Howard Lefkowitz, the former CEO of Vegas.com, announced today that his new company, One Degree World™ Systems, Inc., which describes itself as “architects and owners of a revolutionary global content and booking platform, will be the first company of its kind to launch a series of holistic hospitality and travel websites on the emerging top-level domains (TLDs) other than .com. ”
One Degree also announced it will manage over 1,000 .Vegas domain names, over 300 .Buzz domain names and an undisclosed number of .Ninja domains to start the project.
In a press release out today the company said that:
“Starting in mid-November, the company will unveil its industry-disrupting booking solution – complete with capabilities, local content and consumer reviews for airlines, hotels, rental cars, entertainment, sports, concerts, special events, theme parks, attractions, restaurants, limos, museums and more – on a series of the newly released TLDs including .BUZZ, .NINJA and .VEGAS.
“There’s a belief in our industry and many others that customers won’t migrate into the habit of using new top-level domains,” stated Howard Lefkowitz, Founder and CEO of One Degree World. “We’re going to dispel that myth. One Degree World and its partner sites will capitalize on this new virtual real estate.
Looking at the cable TV model alone – where viewers flooded over to niche channels instead of the main networks – illustrates that if there’s a place that caters to a specific audience and deploys great content, no matter where, consumers will find it.”
One Degree World’s strategy for luring users is to provide a state-of-the-art, consumer-focused, pricing-centric and disruptive travel booking model that has yet to be deployed anywhere in the world.”
November 15 will mark the first phase of deployment on the new TLDs, with the first 10 of hundreds of websites rolling out.
The remaining sites will roll out over the course of the next year.”
According to the announcement One Degree World, Inc. is partnering with .BUZZ and now manages and controls a portfolio of more than 300 of the top global destinations around the world.
“No other company has as many destination-specific domains in a single TLD as the One Degree World team,” stated Bill Doshier, CEO of the .BUZZ Registry and owner of the .BUZZ TLD. “.BUZZ is thrilled to be deployed in this global environment in such a massively important market as travel and entertainment. It’s the number 1, 2, or 3 of the gross domestic product of nearly every nation on the planet, and certainly a buzzworthy environment. It’s a huge step in propelling the new TLD’s forward and we’re glad .BUZZ is involved.”
.VEGAS
One of only a few active geographic TLDs, .VEGAS will have more than 1,000 domains in the One Degree World partner portfolio of websites. With nearly 40 million visitors per year, Las Vegas remains one of the top visited cities in the world, and one of the most relevant subjects for One Degree World’s portfolio of partner websites featuring travel and entertainment content.
“Having over 1,000 .VEGAS sites managed on the amazing new One Degree World platform is a tremendous coup,” said James Trevino, CEO of DotVegas. “We are very happy to be in business with this team. Our domains are in great hands.”
Websites using the new TLDs are set to start launching this month, and will roll out continually thereafter. For more information about One Degree World or its websites, visit http://www.1degreeworld.com.
.NINJA
.NINJA resonates with a large demographic of a young, tech-savvy generation who look to ninjas as a symbol of expertise, respect and mystery. Upon launch of the .NINJA sites, One Degree World, Inc. will become the largest single business to use this TLD to date.
“We couldn’t be more excited that such a big player in the travel industry globally is taking the initiative to launch sites on .NINJA,” stated Taryn Naidu, CEO of Rightside, the registry operator of .NINJA and 32 other new TLDs. “It’s a perfect example of how new TLDs have created better domain name options that allow brands to best express their unique personalities.”
About One Degree World
Headquartered in Las Vegas with international offices coming soon in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, One Degree World, Inc. was meticulously devised by a team of executive-level hospitality and tech experts from brands including Vegas.com, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Google, American Airlines, Travelport, IGT and Caesars Entertainment. One Degree World’s groundbreaking online platform was custom-built by teams comprised of the best-of-breed programmers from around the world, providing an innovative perspective on bringing the ease and joy back into the travel and entertainment experience.
Justin Hetfield says
Couple years ago a few prominent domain owner sounded the alarm bells over .net that .net registrations will be affected by the new gtlds. Domain forums got filled with nay sayers and non believers. Until verisign CEO confirmed this during an earning call several weeks ago.
TheDomains forum gets continuously bashed by some for reporting what’s fact and what’s true regarding the success of gtlds. Time and time again nay sayers compare the new gtlds to .mobi .blah .blah.
Countries like China and India were not in the forefront of those tlds in the past years. This is history in the making. The new gtlds will shape the likes of China (already has to some extent) India and eventually U.S.
Joseph Peterson says
Maybe it’s caviling, but I feel like pointing out that nothing in the future is “fact”.
cmac says
i guess someone forgot to tell china that .asia exists.