Hey, everybody. We are going to get started here. Thanks everybody for tuning in for dot brands. Lauren Tracey from GoDaddy Corporate Domains is gonna be walking us through some real life case studies for, dot brands, so top level domains in a in a company's name. She's gonna be talking us through what they are, what the application process looks like, what some of the pros, cons, and the ROI, on this. What this whole new world of digital identity for companies and organizations is going to be. Really excited to have her here today. Before we get started, I'm just gonna talk through some housekeeping items as, everybody is joining. You will see that there is a chat on the right-hand side. You're welcome to jump in there and tell us what you had for breakfast today, where you're tuning in from. It's great to see everybody chatting over there. Another thing on the right-hand side, there's a Q&A section. We will have a Q&A at the end. We're gonna Lauren's gonna talk for about, twenty, thirty minutes, and then we'll do about fifteen minutes of Q&A. We're gonna try to get everybody out of here promptly at the forty-five-minute mark. But please submit your questions in the Q&A. That lets us pull them up on screen so we can read them for Lauren and just keeps us really nice and organized for this. If you throw them in the chat, that's okay too. You will get a recording after. You'll also get a copy of the slides. Feel free to follow-up directly with with us or with Lauren, if you are, if you don't see that, if it ends up in your spam or something like that. But we're easy to reach. You'll see our contact info and other things towards the end of this. A little bit about us over here at urllo. If you don't already know, urllo is the unified link management platform for IT, marketing, and SEO teams. We've been doing this for about a decade. We've built a one kind of, like, unified workspace, where teams can manage all their three zero one redirects, branded links, QR codes across any domain, any website, and any sort of, like, web presence that they own. We're trusted by about a thousand customers worldwide, and you can see some of the names down there, at the bottom. I'm very excited to have Lauren here with us today. Lauren is the domain advisory manager over at GoDaddy corporate domains. GoDaddy corporate domains provides expert technology and support for domain strategy, brand protection, and security. Lauren has been active in policy spaces and with ICANN for about eight years, and I'm very excited for her to be here and share her expertise around dotBrands, what's happening in the market, and what's coming up for the next round. I'm just gonna pull Lauren up on the stage here. Hello, Lauren. Welcome to the urllo expert series. Thanks, Matt. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah. Thank you for covering it with my intro, but definitely, I kind of think of myself as in the branding world, specifically focused on the niche of domain names. So it's fun. I learn a lot about lots of different companies and how they how they deal with domains. So keeps it interesting. Perfect. That's great. We do have a quick poll that we're just gonna pull up here as Lauren and I are chatting, before we dig into her presentation. That should be up on the screen very shortly. Lauren, how did you sort of get into the domain strategy, domain management space? Yeah. That's a great question. I think everybody asked me that because it is sort of a niche world. So I actually did a lot of marketing and advertising after college and then stumbled my way into working at a smaller consulting firm in Washington, DC that worked in the domain space, specifically doing domain strategy consulting. So I was there for about four years, and then I was looking for my next thing and saw this opportunity at GoDaddy corporate domains, doing very much the same thing, just with a different audience. And so decided to move over there and have been doing more of that since then. That's great. I imagine it's a very kind of like fast-changing environment right now. I know the last round of kind of, like, new top-level domains availability was in 2012. The next round is opening up in 2026, in a few months. How much interest are you seeing in this topic? Yeah. It's a great question. It's funny. If you'd asked me about a year ago, I would say, oh, I don't know that it's gonna be a lot of interest in the next round. But in the last four months, I would say there's a lot of interest. I think, you know, sort of it's really come back on people's radar and sort of been like, Okay, well, do we need to do this? Are we going to do it? What do I need to know? So I've definitely been fielding a lot of questions and a lot of interest as we get closer to that opening date next April. So I'm excited to hear that other people are excited. This has sort of been my area, my realm that I've been hanging out in since the last round. So for people to be asking more questions about it is really exciting for me. Great. Well, I'm gonna get out of here and throw over to you, and really excited to learn from you today. Here we go. Great. Thanks, Matt. Yeah. I'm really