According to a press release out this morning, .CLUB Domains, LLC, the company formed to own and operate the new “.CLUB” top level domain, and TLD Registry the company behind the new gTLD for the Chinese IDN for Online (.在线) as well as the registry for the new gTLD (中文网) (Dot Chinese Website) have teamed up to market .Club to the China market.
the new gTLD for the Chinese IDN for Online (.在线) as well as the registry for the new gTLD (中文网) (Dot Chinese Website) should have broad appeal both for companies in China and global brands wanting to easily represent Chinese language versions of their online properties, have agreed to collaborate on introducing some of the most popular new Internet extensions to the Chinese-speaking world.
With half of all Internet users being in Asia, and a quarter of those in China alone, .CLUB and TLD Registry are poised to make a big impact by sharing resources to promote their Chinese language domain names.
.CLUB Domains’ new TLD, .CLUB, has been broadly welcomed worldwide.
The word “club” is recognized and understood throughout the world and in nearly every spoken language, including in Mandarin Chinese.
“TLD Registry understands the Chinese marketplace better than anyone in the gTLD space, so we know we’ve chosen the best partner to collaborate with to help introduce .CLUB to registrars and to the millions of Chinese Internet users,” said Colin Campbell, CEO of .CLUB. “As we travel throughout the country, we continue to see and hear the word ‘club’ spoken, written and used in marketing, so we are confident it will be a popular web address as the Internet continues to expand.”
“.CLUB Domains is arguably the champion of the new domain name TLDs,” said TLD Registry’s CEO Arto Isokoski. “No other new TLD has achieved such extraordinary traction in the minds of brands and businesses, and a partnership with the .CLUB team greatly supports our own market awareness programs.”
China is the second largest economy in the world, and by 2015 it’s estimated that China will have nearly twice the number of Internet users as the U.S. and Japan combined.
With that kind of growth in mind, .CLUB and TLD Registry will be exploring mutual efforts to maximize their respective exposure in China and other markets through co-marketing, sales, and joint promotion.
To the partnership, TLD Registry is contributing its China market expertise and access to its excellent Chinese domain name registrar (retailer) network, while .CLUB Domains is contributing access to its global registrar network and industry credibility. Both companies have been jointly collaborating on business and marketing initiatives since December 2013.
“Our partnership is a meeting of equals, with highly complementary regional strengths,” said TLD Registry’s CMO, Simon Cousins.
.CLUB Domains’ CMO, Jeffrey Sass said, “Collaborative bundling, business development and marketing programs are already well advanced with our partners at TLD Registry, and we look forward to a ‘greater than the sum of parts’ outcome.”
Both .CLUB Domains’ .CLUB and TLD Registry’s Dot Chinese Online (.??) and Dot Chinese Website (.???) have been in their Trademark Sunrise period.
The Sunrise for TLD Registry ended on March 17, 2014 and .CLUB’s Sunrise ends March 29, 2014.
During this period trademark holders who have registered their marks with the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) have the opportunity to register the web addresses of their trademark names before the new domain extensions are offered to the general public.
In the first 30 days of its Sunrise period, .CLUB has attracted registrations from trademark holders that represent the broad spectrum of vertical markets, including high-profile sports teams, auto manufacturers, major consumer and luxury brands, private clubs and more, while Dot Chinese Online and Dot Chinese Website have registered domain names from a broad swath of regional and global business leaders.”"
