.微博 New gTLD Application
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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: Sina Corporation
String: 微博
Originally Posted: 13 June 2012
Application ID: 1-950-28485
Applicant Information
- Full legal name
Sina Corporation
- Address of the principal place of business
Floor 20, Ideal Intʹl Plaza, No.58, West Of North Forth Ring Rd., Haidian
Beijing 100080
CN
- Phone number
+86 10 58983036
- Fax number
+86 10 82607527
- If applicable, website or URL
http:⁄⁄www.sina.com.cn
Primary Contact
6(a). Name
Ms. Haiyan Gu
6(b). Title
Legal Dept. - Deputy Director
6(c). Address
6(d). Phone Number
+8618601357998
6(e). Fax Number
6(f). Email Address
Secondary Contact
7(a). Name
Mr. DeJing Kong
7(b). Title
CEO
7(c). Address
7(d). Phone Number
+8613696969693
7(e). Fax Number
7(f). Email Address
Proof of Legal Establishment
8(a). Legal form of the Applicant
Corporation
8(b). State the specific national or other jursidiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).
Cayman Islands
8(c). Attach evidence of the applicant's establishment.
Attachments are not displayed on this form.
9(a). If applying company is publicly traded, provide the exchange and symbol.
NASDAQ;SINA
9(b). If the applying entity is a subsidiary, provide the parent company.
9(c). If the applying entity is a joint venture, list all joint venture partners.
Applicant Background
11(a). Name(s) and position(s) of all directors
Lip-Bu Tan Director
Pehong Chen Director
Songyi Zhang Director
Ter-Fung Tsao Director
Yan Wang Director
Yichen Zhang Director
11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners
CHARLES GUOWEI CHAO CEO
Gaofei Wang Vice President & General Manager of Sina Mobile
Herman Cheng-Chun Yu CFO
Hong Du COO
Shaobin Peng Vice President & General Manager of the Department of Product & Weibo
Tong Chen Executive Vice President
Yingtao Kang Vice President of HR
11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares
11(d). For an applying entity that does not have directors, officers, partners, or shareholders: Name(s) and position(s) of all individuals having legal or executive responsibility
Applied-for gTLD string
- Provide the applied-for gTLD string. If an IDN, provide the U-label.
微博
14(a). If an IDN, provide the A-label (beginning with "xn--").
xn--9krt00a
14(b). If an IDN, provide the meaning or restatement of the string in English, that is, a description of the literal meaning of the string in the opinion of the applicant.
The transliteration of applied-for string in English is ʺWei-boʺ. ʺWeiʺ and ʺBoʺ means ʺMinute or Smallʺ and ʺabundant, plentiful, richʺ, respectively.
14(c). If an IDN, provide the language of the label (in English).
Chinese
14(c). If an IDN, provide the language of the label (as referenced by ISO-639-1).
ZH
14(d). If an IDN, provide the script of the label (in English).
Han (Simplified variant)
14(d). If an IDN, provide the script of the label (as referenced by ISO 15924).
501
14(e). If an IDN, list all code points contained in the U-label according to Unicode form.
微: U+5FAE
博: U+535A
15(a). If an IDN, Attach IDN Tables for the proposed registry.
Attachments are not displayed on this form.
15(b). Describe the process used for development of the IDN tables submitted, including consultations and sources used.
The IDN table used by this gTLD is consistent with existing .cn IDN.ccTLD table, which was developed by the Chinese Domain Name Consortium (CDNC, www.cdnc.org).
CDNC was founded by CNNIC, TWNIC, HKIRC, and MONIC on May, 2000 in Beijing, China. As an independent non-profit community organization, CDNC mainly takes in charge of the coordination and regulation about Chinese domain name around the world. including standardization of the Chinese language tables, variant mapping policies, and registration policies. CDNC used a consensus approach and developed this Chinese IDN table. This table is generally adopted by existing gTLD, ccTLD, and IDN ccTLD reigstry operators.
The following areas are exammed and implemented by the applicant in collaboration with its registry back-end provider: IDNA standards conformance (RFCc 5890, 5891, 5892, and 5893); Chinese IDN-related registration and administration policies (RFC3743: JET Guidelines for IDN Registration and Administration for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and RFC4713: Registration and Administration Recommendations for Chinese Domain Names); Completeness check on the IDN Table (including variant mappings and reverse mappings).
Additional registry policies shall be developed, under the CDNC framework, to prevent any registration abuse or user confusion
15(c). List any variant strings to the applied-for gTLD string according to the relevant IDN tables.
There are two distinct Chinese character in the applied-for string: 微 and 博.
There is no known variant toʺ 微 (U+5FAE)ʺ.
There is one variant to ”博 (U+535A)”, and the variant is ʺ 愽 (U+613D)ʺ.
- Describe the applicant's efforts to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for gTLD string. If such issues are known, describe steps that will be taken to mitigate these issues in software and other applications.