excited to sort of talk you through, you know, what are dotBrands? What's the next round? What do you want to use these Dot Brands for? So just very quickly, I want to look at, you know, give everybody some context for that next round. What happened in 2012? What can we expect to see in 2026? Including giving you an idea of the timeline from application to delegation. What is the cost? How do you prepare to apply? And then we'll do more of a deep dive on how you can use a dotBrand? How have other people used a dot brand since 2012? Really getting into the nitty-gritty of why you might want to make that investment. So we want to set a foundation here of why this exists, right? So, looking back in 2012, the new TLD program was ICANN, and ICANN is the governing body, their effort was to expand the internet namespace. Before 2012, we mostly had .com, .org, .net, all those, and some country codes like .ca for Canada, .uk for the UK. But that was pretty much the extent of options to the right of the dot. But then, when the 2012 round happened, basically it opened up that internet namespace, allowing other people to apply and to own their own TLD. So that was really the idea for the first round. They had a policy in place for who could apply that kind of thing, basically to make sure that things ran as smoothly as possible. But they'd never done this before, right? So there were definitely some things that happened in the evaluation period after the applications were submitted that were sort of a surprise. They weren't really expecting a lot of they didn't really anticipate that brands would want to own these things, own these TLDs. So that was sort of a new carve-out that they had to create after the applications closed. So speaking on that more broadly, really, were TLDs that were applied for in the last round could kind of fall into two categories. You have your open TLDs, which anyone can register in, like .shop is an example of that. You can go to GoDaddy or any registrar and register a .shop for yourself. Then there are restricted community TLDs, which have more requirements for registration. So .lawyer, you have to be a lawyer. You have to submit some paperwork to in order to apply for one of those. .Realestate is another example of that. And then there's .brands, which are namespaces owned and operated exclusively by single companies. So basically, it makes it so the brand is the only one that can register domains under that TLD, under the .brand. And that exclusivity is really what makes .brands really powerful. It gives them security, control over the namespace, and really an ability to innovate in that space. So, focusing more on dot brands, we saw around five hundred dot brands launch after the twenty twelve round. Some companies use them a lot, and we'll talk more about that later. Some companies decided not to use them and ultimately decided to terminate them. So there are currently around three seventy five, around four hundred existing dot brands that are in use now. So as Matt said, the first now we're having a new round that's opening next year. And so this is the first time since 2012 that this window is opening again. And so we're anticipating people who missed that last round will want to apply in this next round. So I'll give you a little more insight into who we're thinking we might see apply. Right? We don't have a crystal ball, but we're sort of listening to what people are saying. And this is what we're thinking we're going to see. We're definitely going to see a lot of applications in the Web3 space. Players like Unstoppable Domains and D3 are some companies that have already announced plans to apply for multiple strings, sometimes in partnership with existing Web3 companies, and they will try to operate both in Web2 and Web3. On the dotBrand front, we will definitely see some established companies who have grown and added brands since twenty twelve like Amazon and Google. We can expect them to apply for more strings to add to their existing portfolio of dot brands. There are also a lot of companies that didn't exist in twenty twelve that are big players on the scene now, like OpenAI and Uber, for example, that will likely apply for dotBrands in this next round. And then to round things out, we'll definitely see some more applications for those open TLDs by existing registry operators like Identity Digital looking to expand their portfolio of TLDs. So in terms of numbers, I would say at this point, conservatively, I'm expecting around a similar number of applications that we saw last time, which was around two thousand. So again, I don't have a crystal ball, but people do ask, like, how many are you going to apply? And I wish I knew, but that's my guess for now. So it might change in a couple of months, but that's where I'm putting my stake in the ground at this point. So now I want to talk through some more details about what to expect for this next round. And so I've got this timeline slide here, I've which I've made based on, and I wanna just make sure that everybody knows that these are not published dates yet. These are our estimates based on the timeline that ICANN has said