Internet Name Debate Heats up over .name Windfall - Brief Article

Information Superhighways Newsletter, August, 2001

With no major initiatives on the table, the upcoming meeting of the world's controversial Internet naming authority is likely to focus on new registries such as .name that are looking to upstage .com.

ICANN, which recently met in Sweden's Stockholm for its quarterly conference, chose seven companies to operate parts of the master list of domain names last November.

Each company will have the rights to sell names with new suffixes: .name, .biz, .info, .museum, .pro, .coop, and .aero in order to create more choice alongside the current trio of generic domains ending with .com, .net, and .org.

Global Name Registry, the tiny Internet upstart behind the .name registry, is expected to reap millions of dollars from handing out domain names to individuals, and plans to use that cash to become the electronic worid's main identity tool.

"Your name could become your cell phone number," said Andrew Tsai, CEO of the 40-employee Global Name Registry.

Not only will a person's name become his e-mail address and Web page, but a single name and password should also be enough to transfer money and pay for on-line purchases on electronic devices from a PC to a handheld computer and a mobile phone.

Will .name prove a license to print money?

It may sound like a welcome initiative that will allow people to get rid of bucket loads of passwords, but some argue that it is a lot of power for a small outfit that is set to obtain an exclusive right to sell a person's own name.

It also puts the spotlight on the controversial Internet organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which gives companies like Global Name the opportunity to squeeze an annual $5.25 from a person named John Smith for letting him have "john.smith.name."

"This is a decision of immense consequence. [Global Name] will be given the right to this huge source of information that it can leverage for other businesses," said Jon Weinberg, professor of law at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, and member of ICANNwatch, a group that tracks ICANN.

Consider the marketing potential if one company owned all the world's mailing lists and phone directories. Global Name has a long way to go to realize that dream, but it's been given a good headstart with the rights to the .name suffix.

Rather than one company receiving a license to sell one particular collection of domain names, ICANNwatch would have preferred to see competition among rivals to sign up subscribers for .name and the other new domains.

ICAN, which was put in place by a US government task force in 1998, has already signed definitive contracts with two companies and is expected to finalize two more exclusive deals around the Stockholm meeting, on of which is Global Name.

Network of Resellers to Sell .name Addresses:

How many names it expects to sell through dozens of affiliated registrars, Global Name does not disclose, but it could easily run into many millions. In fact, it expects such a run for unique personal names that it will organize up to 10 cyber "land rushes," starling this summer.

Each land rush will last two weeks during which individuals can request to register their domain name, consisting of two parts (usually first and last name) plus the suffix .name.

If two or more individuals in the same land rush claim the right to an identical domain name, Global Name will randomly choose one.

The right to register a name will cost more than the $5.25 a year Global Name is asking, because the company will use some 80 resellers, so-called registrars, who will add their own profit margin and may charge annual subscription fees of some $30.

However, some banks or telecom operators may subsidize a person's domain name in an attempt to buy customer loyalty. Global Name realizes only too well it will have the right to sell a unique asset.

London-based Global Name Registry, the only of the seven new Registries to be based outside the US, is a spin-off of a Norway-based free e-mail service, Nameplanet.com, and is backed by venture capitalists, Carlyle Europe Venture Partners, Four Seasons Ventures AS, and Northzone Ventures AS.

Despite the advantage of having potential access to a huge pool of personal identities, Global Name is not alone in its aim to set the standard for digital IDs.

US-based software giant Microsoft Corp. claims it has collected some 160 million personal profiles through its Web-based e-mail service, Hotmail. It intends to use these profiles, dubbed Passports, to unlock a host of e-services.

Expect these and other technology companies such as AOL Time Warner, with its own vast membership base, to start hunting for partners that will give them access to services and technology to establish their place in this lucrative market.

"Digital IDs will become a big story in the next 12 months," Tsai predicts.