The Applicant has reviewed and tested the TLD in the ICANN IDN wiki and determined that no additional operational, rendering or other general usability issues exist. Also, as no additional issues were found as it relates to IDN Tables, variant management, and string confusability against existing TLD⁄ISO3166⁄IDN-ccTLDs, we have established that this TLD will be a trusted and secure extension for Internet addresses.
Yet, given the method used in developing and implementing IDNs, some known operational, usability and rendering problems are to be expected. The three issues include:
- Application-level implementation: End-users expect to see the U-label version of the IDN; however this is not always the case. Due to security problems discovered in early IDN implementations, applications insert protection mechanisms for users typing or clicking on IDN links. As such, sometimes the A-label is displayed in the browser address-bars and some online forms will not accept U-label strings.
From an operational perspective, the IDN will resolve and e.g. the webpage for the domain will be displayed for the user, making the IDNs functional as web-addresses.
It is generally agreed that display of the U-label is the best possible result. To reach that result, The Applicant and its associated technology partners will expand on existing relationships with application developers to ensure least possible impact for the TLD launch, and continue working with all major browser developers to streamline and assist in user-friendly IDN implementation and support ICANN’s work on Universal TLD Acceptance.
- Email usage issue: The protocol for internationalized email (or EAI) is in its last stages of development; recently, core components have been standardized such as RFCs 6530, 6531, 6532, and 6533. As a result, not all email software providers have implemented support for IDN TLDs at this stage. The Applicant and its associated technology partners will continue to conduct registrar training programs and supply information to facilitate in their outreach, marketing, and informational material to registrants.
- Jumping the digit issue: A known rendering issue with IDN TLDs is referred to as the jumping digit. This is a problem that occurs in certain situations where right-to-left directional scripts are used in conjunction with a digit placed in a string before the separator (dot) will at resolution “jump” to the other side of the separator. As a result, the resolving domain name is a completely different domain name than originally intended.
No such issue will take place with domains under this TLD as no right-to-left scripts are supported.
- (OPTIONAL) Provide a representation of the label according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/).
Wei Bo
Mission/Purpose
18(a). Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD.
The mission and purpose of .微博 （.xn--9krt00a in punycode) Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) represents SINA Corporation’s (SINA) strategic and enduring effort on preserving Top-Level Domain resources for its existing and future businesses. It is also consistent with SINA’s existing corporate policy on international trademark and brand protection in the Internet domain name system. SINA plans to make every possible attempt to ensure its brand recognition, reputation, and user experience at the Internet Top-Level. Based on further research and findings in domestic and international marketplace, there could be other areas and goals that SINA may identify prior to or upon launching the TLD registry.
In addition to .微博 (or .xn--9krt00a in punycode; USPTO serial #: 85264957; 85296605)”, SINA is also filing for the “WEIBO” string (USPTO serial #: 85320366; 85264899) and the “SINA” string (USPTO serial # 76694097; 76696855). .SINA, .WEIBO, and “.微博 (or .xn--9krt00a in punycode)” represent the ultimate brand value and core business competency of SINA Corporation. All three applications submitted by SINA are considered to be critically important to SINA’s existing and future businesses.
About SINA Corporation
SINA Corporation (NASDAQ ticker: SINA) is an online media company and Mobile Value Added Service (MVAS) provider in the Peopleʹs Republic of China and for the global Chinese communities. With a branded network of localized websites targeting Greater China and overseas Chinese, the Company provides services mainly through SINA.com (online news and content), Weibo.com (microblog) and SINA Mobile (MVAS). Through these businesses and properties and other business lines, SINA offers an array of services including region-focused online portals, MVAS, microblog, blog, video and music streaming, photo sharing, online games, email, search, classified listings, fee-based services, e-commerce and enterprise e-solutions. The Company generates the majority of its revenues from online advertising and MVAS offerings and, to a lesser extent, from fee-based services.
As of end of 2011, the aggregated number of daily unique visitors to SINA websites is around 70 millon people, with daily page views of exceeding 2 billion hits. SINA websites are able to reach in average of approximately 400 million Internet users per month. As of March 2012, www.sina.com.cn is one of the top 20 websites in the world, and one of the top 5 websites in China, according to Alexa.com .
Besides the above mentioned websites and channels, SINA’s Weibo.com (Weibo ⁄ 微博), a microblogging and social network platform launched in August 2009, has enabled its users to follow the hottest topics being discussed online as well as discussions related to people they know. As of end of 2011, Weibo has reached more than 300 Million registered users globally. More than 86 million Weibo entries are published every day. Weibo users consist of celebrities, commercial enterprises, government entities and grass root Internet users, who may send feeds in the form of text (up to 140 Chinese characters) and multimedia (photo, video and music) content to their opted-in followers. 96 out of Top 100 most popular government Weibo accounts are active through Weibo microblogging platform, according to E-Government Research Center, CAG (http:⁄⁄www.chinaegov.org⁄publicfiles⁄business⁄htmlfiles⁄ChinaEgovForum⁄wbpg⁄index.html). In addition, Weibo may be accessed through mobile Internet and mobile applications, such as those built for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Designed as a multi-device product, Weibo enables Chinese communities to participate in open discussions on PCs and mobile devices around the world, allowing easier and more frequent interactions, expediting the spread of information and elevating the social media and networking experience to a different level. As of April 2011, SINA started to use “Weibo.com” domain name and expect to invest 160 million during 2012 on infrastructure and market development for the Weibo businesses. According to Alexa.com, Weibo.com ranks as one of the Top 30 websites in the world and one of the Top 10 in China.
