The launch of new gTLDs represented a big online challenge for the healthcare firm.
Bupa is a private, international healthcare company that has over 14 million customers across 190 countries. Its purpose is to provide better healthcare that helps people live longer, healthier, happier lives.
The organisation provides personal and company-financed health insurance and medical subscription products. It also runs hospitals, workplace health services, home healthcare, health assessments and chronic disease management services. It is a major international provider of nursing and residential care for elderly people. The company employs more than 62,000 people, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, Poland, New Zealand and the USA, as well as Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, China and across Latin America.
Challenge
In October 2013, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the delegation of the first new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) which will expand the existing domain name system from 22 gTLDs, such as .COM, .NET and .ORG, to 1,400 new domain endings or "strings".
The launch of new gTLDs represents a big change to the online world and is part of ICANN’s aim to create an internet that is globally inclusive of all languages and regions. For the first time, the program will enable domain endings to exist in both Latin and non-Latin scripts, such as Arabic, Chinese, Greek and Hindu, effectively opening up the internet and bringing people, businesses and communities together online.
Max Duley, ?digital standards and quality manager at Bupa’s Corporate Centre, explains what the introduction of gTLDs means for the brand: "Preparing for the new gTLD programme represents a huge amount of work for companies, with significant expense and no major advantages. In addition, most people in the public domain are still not fully aware what the introduction of gTLDs really means to the internet address system. Coverage of gTLDs in the mainstream media has been vague and general, so website owners tend to be ignorant about the potential impact of these new domain names becoming available."