it will take X amount of time from application to reveal day. So we've put dates in here, but these are completely subject to change. And ultimately, what's going to determine these dates is when ICANN announces the official opening date of the application period. And we're expecting that date to be announced sometime this month when they publish the applicant guidebook, which is the guide for how to apply for TLD in the next round. So there's a lot on this timeline, right? There's a lot happening between application and delegation. I want to call out a couple of specific points here. Application period is the first period on the map, right? That's when you're submitting your application. You say I want a TLD, I want a dot brand. You submit an application during this period. We are expecting it will open in late April and likely run till late July or early August. It's about, you know, around twelve weeks, probably is what we're looking at. From there, there's some administrative work that ICANN has to do internally just to check some boxes and make sure all the applications are submitted correctly. And then we have reveal day. Reveal day we're expecting to happen sometime between late April or sorry late September or early October of twenty twenty six. And this is really going to depend on how many applications they receive because they have to do that internal work and process those applications. That's going to really determine when reveal day will be. Reveal day is when all of the strings that have been applied for are announced publicly. So that's the day when we will know for sure how many applications were submitted, who applied for what, and it will sort of determine how the rest of the round proceeds. So from there through to that last dot on this timeline, there's a lot that happens. There's a lot of evaluation by ICANN. There's an evaluation by groups that participate within ICANN. So we are estimating that it will likely take, you know, until late twenty twenty seven, early twenty twenty eight to complete all of the steps on this chart for TLDs that don't have any issues. Right? So that's just like best best-case scenario, you will delegate a TLD by late 2027, early 2028. So, you know, that's a really important thing to remember, especially if you're going to communicate about, you know, do we want to do this internally? It's not just about applying and getting a TLD. It's sort of a multi-year and that's something I want to make sure everybody knows. Like, I always try to bring that up because it's not just a one-and-done. So I keep talking about this application. Right? What do you need to do to apply? There are a lot of steps. I talked about the applicant guidebook, which ICANN is publishing. It's over four hundred pages. So it's a very big document. It's kind of my job to distill that. We're going to help some of our clients apply in this next round. So essentially, I'm giving them a checklist of what the things are you need to submit in order to apply for this next round. So this is just a quick list. This isn't everything, just giving you an idea. You have to have your basic GTLD information. So, what string are you applying for? And then for .brands, you need a signed mark data file in the trademark clearinghouse, basically confirming that you are the trademark owner of the mark you're applying for. Obviously, there's a payment involved. So the application costs $227,000 and then for brands, there's an additional five hundred dollars trademark validation fee for each application. So that is due at the time of application. There are a lot of supporting materials you have to submit. Like I said, four hundred pages in that document. There's definitely a lot to go through. Basically, you just have to say you're ready to run a registry, and that involves financial statements, you know, readiness plans, and that's all something that you can build yourselves internally or you can have a consultant help you build that out. And then finally, need some information about your organization. So legal entity details, corporate structure, and key contact information. All of this is then submitted through TAMs, which is their TLD management system. And once that's done, your application is submitted. So definitely a lot of steps to get through, but is helpful to have people who are in the know on your side on that. So let's look at the overall cost. I did mention the application fee. There are some additional costs involved. So, the pre-application period, which is basically now until you submit your application, you have the option to hire someone to consult on whether or not you want to apply, and how to sell it internally. You can hire someone to help you out with that. That is something that we provide. There's other companies that do it as well. And then the application, there's obviously that required fee that I mentioned. I also mentioned that we do application drafting and submission and that we charge $25,000 for that. But there are other people out there that do it as well, all around the same price range, to be honest. Application review and evaluation. So that long period of time between