ICANN has 99 gTLD passes but .payu ain’t one

ICANN has delivered another 100 new gTLD Initial Evaluation results this evening, with 99 passes and one failure.
The failure is the application for .payu, a dot-brand filed by a Dutch e-payments company. It’s eligible for extended evaluation, having scored a 0 on its “financial statements” question.
These are the successful applications, many of which are receiving their results well after their original due dates:

.dnp .otsuka .okinawa .media .extraspace .tickets .bradesco .mtpc .infiniti .ooo .lilly .everbank .mom .latrobe .maif .town .free .tube .wales .ist .ong .auto .shopyourway .golf .viajes .doosan .tatar .yoga .mail .chk .pru .one .medical .limo .ovh .storage .infy .desi .secure .domains .computer .racing .zara .target .pictet .music .nba .bank .goodhands .ing .sling .meme .giving .jewelry .deals .nadex .credit .one .here .luxury .cern .salon .ninja .zip .vana .lancome .tires .recipes .film .teva .auto .istanbul .grocery .web .diet .baby .support .hotel .infosys .lol .beats .vons .moscow .inc .guge .car .forsale .hsbc .energy .man .team .book .family .green .aetna .movie .politie .home .group

There are now 819 passes, 9 failures and 1,019 applications still in Initial Evaluation. Next week, we’ll pass the halfway mark, with IE due to be completed in August.

Four failures and 92 passes in latest new gTLD results

ICANN has just released 96 new Initial Evaluation results, a batch which doubles the number of failures the first phase of the new gTLD program has produced.
The following applications failed to receive passing scores and are now “Eligible for Extended Evaluation”:

• .locus — a strange and ambitious-sounding single-registrant bid filed by Locus Analytics. The company scored 6 out of the necessary 8 points on its financial evaluation with zero scores on the Financial Statements and Funding Critical Registry Functions questions.
• .llc — This is the bid filed by Dot Registry, the company that seems to have a degree of governmental support for its portfolio of corporate identifier bids. It scored a 0 on its Funding Critical Registry Functions question.
• .ltd — Another Dot Registry bid. Failed for the same reason.
• .life — A values-oriented open gTLD application filed by Canadian company CompassRose.Life. Scored a zero on its Financial Statements.

ICANN said last week that it was changing the way it scored the “Funding Critical Registry Functions” question, due to the problems many applicants have been having with Continuing Operations Instruments.
That change only seemed to hit applications with scores of 1, however, so it does not appear to apply in the cases of today’s failed bids.
Applications for the following strings received passing scores.

.legal .sbi .inc .americanfamily .lacaixa .voting .realestate .rest .pfizer .macys .gift .hangout .clinic .blockbuster .lixil .cbre .blog .new .fund .prudential .tab .anquan .group .sale .gay .art .sandvik .security .now .social .shoes .qpon .sohu .fedex .storage .caseih .blog .online .cricket .gal .vip .app .moe .buzz .show .promo .music .cbn .dhl .attorney .sports .legal .football .acer .direct .open .dds .capetown .app .furniture .telefonica .eus .calvinklein .toys .eat .book .axis .casino .ren .crs .baby .ladbrokes .show .call .tech .solar .sanofi .toyota .ubank .canalplus .lexus .immo .moto .hyundai .green .ismaili .health .trading .marketing .llc .xihuan .gratis

We’re now up to 720 passes and 8 failures in the program, with 1,124 results still to be announced.

Big week for new gTLDs as 114 apps pass

ICANN has just released this week’s Initial Evaluation results and it’s the biggest dump to date, with 114 applications getting through to the next stage of the process.
We’re now up to 628 passes, which is roughly one third of the original 1,930 applications.
Applications for these strings achieved passing scores (links to DI PRO):

.help .hosting .property .fashion .warman .love .yoga .winners .bnl .sexy .bauhaus .mnet .health .gratis .save .cfd .inc .tjmaxx .homegoods .tjx .deal .restaurant .spa .link .tech .airbus .city .dealer .bnpparibas .tvs .latino .boo .makeup .website .tips .amp .jpmorgan .kyknet .dad .vivo .kerryproperties .sucks .emerson .sas .lancaster .vin .lotto .homes .rodeo .goldpoint .movie .next .bloomberg .moda .tennis .song .nrw .alfaromeo .web .press .london .hot .futbol .windows .webjet .green .sarl .home .video .apartments .bingo .hotel .allstate .software .lanxess .mango .ferrari .coupon .broadway .drive .gea .law .engineering .epost .swiftcover .country .army .weber .broadway .marshalls .style .theater .samsung .firmdale .design .booking .tatamotors .komatsu .mls .abudhabi .vip .game .alibaba .like .store .lgbt .team .boats .tax .nikon .sony .you .citic .trade

No applications failed this week. We’re up to 700 in the prioritization queue.

