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Paris.hilton? CentralNic pitches gTLDs at super-rich

Kevin Murphy, October 18, 2011, 16:15:40 (UTC), Domain Registries

Just when you thought you’d seen everything, CentralNic is angling for the wallets of the “ultra-wealthy” with its new pitch for .familyname top-level domains.
The alternative TLD registry today launched dotFamilyName, a companion to its dotBrandSolutions site designed to give “prominent families” an “online legacy” in the form of a new gTLD.
Think .hilton, .kennedy, .rockefeller.
If own a squadron of private jets, if you’re a card-carrying member of the Illuminati, if you have your own parking spot outside the Bilderberg Club, then CentralNic wants to hear from you.
The company is basically proposing to apply to ICANN for and manage a .familyname gTLD on behalf of the more-money-than-taste crowd for a start-up fee of about $500,000.
Here’s the pitch from the press release:

Your dotFamilyName TLD can be used in a variety of ways:
1) To create a network of private family websites – a discreet, centralized destination for use by family members containing classified content and images.
2) To create an authenticated source of family information for public consumption.
3) To establish a legacy for generations to come, ensuring that the bond between generations will be kept alive.
4) To ensure that you remain amongst a privileged few in owning a personalized TLD on the World Wide Web.
5) To maintain control over your official web presence, acting as a state of the art security system for your personal reputation.
6) To ensure that, among the families sharing your name, your family controls it.

A commenter on one of my articles for The Register recently joked that new gTLDs could create confusion between hilton.paris, the hotel, and paris.hilton, the heiress.
But it’s not April 1, so I guess this is for real.
ICANN has a ban on individuals applying for new gTLDs, but there’s no particular prohibition on personal-use extensions, as long as they have a corporate entity behind them.
Could it work?

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Comments (3)

  1. Frederick Felman says:
    October 18, 2011 at 4:56 pm

    Now that’s an expensive vanity.

    Reply
  2. RAYY.co says:
    October 18, 2011 at 10:28 pm

    Owning a family extension name is a status symbol these days…only rich and famous can afford to own it.

    Reply
  3. John Smith says:
    October 19, 2011 at 9:23 am

    I like the idea. What do you give to someone who already has everything…

    Reply

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