Advertising & Marketing

Vox Populi Registry, the company bringing dotSucks names to the Internet, having spent its first year giving voice to consumers, now has added its own to the domain name industry. Vox Populi is the newest member of the Domain Name Association (www.thedna.org). As the number of Internet domain names has expanded over the last couple of years, making what was a utility at .com a wider choice from .accountant to .zero, the need arose not just to market the new real estate but make sense of it. That’s where the Domain Name Association (DNA) came in. Created to represent all who provide, sell or support Internet domain names, the DNA focused first and foremost on helping all understand the benefits and advantage of these new names. At Vox Populi Registry we have watched the evolution of the DNA as it has grown from a good idea to an effective organization. And as the DNA has grown, so has Vox Populi Registry. Our first year, as theirs, was devoted to making sure we were, as the song says, “doing the best things so conservatively.” It was essential to us and our success that our policies, processes and promotion matched market expectations. A review of our first year of operation began at the start of 2016. It led us to make some changes to better align with the market and our partners. Introducing regular updates to our premium and reserved lists to reflect cultural and commercial changes is but one example. Another is that we are now members of the DNA. It is clear we share the goals of building trust, exchanging ideas, consumer education and raising awareness on behalf of the industry. As a registry that promotes free speech and speaking freely, we wanted to put our money were our mouth was. In one very specific way, it is a homecoming of sorts. Rob Hall, now CEO of Barbados-based Momentous, is a lead investor in Vox Populi. He was also a part of the group of domain name industry leaders who helped form the DNA in 2014. We hope to be able to play some small role in helping the DNA grow in size and influence at an even faster pace this year than last. The dominant role of domain names in the Internet economy demands that someone speak up for the industry. We’re voting for the DNA.

We are in the midst of celebrating the first anniversary of Vox Populi Registry and its dotSucks Internet domain names. Launched to both acclaim and opprobrium, the results have exceeded even our modest expectations. There are, of course, many ways registries measure success; some to which we subscribe (like innovation) others we don’t (like gross revenue). There are even some yardsticks created for other purposes that yield an even better measure of just how we’re doing. One of those that makes particular sense for the dotSucks platform, which aims to give companies a chance to curate criticism in ways that can deepen customer loyalty, is Fortune Magazine’s list of the top 100 companies. As Fortune notes on its website, these “companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years. Included in the survey are companies that are incorporated in the U.S. and operate in the U.S. and file financial statements with a government agency.” Essentially, these companies are doing something right. The top ten are well-known to most people. Beginning this year with Walmart and running to CVS Health, it is a diverse group, reflecting the broad reach of business. Each has a history of making the right decision most of the time. We’d like to think registering a dotSucks domain name is another one of those. Of those first ten brands, six have been registered. Among the top 100, 55 have been taken to this point. It is a good thing there is still room for us to grow. Compared to the companies on the list, we are just a toddler. Here is the list of registered dotSucks domain names taken from Fortune 100 list: Walmart Exxon Mobil Chevron Apple General Motors Ford Motor AT&T Valero Energy UnitedHealth Group Verizon Fannie Mae JP Morgan Chase Bank of America Corp. IBM Cardinal Health Citigroup Amazon.com Wells Fargo Microsoft Home Depot Walgreens Target MetLife Alphabet Freddie Mac Comcast AIG UPS Dow Chemical Lowes ConocoPhillips Prudential Financial Pfizer Cisco Systems Ingram Micro FedEx Johnson Controls American Airlines Group Merck Best Buy Delta Air Lines Liberty Mutual Insurance Group United Continental Holdings New York Life Insurance Oracle Morgan Stanley Tyson Foods Nationwide DuPont American Express Allstate Cigna TIAA-CREF DirecTV Twenty-First Century Fox

Just about a year ago (December 22, 2014, to be exact), Vox Populi Registry, signed its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that set the stage for the company bringing dotSucks domain names to the Internet. On March 30, 2015, the registration window was opened for trademark holders and on June 20, the names became generally available. By this reckoning, we have about six months wherein every day we have the chance to celebrate our first birthday. We are starting today. Unlike other domain name registries, we do not publicly discuss the total number of registrations or our revenue. That’s because we do not view dotSucks as just another address on the Internet. We view it as a platform for innovation, a magnet for conversation and a hub for discussion of those things that stir passion. By these measures so far, we have exceeded our modest expectations for the company. Sites like thismeeting.sucks, lifeinsureance.sucks, inefficiency.sucks and pdf.sucks are trying to change the way business is too often done. Sites like kmfdm.sucks and lancewallach.sucks are using the attention getting virtue of the domain extension to market and promote themselves. Sites like logging.sucks, corruptgovernment.sucks and TTIP.sucks are advocates for some very public issues. And my personal favorite, aircanada.sucks, is creating a community of shared discontent in hopes of drawing attention to passenger practices the airline ought to consider changing. Beginning today and over the next few weeks, we will be issuing a series of facts, figures and insights into our first year of operation. To whet your appetite, here are three already in the queue, in no particular order: • Current events and issues of the day are key drivers of our business. As they change, we want to change with them. With that in mind, we are implementing some policy changes with regard to regular updating of our Market Premium and Reserved domain name lists to make them more available and current. We alerted our Registrar network last month. • We will be honoring our “Best Business Partner” in our first year. It has become clear to us that no matter how smart, dedicated or energetic we are on behalf of Vox Populi Registry, our success has had a lot of help. This award, which we intend to be an annual event, reflects that. • There is no more powerful business success talisman than the Fortune 100 list of companies. We have looked at the list and compared it to the list of dotSucks registrations. The number of companies on the Fortune 100 list whose names are on our list is not surprising but it is gratifying. We have tried to make our blog (www.blog.registry.sucks) an easy place to catch up on Vox Populi Registry. That’s why this post and those that follow can be found there. Or you can follow us on Twitter, @dotsucksdomain