when your application is submitted to when you delegate, you can have someone manage that process for you. There will likely be questions that come in from ICANN, from reviewers, so you can have someone support you on that as well. And then that last part is after delegation. So what is your annual cost? There is an annual ICANN fee, which is twenty-five thousand dollars. There's a data escrow management fee, which is roughly four thousand dollars a year. And then there's a back-end provider. So essentially, the back-end support is helping you manage your TLD. Pretty wide range there, from ten thousand to forty thousand dollars a year. Essentially, you're looking at a likely around fifty thousand dollars annual cost to maintain this TLD. So it's definitely an investment and I think that's why I want to talk more in the next round about, you know, how you could use this? Why have other companies bought into it? How are they using it? Just to give you an idea of, you know, what this asset is. So we'll talk first about some marketing examples here and how having a dot brand really gives you the keys to creating interesting campaigns and also security. So basically, your dotBrand gives you the ability to create clean, memorable digital experiences. Instead of working within the limitations of dot com or trying to find available names or having to buy names, you can build marketing moments that feel intentional and authentic because every domain reflects your brand. So in this example here, we have got swoosh. Nike up on the screen. It's really an example of how .brands can transform campaign URLs. So swoosh. Nike was an example where they were redirecting people to the swoosh. Nike site, which is a really powerful name. And then we have another example, is partyrock. Aws. These domains really become part of the storytelling and make every campaign easier to promote, easier to remember, and, again, more aligned with your brand. The next example here is what we call freedom to create without collisions. Basically, adopting a brand removes naming constraints. You can have one unified namespace across all your markets and product lines, which means not having to have brand dot com versus brand uk dot co dot uk brand Germany dot com. You know, we've seen all of those examples. So in this slide, we've got Fage and I really love this example because they never were able to purchase Fage.com. It was owned by a third party. And so they had a variety of different domains that they were using to host their main content. So in 2012, they went all in on .fage and they were able to use .fage to host all their regional content on sites like usa. gr.fage, which is their site for Greece, and uk. fage, which is their site for the United Kingdom. Really gives them the opportunity to just own that namespace and not have to worry about paying someone else to buy fiat dot com. And then we've got seamless end-user journeys. So, because everything sits under a single brand control TLD, you are really creating that seamless journey for customers but also employees. I really love this example of Fox because I personally, I know onboarding can be a pain. Right? And so what Fox has done with their dot brand is they have getstarted. Fox, which is the one site for all of their onboarding materials. So essentially, they send that to employees, and that's where you do all of your onboarding. Another example here is on .city. So Citibank uses .city for all of their branded short links. It makes it simple, clear, and unmistakable. So it's really just streamlining those journeys. So now I want to talk about security, which I touched on a little bit, but there's definitely a lot here. So this is it's going to be more meaty. Essentially, a dotbrand is not just a marketing asset. It's a trusted controlled namespace. Because only your organization can register names, you eliminate the noise and risk that comes with open TLBs. It becomes a safer, cleaner environment for both your teams and your customers. So there are two types of security that domain managers have to get right. Technical security, which is protocol-level controls like DNSSEC, HSTS, and DMARC. And then there's operational security. Who is it that's allowed to create domain names? Who changes records, issues certificates, sends mail? And how do you enforce those policies of who is doing what? What's great about a dot brand is that it strengthens both technical and operational security in one step. Because the brand controls every domain, you eliminate outside registrants, reduce spoofing risk, and ensure DNS and HSTS consistency, as well as email protections across your entire namespace. From a governance standpoint, this means fewer enforcement actions and a smaller legal exposure surface for phishing or misuse. In short, dotBrands turns your online space into a closed, verified ecosystem where authenticity is built in by design. Think of it as kind of turning your web presence into a data community. Only your organization holds the keys. So what I love about this is there's actually data that backs this up as well. We've seen that phishing almost entirely disappears within the