ICANN has released the results of its Independent Review Process (IRP) on the governance of the new generic top-level domain .WEB, initially considered the most promising one during the first stage of the new gTLD program. Many experts believe that with proper management, it has potential for competing with .COM. The domain was auctioned in 2016, with the unknown company Nu Dot Co unexpectedly winning, paying a record bid of $135 million for the domain. It soon became clear that its winning bid was financed by Verisign, which became the actual owner of the domain.
Nu Dot Co’s main competitor, Afilias, was not happy about this turn of events. For almost five years now, it has been seeking to overturn the auction results, and, although the company has since been acquired by Donuts, the war continues. The IRP was one battle. The final hearings were held in June last year, but there is still no final ruling. However, now at least the positions of the parties are clear. Domain Incite founder Kevin Murphy reviewed the documents and reports that Verisign clearly shows “affinity for cognitive dissonance.”
Afilias' accusations boil down to the fact that Verisign, using the services of a front company, obtained the right to manage a domain that could compete with its .COM, and is now artificially slowing down its growth. In response, Verisign representatives offered assurances that, on the contrary, they acquired .WEB to promote growth of the domain space, considering that .COM is almost used up. This is a really strange claim, to put it mildly. A quick glance at Verisign’s own statistics makes it clear that .COM has grown steadily over the past ten years, and its growth rate has not decreased in any way. Moreover, several years ago the .XYZ registry released a sensational video ad claiming that there were no more suitable domain names in .COM, and registrants should take a closer look at new domains (first of all, of course, at .XYZ). That is, the ad claimed exactly what the Verisign representatives themselves now claim, but at the time the company sued .XYZ for libel.
While rejecting accusations of trying to "bury" a potential rival, Verisign argues that, in fact, .WEB’s prospects are highly questionable. It cites a certain expert from the University of Chicago, who claims that even under the most favorable growth scenario, the maximum market share of .WEB would not exceed 2−3%. There are two contradictions in this claim. First, if .WEB’s prospects are slim, then why did the company acquire it and claim that this was done for the purpose of growing the domain space? And second, even 3% of the global domain market means more than 10 million domain names. For example, .ORG numbers are similar and yet, it cannot be qualified as insignificant. In its efforts to prove its case, Verisign has constantly contradicted itself and, indeed, common sense. It remains to be seen whether ICANN will reach the same conclusion.