ICANN reveals 81 passes and one failure in latest new gTLD results batch

The weekly batch of new gTLD Initial Evaluation results has just been published, revealing 81 passes and one failure — the first failure that isn’t a dot-brand.
DOTPAY SA, a Swiss company, only scored 7 out of the necessary 8 points on its financial evaluation and is therefore now categorized as “Eligible for Extended Evaluation”.
That might be bad news for the other .pay applicant, Amazon, which will now have to wait some months for extended evaluation to take place before the contention set can be resolved.
DOTPAY’s .pay bid is the fourth application to fail Initial Evaluation.
The 81 passing applications this week are (links are to DI PRO):

.salon .music .loft .creditunion .careers .polo .vip .homedepot .mrporter .sarl .observer .dance .forsale .blue .game .market .fashion .tour .iwc .george .pink .fox .spiegel .reise kinder .hoteis .nike .arab .dev .diamonds .nico .cloud .law .tickets .photography .pay .channel .java .academy .nexus zippo .plus .enterprises .goog .apartments .supplies .gmbh .krd .fan .company .wow .spot .travelers .love .joburg .exchange .basketball .directory .art .today .money .kitchen .read .jot .vodka .icu .doha .hospital .chat .theguardian .jetzt .capital .natura .camp .protection .wow .gcc .pizza .supply .amex .wed .ott

There are now 514 passing applications. We’re up to 600 in the priority number queue.

Now we’re getting serious: 92 new gTLD bids pass

ICANN has stepped up the pace of its Initial Evaluation results schedule, this evening publishing the results of 92 new gTLD applications.
Applications for the following strings have passed IE this week:

.fishing, .casa, .gop, .home, .love, .budapest, .book, .kiwi, .llc, .iselect, .audible, .wedding, .cpa, .earth, .delivery, .tickets, .msd, .neustar, .ski, .lease, .salon, .monster, .immo, .oldnavy, .pin, .design, .pets, .berlin, .eco, .movistar, .rocher, .graphics, .art, .cam, .health, .wien, .technology, .pioneer, .lancia, .reviews, .grainger, .news, .deals, .mov, .solutions, .genting, .pizza, .smile, .hotmail, .pramerica, .memorial, .music, .icbc, .media, .law, .travelchannel, .akdn, .spot, .game, .wedding, .ltd, .merck, .llc, .tickets, .nyc, .lawyer, .aws, .mrmuscle, .poker, .ltd, .realestate, .fujixerox, .microsoft, .realty, .kim, .chesapeake, .gifts, .flowers, .caravan, .mini, .band, .autos, .afamilycompany, .review, .fashion, .shop, .city, .gallery, .toray, .youtube, .kindle and .now.

There were no failures, neither have there been any withdrawals this week.
This week’s batch is notable for including over a dozen applications with Minds + Machines back-ends, which had been delayed in some cases for over a month.
It also contains the first “corporate identifier” strings to pass.
ICANN’s evaluators have now passed 433 applications and failed three. We’re up to priority number 500 in the publication running order.

Did GMO flunk evaluation on 27 gTLDs? CentralNic takes over the whole lot

Did would-be new gTLD registry services provider GMO Registry fail its ICANN technical evaluations?
The Japanese company has made a deal that will see CentralNic take over the back-end operations for all 27 of the applications it was signed up to service, it has emerged.
In a letter, provided by GMO to ICANN last week as part of its sweeping application change requests, CentralNic says:

CentralNic Ltd has entered into a contract with GMO Registry, Inc. (GMO) to provide backend gTLD registry services for their generic top-level domains.

The letter (pdf) goes on to enumerate the 10 critical technical functions — basically everything from EPP to DNSSEC to registrar management — that CentralNic will be taking over.
The letter seems to have been attached last week to change requests for each of the 27 applications for which the DI PRO database lists GMO as the back-end registry provider.
That list includes big dot-brands such as .toshiba, .sharp and .nissan, generics such as .shop and .mail, and city TLDs including .tokyo and .osaka. Even the original dot-brand, .canon, and GMO’s own .gmo are switching back-ends.
The requested changes certainly seem to explain why GMO has yet to pass any of its Initial Evaluations (as we noted on Twitter a couple weeks back) despite having prioritization numbers as low as 111.
GMO parent GMO Internet may not be widely known outside of Japan, but it’s a pretty big deal. The company had 2012 revenue of about JPY 75 billion ($730 million) and it owns a top-ten registrar, Onamae.
Per ICANN rules, the change request switching the applications to CentralNic back-ends are open for public comment for 30 days.