dot brand environment compared to the open internet. So in open TLDs like dot com and other generics, phishing is measured in not thousands, but millions. I'm sure everyone has seen ,phishing through text or email or just on the web. We see those all the time, and they happen mostly in those open GTLDs. There are a couple as well in CCTLDs, but in that dot brand space, the number is essentially zero. And this data comes from ICANN and then a couple of outside sources as well as our own data, but we're basically seeing effectively zero phishing within dot brands. And the reason for that is simple, right? A dot brand is a closed registry. There are no third-party registrations. DNS changes are tightly controlled and consistent security policies apply across every domain. You know, attackers tend to go where the friction is lowest, right? Where can they easily get in without having to jump through a lot of hoops? And that is not a dot brand, right? It's going to be your generic TLDs. So that's why major global brands are leaning into this model. They're using their dot brand domains to deliver critical, high-trust services where authenticity really matters. So I'll show you a couple of examples here of those high-trust sites. So there's a lot of big brands here, right? Google uses .Google. They use it really broadly. They're one of the big users. But I want to call your attention to about. Google and safety. Google. safety.Google is actually where they host all of their content about how to be safe on the internet. Right? And that really drives the point home of how they feel about .Google because they're hosting this, don't click on educational information on their own dot brand. So I think that's really powerful. Then we have Lily. So Eli Lilly uses tap.Lily basically serves as a guide for how to administer certain medications. So that's really important sensitive information that they felt most comfortable hosting on .lily because of those security benefits. Amazon also, again, in the health care space, they have PharmacyServices. Amazon. They're hosting that sensitive information there. Toyota uses ID. Toyota to help with vehicle servicing access across their different franchises. And Vanguard and ICE again use this for internal purposes. So steeringcommunity. Vanguard. These are really great examples of truly secure sites that need to be super secure and they have that great option of using their brand for that. So basically, to sum this section up, with the brand, customers don't have to guess which version of a site is real. Because it ends in your brand, they know they can trust it. And it gives your internal teams a really flexible naming system for those marketing recruiting events and all domains that you would normally have gone out and bought a dotcom for. Every digital touch point really is reinforcing that trusted brand across your namespace. So that kind of goes into this next group of examples here, which is digital real estate. And so your doc brand really gives you your ownership of your digital real estate, right? It's that namespace that you own. Instead of relying on the availability of other names, you control the entire namespace and it's super secure. So, because every name in your TLD in your brand is available to you, you avoid the cost and frustration of trying to buy unavailable domains or negotiating with third parties. I can't tell you how many people I've helped navigate buying a domain after the fact, after they decided this is the name we really want. Then they realize, oh, somebody else owns it and it's, you know, sort of it's usually a pretty expensive conversation. So even when there isn't a direct ROI for this large project, it isn't the primary driver. The predictability and freedom of having that namespace gives your team the freedom to not worry about conflicts of having to go out and buy a domain. So I think that's really another great argument. Dot brands reduce risk before it even appears. Since you can only register domains, cyber squatting and lookalike threats drop dramatically. No one else can have your dot brand or something that looks like your dot brand. So it's fewer defensive registrations, fewer takedowns, and a smarter use of enforcement resources. Basically, the namespace becomes a protective layer around your brand. .Brand also gives you the opportunity to turn risk into insight. So creating those situations where, like safety.Google, it's an education opportunity. We've seen some companies turn recovered or defensive domains and get those back, redirect them to their dotBrand where they're hosting an educational site or capturing that data to make sure that they know who is still going the wrong way, going to those infringing sites. Pages like legal. Brand can help educate users and guide them to your trusted resources. And basically, you are gaining valuable information on user behavior and potential threats all while reinforcing that trust in your brand. So I know I threw a lot of examples at you. There's a lot to discuss. There's even more. If you want more specific examples about security or any of those things, feel free to reach out to me. I'm