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Under the latest ICANN's policy, who would like to bid the highest amount for the exclusive global rights to the new domain suffix .dubai? Such a suffix will create a powerful domain root that will corner some 180 services underneath it, like go.dubai,
hotel.dubai, job.dubai, cars.dubai or fly.dubai. Who would be the next global cyber-branding leader of this new millennium? Are auctions the right methods to sell such mega-marketing channels? ICANN, the Internet Authority, is looking into auctioning off such popular name identities. A billion dollars going once... Billion dollars going twice... Sold to the person from Russia with the diamond-studded cell-phone.

The new auction policy raises some serious questions - if the city of London had the www.london.london domain, it could offer thousands of sub-brands to its hundreds of local services, from the main root like taxi.london, shows.london or jobs.london. This highly-focused, very profitable, and globally accessible marketing tool will create hundreds of new leader brands. Some 630 services may successfully operate under this new London suffix.

But if the .london suffix is offered on the auction block, there will certainly be mega-funds on the table, as bidders fight all the way till the 15th knock-out round, and a winner is declared, while being televised via you.bid. If this was the case, there is no way London city would let this golden opportunity slip to any other outside interests, and will find the big bucks at any cost.

But ideally speaking, the city of London should be the rightful owner of its own domain, and not simply because it is the highest bidder. Based on rules of the rightful ownership of a domain must be traced back to its originating party, meaning that. London belongs to London City Hall and Dubai belongs to Dubai.

In an interview at BBC TV following the June 30th announcement with ICANN, President Dr. Paul Twomey explains the issues further:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7475986.stm

Soon other languages will be added on the Internet, and add billions of users to the Internet with hundreds of millions of new customers online. The City of Wales just allocated $ 50,000 to lobby and study the subject, so they can stay ahead of the game, and make sure their Welsh name .cym meaning "ruler" is not picked up by some other party through the popular usage of CYM, the Internet abbreviation for "Check Your Mail".

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Naseem Javed, recognized as a world authority on corporate image and global name identities, is a harsh critic of casual and accidental naming. He is a dynamic speaker on corporate image and branding issues, and is also the author of Naming for Power. He founded ABC Namebank International, an image and branding consultancy over 25 years ago.
Website: www.abcnamebank.com
Article posted on August 18, 2008.