Little guys win .eco domain
Environmental ties help seal Big Room deal
After a nine-year David and Goliath battle, a small Vancouver company has beat out multi- million- dollar companies for the coveted . eco Internet domain name. Big Room Inc. is now making the designation available to those who want to be recognized worldwide as environmentalists.
Big Room founders Trevor Bowden, 43, and Jacob Malthouse, 39, both from British Columbia, were young staffers working in Europe for the United Nations Environment Program in 2007 when they learned that the rights to distribute the .eco domain name would be awarded by ICANN ( the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the non- profit organization that governs global co- ordination of the Internet’s unique identifiers.
Previously, domain naming rights were sold in auctions to the highest bidder, meaning large, well- funded companies tended to dominate domain name sales. But this time, ICANN decided to make a decision on merit and concept, which opened the door for the pair with the outrageous plan.
They pulled off their coup by gaining endorsements from most of the world’s top environmental organizations. However, it still took nine years of collaborative effort with more than 50 global environmental nonprofits to ensure the name would be a trusted symbol of ecological responsibility.
“This was the l argestever ( release) by ICANN,” Bowden says. “There was no limit and 1,600 applications were filed. It took so long to be released because the regulator needed time to determine the criterion that would be used to choose the recipient of the rights.”
Of course the team still needed money, so they relied on guerilla tactics. First, Big Room launched a quiet campaign to raise much- needed funds for their bid. They contributed every cent they could raise from their own pockets, and from friends and families.
Malthouse, who was a project manager who had worked for ICANN in the U. S., Latin America and Europe before joining Bowden at the UN agency, even cashed in his pension accumulation.
A few early private investors came in, and later, some angel investors also bought in — largely because they saw the investment potential, but were also willing to take a chance on the upstart that wanted to save the domain designation for the environmental community.
Then, the Big Room team of 30 employees won ICANN over by framing their application with community involvement and commitment to environmental causes and education rather than through sheer size or financial power.