrivateEquity.citi
CreditCard.citi
Citigroup.citi
HedgeFunds.citi
Boston.citi
Notes
Brand
names mentioned on this site are registered trademarks or trademarks
of their respective corporations. This site claims no association
with or endorsement by any of these corporations and their marks are
mentioned only to illustrate opinion presented in the public interest.
All quotations
on this page are from the respective companies' official ICANN brand
TLD applications unless otherwise stated.
Many possible
theoretical dot brands are mentioned (in English). There are also countless
possibilities in other languages. This has significant potential value
for international navigation.
This site
is focused on reporting the strategic impact of the brand domains on
internet communication, competition and commerce, and some comment is
speculative.
It is not
a comprehensive overview of what some of the world's largest corporations
have chosen to reveal about their plans for the implementation of their
proprietary domain strings.
ICANN is
particularly concerned with the technical, financial, security and legal
issues associated with the new TLDs. These issues are beyond the scope
of this website.
For a comprehensive
overview of the brand domains and their impact on the web, refer to
ICANN's website and the individual applications (large parts of which
are publicly published).
If you
have a particular interest in an individual company, the public aspects
of their applications are available for download via these ICANN links:
You can also search a complete list of applicants there.
ICANN
new gTLD applications
ICANN
official website
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