happy to share more. You know, if you've got a specific industry you're interested in, if anyone's using it in your industry, happy to share. But that really brings us to the end of sort of my big overview of how people are using it. What's the application process? What is a dot brand? Hopefully, that's given everybody a clearer picture. But I'll hand it back over to Matt, you know, to give you any other final thoughts or and open up for questions. Great. Thanks so much, Lauren. That was really interesting. I know we do have a few questions in the Q&A there. Before that, I just want to pull up another poll, just as we get to the end here. Interested to see how everybody feels about that. Let's let you grab a drink of water. I know there was a lot of talking there. Just while my team is getting the poll up here, I'm just gonna ask you, you know, what one of the interesting challenges that I think comes with the registration process is the risk of, like, conflict. You know, I think there are some famous ones, companies that are in different spaces but have similar brand names. What does the you you know, you had mentioned in the timeline that you had outlined, is really dependent on everything going well. If things are not going well, if there is a conflict of some kind, what could companies expect if they are looking at this and they're in a space where they know they have a company that has a similar name but in a different sector? Yeah. That's a really great question. So I think that they didn't dive too deep into it because there are so many things, right? There are so many things that could not go wrong, but there are definitely some conflicts that could come up. So, for your example, you know, you have a name in your industry, but you know that there's like a company in a separate, completely separate industry that has a very similar name. So one example that we always talk about is Delta. Right? There's Delta Airlines, Delta Faucets, lots of Delta. Right? So, in the case specifically for saying Delta Faucets and Delta Airlines both apply for .delta, they would then be put into what is called a contention set. That just means that you've applied for the same string or a very similar string and only one of those will be able to move forward. Right? Because they can't both operate dot delta in the namespace. There can only be one. In this next round, in the 2026 round, you will be able to, as a brand, after the fact, right, like, oh, we're putting a contention set, you are given the option to go with a string change. So essentially, a string change allows you to add terms to the string that you apply for. So, for example, for Delta Airlines, they would be able to do .delta airlines and dot for faucets, it would be .delta faucets. Right? And so that gives you the opportunity to move out of that contention set and both move forward with different strings. Now, for example, if you both decide that you don't wanna do that, ultimately, what would happen is you would go to an auction, and ICANN is the one that manages those auctions. And so it functions like most normal auctions. You are bidding for the asset. Right? So ultimately, the person who is willing to pay more for that asset will win the auction and proceed through the process. So there are definitely some ways of going through it, you know, there's's strategy right, in terms of, like, do we wanna change our string? Do we wanna move forward with the other string? What do we do about it? So they've created some good pathways to resolve those conflicts. For sure. That's really interesting. And I imagine one of the strategic decisions if you're if you're up against another company, is how deep are our pockets and how deep is our competitor's pockets as well. Yep. Absolutely. You know, if we're going to auction, what does that look like? Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And what's interesting is that in the last round, we a were able to do private resolution. So your you could reach out to that company and be like, Hey. There's. Like, we will give you some money, and then you can drop out. Right? Like, we'll cover your cost of application. We'll give you some additional money because we really want this asset. However, in this new round, they have completely disallowed private resolution. So that is not allowed if you're found to be privately, like, talking between the two applicants. There's some there's some problems that could come up. So it's definitely become a little bit more there's really only one or two pathways this time, whereas in the last round, there were a lot more options. So Yeah. You definitely have to be strategic. Got it. Okay. Super interesting. Let's get our first question up here. I can see there's a couple here. And here it is. For so first question here is just from Sarah. You know, Lauren, you had mentioned Web3, at the very top of this. I know Web3 is a topic that some people know a lot about and are really passionate about, and then it's very confusing or obfuscated for others. Can you tell us a little bit more about kind of the relationship between dot brands and web3? And, you know, is this an area