Two failures among latest 44 new gTLD results

ICANN has released its weekly batch of new gTLD Initial Evaluation results and it includes the program’s second and third failures.
Two dot-brand applications — .olayangroup and .mckinsey, filed by Olayan Investments and McKinsey Holdings — didn’t get passing scores and are now categorized as “Eligible for Extended Evaluation”.
Both — like the only other failure to date, also filed by Olayan — passed the technical evaluation but failed on question 45, which asks the applicant to provide financial statements.
The strings that have passed IE this week are:

.dog, .pharmacy, .sener, .skydrive, .soy, .sport, .grocery, .rightathome, .scjohnson, .jll, .hosting, .americanexpress, .yamaxun, .analytics, .construction, .land, .management, .systems, .surgery, .news, .data, .reisen, .rugby, .theater, .university, .cba, .ads, .how, .chrome, .vanguard, .meo, .lotte, .hughes, .praxi, .uno, .versicherung, .blog, .bmw, .shangrila, .yandex and .bbc

There are now 341 passing applications and three failures.

See all new gTLD Initial Evaluation scores in one place

Today, we’ve launched a new search tool that enables you to easily view, search and sort new gTLD program Initial Evaluation scores from a single page.
The tool, available to DI PRO users here, is designed for those who desire a little more granular data on IE results than currently displayed on the New gTLD Application Tracker.
Users can see financial, technical and total evaluation scores for each application that has been processed through IE (currently 244 applications) in the same sortable table.
Results can be filtered by string, applicant (or portfolio parent) and back-end registry services provider.

New scores will be added every Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on the timing of ICANN’s results publication) until Initial Evaluation ends.

Another 44 new gTLDs pass Initial Evaluation

ICANN has posted its latest weekly batch of Initial Evaluation results for new gTLD applications, with 44 new passes and no failures.
The publication brings the grand total of passing applications to 213, with only one failure to date and 51 withdrawals.
Today’s passing strings are:

.微博 (Wei-bo), .慈善 (charity), .微博 (microblogging), .cimb, .wme ,broadway, .astrium, .associates, .coach, .aaa, .chase, .app, .trading, .nra, .vip, .engineer, .voyage, .yachts, .live, .cpa, .swiss, .auction, .emerck, .site, .godaddy, .epson, .pictures, .schaeffler, .omega, .dental, .hermes, .xin, .flowers, .qvc, .bofa, .email, .hotel, .scb, .cymru, .bridgestone, .dot, .talk, .cab, .guru.

Some notable things that immediately jump out at me:

• Go Daddy’s application for the .godaddy dot-brand has passed.
• The first application for .app — one of the most heavily contested strings — has passed.
• So far none of the five Top Level Domain Holdings applications with Minds + Machines back-ends and priority numbers under 250 have passed.
• Of the four Famous Four Media bids under 250, only one has passed.
• Donuts is up to 29 passes, almost 10% of its total applications.
• Amazon and Google have clean sheets so far.

ICANN is now at priority number 250 in its IE publication running order, which means 36 applications that could have passed already haven’t.
ICANN has previously stated that these delays are mostly due to processing responses to clarifying questions and change requests.

First new gTLD to fail evaluation revealed

With 132 new gTLD applications in receipt of their Initial Evaluation results, the first to fail has been revealed.
The failed application was for العلیان., an Arabic dot-brand filed by Olayan Investments Company, a 65-year-old privately held Saudi conglomerate.
It failed IE on financial grounds, according to its published results (pdf).
To pass the financial portion of the evaluations, applicants must score a minimum of eight points, scoring at least one point on each of the six questions.
While Olayan did score eight, it scored a zero on question 45, “Demonstration of Financial Capability”, which asks applicants to file audited or unaudited financial statements.
It appears that the applicant in this case did not provide enough information to be evaluated either during the application itself or in response to ICANN’s “clarifying questions”.
The application is now categorized as “Eligible for Extended Evaluation” by ICANN, meaning Olayan can provide extra information in an attempt to pass the failed question.
There’s no fee to do so in this case, but there would be a delay.
ICANN has so far delivered IE results for 132 applications for applications with priority queue numbers up to 149. Every other result to date has been a “pass”.