.jio

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Status:	Proposed
Registry Provider:	Afilias
Type:	Brand TLD
Priority #:	1033 - Affinity Names, Inc.

.jio is a Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is Affinity Names, Inc.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"Affinity Names, Inc is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Holding USA, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited. Affinity Names, Inc. will be financially supported by the Reliance Group. The Reliance Group, founded by Sh. Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is the largest private sector enterprise in India. The groupʹs annual revenues are in excess of US$ 58 billion (2010-2011). The group is also on the Fortune Global 500 list, 2011. The company has interests across multiple sectors including Exploration & Production, Refining and Marketing, Petrochemicals, Organized Retail, Telecom and Financial Services. The company’s mission is to improve the life of Indians by providing opportunities and products that are cost effective and accessible. Reliance group is forever looking for new ways to protect its brand and make it easier and simpler for people to reach it, and know more about its offerings and the company, be it on the web or by other means of offline communication. As part of the same efforts, Reliance group would like to acquire the gTLD .JIO and use it actively as part of our corporate branding strategy, to make it easier for people to reach us on the Internet. Few of our corporate web sites, including those of different businesses and departments will be housed under the “.JIO” gTLD.

Reliance group has been an active participant in the development of the Internet in India. It has been credited multiple times with furthering the reach of the Internet in the Indian subcontinent. Reliance group was amongst the first companies in India to establish a companywide e-mail system in 1996 which extended to over 500 employees and since then has rapidly been accepted and now covers over 22,000 employees. We were also the first to offer affordable and accessible mobile technology in India. By using the power of CDMA mobile technology, we enabled every mobile hand-set to act as a model and enabled Indians to connect to the Internet anywhere, anytime.

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Reliance group, owner of the JIO brand name, will also have a direct control over the second level domain names and will be able to use the ones that are most appropriate for the web sites and the businesses they represent. The ability to choose a preferred second level domain has direct impact on the marketing strategy and the customer experience. The marketing strategy is largely dependent on brand recall and driving customers to the preferred destination, which in this case is the particular web site. By having a URL that is relevant and is truly representative of the information and the products on the web site, there is a higher chance of the customer being satisfied with the web experience and returning again. With social media being one of the biggest marketing tools, a positive customer experience goes a long way in establishing loyal following and attracting new customers. The decision to apply for “.JIO” gTLD was made by the Chairman and senior members of Reliance group with inputs from all the departments across the different businesses. With buy-in from across the business, and the potential of the opportunity it comes as no surprise that few of the departments have plans to utilize the “.JIO” gTLD for their businesses and departments. It is estimated that in the first year we will issue and use up to 200 second level domains for our different businesses and departments such as www.retail.JIO, www.petroleum.JIO, www.polymers.JIO and so on. This number will increase to 400 second-level domains in the second year and in the third-year around 600 second-level domains will be live. In the first-year, priority will be provided to introducing the second level domain names, which will strengthen the JIO brand, which is essentially used for the corporate strategy purpose. In the subsequent years, other existing domains and new domains of Reliance group which is associated with the JIO brand and its subsidiaries will also be brought under the new “.JIO” gTLD."