of concern? Is this an area of opportunity? What does that look like, if you're a large enterprise? That's a great question. Honestly, I think this is an opportunity. Right? There are theoretically a lot of use cases for these dot brands in the web three space. ICANN hasn't really like the governing body hasn't really addressed those, right? Because they don't really have governance over that sort of more unregulated space. But as I mentioned, there are a number of companies that are partnering with Web3 companies or a lot of them are crypto companies that want to be able to have people use these domains to name their wallets. That's a really big example that we've seen. So, for example, specific coin names, they can go and get these TLDs, you can have your wallet be connected to that name on the blockchain as well as on the web two, the DNS system. So that option is also an option for brands. But there's a lot there's like there's so many examples. I think I could even do a whole webinar on just like what you could, the potential options for using these TLDs in the web three space. I would say you don't have to necessarily be worried about it. I think it exists. It's gonna continue to exist. And I think that we will likely see a lot of growth in, you know, the next decade in this area. But, you know, it's definitely more of an opportunity than a risk, I would say. Right. So it sounds sort of like if you're already in the web three space, there are opportunities here. Yeah. But dotbrands itself isn't necessarily a web3 opportunity on its own. I so I think it could be. I think you really have to be willing to invest in, you know, having a team that's willing to make that work. It's not just like off the bat, as soon as you delegate, you're gonna be able to automatically say, you know, okay. We'll use this for all of our web three transactions. You have to have someone who understands it. Right? Who knows, like, oh, we can, there's, like, there's a lot of use cases. Right? Like, you could use it for verification, especially with AI systems. It's coming from your brand, it's more of it's like a verified site. Right? And that's going to become more and more important. So I would say yes and no. I agree and I don't agree. Right? Like, think people who are applying from a Web3 angle already know that they wanna use it specifically in that Web3 space, but I wouldn't discount it for dot brands. Got it. Well, we'll have you back in the new year to do this whole deep dive just on the Web three topic. Great. Let's get our next question up here. You know, you had talked through the fee, and there's, you know, a substantial upfront cost of the hundreds of thousands of dollars. There's ongoing, you know, management fees, which are, you know, five, mid-five figures, plus minus a little bit. This question is from Sean. The question is just how did I can come up with the application fee? Yeah. What's sort of the justification behind the cost there? Great question. So I can tell you that the cost has gone up. In the last round, it was around a hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars. That was fourteen years ago, right? And so their justification is that there is a lot of work that they put into building the systems for reviewing, for applying, for managing this application process. They hire outside vendors to manage private data. So there actually are a lot of costs on their end that go into it. They estimate this; they've come up with this cost based on an estimate of how many people they think are going to apply to essentially cover the cost of doing this whole program. Right? Like, they have people who work at ICANN who are going to manage it. They have outside vendors. So there is a cost on their end. The cost is also high because we don't they don't want people, just anyone, right, to apply, like, because this is really a commitment. It's sort of a, like, you are signing up. You know what's involved. You realize that this is an investment. So there's there's a couple of different reasons there. Got it. Are you what what are the opportunities to like, if you were to try to, like, do this on the cheap, what are the opportunities there? And then, like, are there areas for larger companies to spend more to improve their application? Sort of what's the range of variance here? How much control do companies have over there? Yeah. Absolutely. So when I talked in that slide about, like, optional, right, costs, right, like hiring outside vendors to help you go through the process, that's completely optional. The application fee is not optional. Right? Like, that is the set cost for everyone who's applying. So that part is not optional. Generally, the annual cost, you know, the twenty-five thousand dollar fee every year to ICANN is not optional. You do have to have data and escrow management that you can really you can sort of work on. Like, there's a range. Right? But it's pretty much it's not a super expensive thing on an annual basis. The back-end provider, that like I said, there's a lot of range there. It really depends on who you go with, how much you're gonna use the TLD. So there's definitely a broader range there. But, yeah, I mean, if you want to save costs and do the whole thing yourself, that is where I would recommend. Like, you don't have to hire people to get you through the process, but it is pretty complex. Right? Like, there's definitely there's a lot there's a lot to know. And, you know, it doesn't not I'm not saying you can't do it by yourself, but it definitely helps, because I know it's not everybody's day job to know how to apply to this thing, whereas it is mine. So Yeah. No. For sure. I mean, I imagine that when something comes up once every, you know, decade, the number of people in the world who have done this before back in twenty twelve is like it's it was two thousand applications. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And it's funny. There are, like, a handful of companies that help most of those applicants. Right? Like, we actually you know, our founder Phil was involved in, I think, almost five hundred applications last time around. So we have the experience of doing it last time. And, you know, those people who experienced it last time, most of them are still involved in the industry. But, yeah, it's notit's not a big group. Right? Like, it's a pretty small it's a pretty small group of people who did it last time. Yeah. No. I can absolutely see the value in that. Let's let's wrap up the queue. Oh, we do have one more question here. Oh, okay. Another question from Sean. What happens if a company with a dot brand decides to rebrand? Imagine if you're already in this space, you're, like, pretty committed at that point. Has is is there any data on this? Have there been any examples? You know, I know upfront you mentioned that there were about five hundred that launched, and a little more than a hundred of those ended up sort of, like, taking down. Is there any data on this? Is this something we've seen before, and what would that look like? It's a great question. So the best example I can give you is monster.com. Right? It used to be a job site, sort of, you know, there's a lot of different job sites now, but it was really during the early aughts and, you know, twenty tens, it was sort of like a really big job site. I don't know that it still exists. It may still exist in another form. But they basically decided they applied for and won. Monster, but they didn't want it. Right? Like they decided we don't want it, but we want to sell it. So they were able to sell it to a registry operator who runs open TLDs. And so it turned into an open TLD so anyone could go and get a .monster. It wouldn't be a path, I would suggest, if you are really invested in that name, for example, whereas .monster, again, is more of a generic term. But for example, if you have a very recognizable brand, I wouldn't necessarily say, oh, we're going to chuck it and let other people register in it. Not the pathway I would go. Unfortunately, you can't change your TLD after the fact. You have to sort of commit at the registration like, at the application period and just run with the one you've got. So I wouldn't recommend it if you're considering a rebrand. But, yeah, like you said, it's a big investment. So the people who are doing it are pretty invested in the trademark that they have. Got it. That's great. Thanks so much, Lauren. This was with was great. Really, really interesting. I'm just gonna pull up a bit of an outro slide here. So, everybody, this has been Lauren Tracey from GoDaddy Corporate Domains. Thanks so much for joining. I'm gonna do just a little bit of kind of, like, housekeeping as we wrap up here, and we'll let Lauren get a drink of water there. So today's presentation has been part of the urllo expert series. You can watch more presentations about, branding, web technology, what's going on with SEO and GEO, and all those kinds of things, over at urllo.com/resources. We also have some upcoming webinars that we'll be launching in the new year. If you wanna stay connected with urllo, you can follow us on on LinkedIn, for future events, recordings. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at team at urllo dot com. And, of course, if you want to watch a recording or get a copy of the slides, you're welcome to do that as well. You'll you can expect that in your inbox, very shortly. You can reach out to me as well. I'm Matt at urllo dot com. I'm just gonna pull Lauren up on the stage here just for one more second. Hi again, Lauren. How can if people wanna reach out to you, how can people stay in touch? Yeah. So you can either reach out to me via my email, is lauren@gcd.com. Very simple, easy to remember. I'm also on LinkedIn, Lauren Tracey. If you want to reach out to me there, happy to answer any messages there. You can also visit our website, gcd.com, for more information about GoDaddy Corporate Domains. But, yeah, I want to just thank you, Matt, for inviting me. I really enjoyed talking with everybody today and hopefully, everybody had some good takeaways. Great. Well, thanks so much, Lauren. We'll let everybody get back to their day. And stay tuned. Watch your inboxes for a copy of the recording and the slides.
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