Me and some friends have been discussing the idea and awesomeness of having a .app TLD . After doing some ( very ) preliminary research we decided that it might be worth pursuing as a project on Kickstarter. First we thought we would ask how many others felt this way, how much you would pay and if you would contribute to a kickstarter project.<p>Given our early research ( read: limited knowledge ). We would love it if people could give some insight into the process of applying for and running a TLD.<p>We know this is a very speculative idea, but think it's well worth doing for the tech community.
You need over $200K (probably more like $500K) just to apply, and then you'll need to beat the other inevitable applicants. If .app ends up being auctioned, you'd need millions.<p><a href="http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm</a>
I work a lot with non technical people. The only domain endings they know is .com and our country specific .de (Germany) some may know .net but often times they will try to enter .de or .com first. For many users a .com at the end is treated the sameway a www. is at the beginning. I don't think you without a .com domain you can reach a big portion of the internet.