U.S. Credit Unions Can Now Reserve .COOP Domain Names

CUNA and Affiliates Working to Expedite Credit Union .Coop Registration

October 18,, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeannine Kenney,
(202) 383-5456

Dorothy Steffens,
(608) 231-5719

Washington, D.C. – The National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) announced today that it has begun a joint marketing effort with the Credit Union National Association and Affiliates (CUNA) to help U.S. credit unions reserve for purchase the domain names they need under the new dedicated cooperative Internet domain, .coop. .Coop will join .com and .org at the end of Internet addresses in late 2001.

"CUNA has been a leader in helping credit unions get online through CUNA Network Services and in helping them recognize their cooperative values through Project Differentiation," said Paul Hazen, president and CEO of NCBA, the sponsoring organization for the new .coop domain. "Their efforts to help credit unions reserve .coop names early is a perfect marriage of those two efforts."

The .coop domain is available only to businesses organized as cooperatives, including credit unions. It is one of only seven new domain names that were approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to help relieve over-crowding in the .com domain, where few short, memorable web addresses are still available.

"It’s really important for credit unions to line up early for .coop to make sure that what happened to many of them under .com doesn’t happen under .coop," said Pete Crear, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, for CUNA, noting that many missed the opportunity to register their preferred online name. "Getting their .coop names now rather than later will help prevent that from happening."

Crear adds that online financial and member services are going to become more, not less important in the years to come. "If credit unions are going to compete, we’ve got to make sure we have web addresses that add value to the business," Crear said. "Emphasizing that a credit union is also a co-op will reinforce to our members that credit unions are businesses where people matter more than money."

As the sponsor of .coop, NCBA sets eligibility and verification policies for use of the new domain and serves as the registry. It began offering select groups of co-ops the opportunity to reserve names prior to open launch of the domain later this year. Electric, telephone, and many consumer co-ops have already purchased some 2,000 domain names.

.Coop, and six other new top-level domains" .info, .name, .biz, .aero, .museum., and .pro"were approved by the ICANN last November, from more than 180 that were proposed. Several of the new domain names are restricted for use by only eligible businesses or professionals, allowing them to differentiate themselves online through their top-level domain.

NCBA is a Washington, DC-based national, cross-industry membership association representing cooperatives of all types. CUNA & Affiliates, headquartered in Washington, D.C. and Madison, WI, along with its network of affiliated state credit union leagues, serves more than 90% of America’s 10,300 credit unions, which are owned by more than 81 million consumer members. For more information, visit www.cuna.org..

What is .coop?
.Coop is a new top-level Internet domain, or extension, that will join .com, .org and .net at the end of Internet and Web addresses later this year. The future of the Internet will be characterized by an increasing number of specialized web extensions as the .com field becomes more crowded. The first seven new top-level domains were approved last year; .coop was one of them. Cooperatives, by winning one of the first new web extensions, will have an important competitive advantage in e-commerce.

Why .coop?
Location matters as much on the Internet as it does on Main Street. Online, your address, or URL, is your location. How valuable it is depends on how well it helps you stand out from the crowd. Problem is, there are now some 26 million names registered under .com, and the best names are long gone. So it’s hard to stand out, and it’s easy to get lost.

With .coop, cooperatives have reserved some of the most highly prized online real estate. Not only will cooperatives finally be able to get the web addresses they need to do business or promote themselves online, they’ll have a domain that consumers can trust, setting them apart and above investor-owned businesses. Marketing studies show consumers trust co-ops more than investor owned businesses, and credit unions consistently outrank commercial banks for customer satisfaction. With .coop, cooperatives can remind their members and future members that their business is not just another .com.

Who can register?
Cooperatives and cooperative service organizations around the world are the only entities eligible to register under the .coop domain.

Can I register now?
No, but if you are a member of the Credit Union National Association & Affiliates you can begin reserving your .coop names now through a limited-time pre-qualification process brought to you by CUNA & Affiliates. Pre-qualification is available only until open launch of the new domain.

How do I reserve my names?
By late next week, a designated individual at each U.S. credit union will receive a unique user id and password via e-mail that will allow you to access CUNA’s secure pre-qualification site for .coop. Instructions for reserving names will be provided. Credit unions for which CUNA does not have an e-mail address will receive their user id and password by mail.

When can I use my new address?
Members of .coop Founders, NCBA and ICA will be able to apply for names under .coop before worldwide launch so that NCBA can pre-qualify those registrants. Applications for name registrations for pre-qualified cooperatives will be activated when the .coop registry is launched later this year. Cooperatives who pre-qualify for .coop have a better chance of getting the web address they want.

When will registration be available to all cooperatives?
Open registration for credit unions outside the U.S. and other cooperatives not now eligible for pre-qualification is expected to begin late 2001.

MYTH: I don’t need to buy .coop because I already have a web site under .com.

FACT: Registering multiple names under all the different top-level domains, such as .com, .org and .net is a time-tested way to help consumers find your site. And .coop should be no exception for credit unions. Why?

Use Multiple Domain Names to Point to Your Site: Cooperatives can register multiple domain names and point them all to the exact same web site. Directing different names, such as your credit union formal name, common name, acronym, and names of your products and services all to the same site helps people find you on the web. Some companies even register misspelled versions of their names so even clumsy typists can find them!

Plan for the Future: Even if you aren’t sure when you would transition to a .coop web site, you’ll want to be sure that the names you’d need to do so are still available to you. The only way to do that is to buy them now.

MYTH: I have plenty of time to register for .coop.

FACT: Conflicts between co-ops wanting the same domain name have already occurred under the pre-qualification process for .coop, which is only open to a select group of co-ops. Those conflicts will only intensify upon launch when all co-ops and credit unions can register.

MYTH: I don’t need to register for .coop because I don’t even have a web site yet.

FACT: Though many credit unions haven’t yet launched their web sites, industry analysts expect the pressure to offer online financial services to intensify.

Credit Unions will want to be sure to have all the web names they’ll need when they do launch their sites. Even if you aren’t sure you’ll want to use .coop as your primary web address when you launch your site, you may want to protect your names so that others can’t take your names and use them on their web site, creating confusion among consumers.

Copyright © 2008 - Credit Union National Association, Inc.