On Fri, 29 Apr 2022 at 13:37, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:

So ... taking this from a valuable discussion to constructive ALAC action that will well-serve registrars, registrants and end-users alike:
(See, Holly, I'm not always pessimistic🙂)

I would like to propose that the CPWG advance to ALAC Official Advice that ICANN provide the resources to support creation and maintenance of a comprehensive public table/database/whatever that describes the various ccTLD policies and features, compared and contrasted to each other as well as to the general policies/features described in the RAA between ICANN and all gTLDs.
This should not be advanced as part of the annual ALAC project allocation request, because that implies a one-shot project with a fixed shelf life. ALAC should advocate this as a permanent component of ICANN's Accountability and Transparency, and ongoing benefit to registrars, registrants and end-users.
If at all possible the content could be coordinated by ALAC, ICANN staff and the ccNSO. If the ccNSO refuses to participate, that should not be an obstacle. (probably the good CC registries will support this, but not all of them are good so ccNSO consensus support may be difficult)
If ICANN does not want ownership of this project for whatever reason, it should still support (ie, resource) the publication of this information through a reliable third party (John's site, perhaps?)
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@evanleibovitch / @el56

On Fri, Apr 29, 2022 at 1:40 AM John McCormac via CPWG <cpwg@icann.org> wrote:
On 29/04/2022 00:18, Carlton Samuels wrote:
> John and Evan have both settled on facts surrounding the ccTLD domain
> business that, while not generally known, are key to their operational
> success.
>
> The marketing of .co as an alternative to .com is serendipity exploited
> for profit. They simply upended the 2nd level UK domain naming
> convention and went for it. Similar arguments sustain the business
> models adopted for .ag, .bz and .pr.
>
> You would have noticed several of those with marquee status are in the
> LAC region. They bring relatively good revenue and wider participation
> in the domain name business to the region that has historically been
> left behind, domain business wise. I can tell you there is no appetite
> to disrupt that revenue flow.

The .CO was a masterclass in marketing, Carlton,
It really set the standard for launching a repurposed TLD. It also
launched in a very different TLD landscape (much less competition from
gTLDs). The repurposed ccTLDs are generally quite good on registrant
rights and it is in the best interests of the registry to operate the
ccTLD well.

The ISO3166 Alpha 2 code for Colombia is CO so it may have been sheer
good luck. One of the main reasons that the .CO did so well was because
it was on Godaddy and that gave it immediate access to the US market.

From building a database of all ccTLD registrars (magnitudes more
difficult than simply checking the ICANN registars), one of the things I
noticed was that many of the larger ccTLDs have brand protection
operators as registrars in addition to their own local registrars.
That's a set of companies with very useful experience in ccTLDs and
knowledge of how they handle registrant rights.

Regards...jmcc
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