Private Air New York

www.privateairny.com Private Air New York | Spring 2015 38 BUSINESS MASTER OF HER DOMAIN At e Helm Of .Luxury, Monica Kirchner Is Cultivating A World Of Indulgence And Showing e Luxury Industry How Sweet Life Can Be To e Right Of e Dot. | By: Gina Samarotto In a veritable cyberspace symphony that grows louder every day, Monica Kirchner is conducting a venture designed to bring luxury to a superlative crescendo. No, Kirchner isn't at the head of a new, luxury driven website. Rather, she is co-founder and CEO of .Luxury where the world's most indulgent brands are beginning to flock in order to obtain a slice of a brand new, indulgent pie – a web address ending in ".luxury." As a new, generic top-level domain (gTLD), .Luxury is a covetable digital platform for all things luxury. Designed to attract upscale consumers as well as meet the needs of the luxury industry at large; the company will offer manufacturers, service companies and retailers an instantly identifiable website address while providing consumers with a central starting point for their luxury searches. Given the seemingly endless stream of .com sites the digital consumer has grown to know, businesses with a .Luxury address will identify themselves to consumers as being in the very business of luxury. "Luxury is a strong, relevant word," says Kirchner. "It's a word that consumers understand, they'll know exactly what to expect when they visit a .Luxury website." So how did the dynamic executive end up in the catbird position as the person who placed the word luxury to the right of the dot? "With the huge number of .com addresses out there, it became obvious that the Internet was fairly saturated. e available options for both existing companies and new businesses were slim. is saturation was recognized by ICANN, e Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the agency predominantly associated with the Internet's global Domain Name System, including policy development for internationalization of the DNS system and the introduction of new generic top-level domains – also known as TLDs - who opened the door for the Internet as we know it, to expand. In thinking about the areas that would most benefit from an identifiable domain, it was clear luxury was at the top of the list. It covers so many areas – jets, clothes, jewels, etc. – and there was no single domain that effectively grouped those industries together before now. It was also the perfect challenge for Kirchner herself, who put her experience working with start-ups as well as her background in the legal and financial fields to good use during the process. "It is probably not broadly known or understood, but owning a piece of the Internet's digital real estate is something that is highly regulated and governed," explains Kirchner. "It was a long, exhaustive application process that brought .Luxury to life -one extensive process that outside of the marketing, digital, and legal communities, few people may even realize exists." While the connotation the word luxury brings to the cyber table is self-explanatory, how .Luxury will maintain such a lofty standard is a question that Kirchner is readily able to answer. "e premium price of a .Luxury domain compared to a .com domain will help filter the caliber of participants we are looking for. It's an investment. When you decide to purchase a .Luxury domain you also are agreeing to live by the rules of our community and accept our strong governance policies. ose practices help ensure a safer, more secure place for consumers to visit online. As well, our verification process allows consumers to know that when they visit www. hermes.luxury, one of the many upscale brands who currently have purchased a .Luxury domain name for instance, that they are actually visiting Hermes. Across the luxury space, we are working with strategic partners in categories like design, real estate, and travel to make sure a curated, cultivated collection of luxury sites are created that inform, inspire, and celebrate luxury living. Over time, consumers will come to know .Luxury as a brand that delivers the promise of a global platform for all things luxury." .Luxury addresses are currently available through domain registrars including GoDaddy, 1&1, Network Solutions and companies including Gucci, Rolex, Salvatore Ferragamo, Balenciaga and Versace have already registered their own luxurious addresses. It would seem that life is, indeed, sweeter when you add a bit of luxury to the right of the dot.

• Cover