SINA Corporation, a Cayman Islands corporation, was founded in March 1999 through the merger of Beijing SINA Information Technology Co. Ltd. and California-based SINANET.com. In April 2000, the Company completed its initial public offering and was listed on the NASDAQ market. With more than 4,000 employees now, SINA is headquartered in Shanghai, China and the principle place of operations is located in Beijing, China. SINA has offices throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the U.S. Its latest corporation and financial information can be found at http:⁄⁄corp.sina.com.cn⁄eng⁄sina_index_eng.htm
Potential Business Models
Initially, .微博 can be only registered (e.g. example.微博) by SINA itself, therefore SINA is the only eligible registrant. SINA plans to adopt this approach and expects to maintain it for 3 years from the launch of the “.微博” registry service. Such approach will be regularly evaluated and adjusted if appropriate and necessary. Depending a various internal and external factors, including market demand and user expectation, SINA may consider a phased roll-out approach for a broader commercial marketplace but will do so after the conclusion of the initial 3-year period. This defensive and conservative approach shall meet the purpose of trademark protection, minimize potential technological, marketing and operational risks, and allow ample time for SINA’s management to evaluate best possible and long-term strategy of utilizing .微博 TLD prominently.
SINA is also analyzing the definition of “eligible registrants” and the potential use case options on the type of domain name that is permitted for registration and by whom. To the best of SINA’s knowledge as a registry operator, the eligible registrants may include the following:
-- a subsidiary or branch company
-- an official or frequently-used name of the department or business unit
-- a channel, service, product, event, or campaign
-- a member of Board, Staff, affiliated person, partner or collaborator
-- Other entity, sub-group, or personnel to be further defined
The eligible registrant is authorized to be a user or administrator of a .微博 second level domain. Subject to operational requirement and other business factors, the eligible registrant should be able to register one or multiple .微博 domain names. Specific roles and responsibilities of a registrant will be defined prior to the launch of the .微博 TLD. SINA will ensure that its registrants are provided with clear guidance on registration policy, and the registry services are offered in a safe and trusted environment.
18(b). How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?
How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?
SINA believes that the proposed .微博 gTLD has the potential to offer two clear benefits to Internet users and consumers:
-- .微博 can provide the unique and clear identifier in the gTLD space for the convenience of existing and future SINA and Weibo.com users whose main language used online is Chinese
-- .微博 will serve in consistency with the corresponding .WEIBO gTLD to offer a equivalent or higher level of user trust and confidence to SINA and Weibo.com as well as to the Internet in general
What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
As Internet and mobile technologies evolve, SINA continues to evaluate opportunities to distribute its products and services to its users in China and in the rest of the world. While SINA’s intention of filing this application is to proactively protect this ownership of the “WEIBO” and “微博” trademarks at the gTLD name space, and to provide a trusted and intuitive namespace for businesses and consumers that use Weibo.com services, it is also important to recognize that SINA continues to aim to become the media platform of choice for Internet users to research and retrieve information, share opinions and build social networks and for businesses to market and promote their products and services. The .微博 gTLD is planned to serve as a cornerstone of these goals.
What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
SINA believes that the success of the .微博 TLD will not be measured and determined by the total number of domain name registered. The eligibility requirement of .微博 is designed to promote trust and reliability of this gTLD. Using this benchmark, SINA strives to build consumer recognition and confidence to the level of that can be found in the existing numerous ccTLDs where user validation & authentication and local presence requirement are needed. The potential innovation of this TLD, based on a standard domain registry ⁄ registration service as described in our replies to Question 23 to Question 44, will be delivered through the proven success of SINA ⁄ Weibo.com wide range of innovative and reliable services which has served more than 300 million users to this date.
As noted above, SINA is a leading online service provider that is completely relying upon emerging Internet technologies and domain name system to deliver services to its consumers both domestically and abroad. A .微博 gTLD shall elevate its existing market leadership to another level. However, any broader adoption of this competitive advantage will only be undertaken after SINA has confidence that the concerns of various government and law enforcement regarding ICANN’s new gTLD process are properly addressed to its satisfaction.
What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
SINA believes that the .微博 gTLD will provide an enhanced experience for the hundreds of millions of consumers both domestically and internationally that use its online services. This will also provide increased confidence and predictability for new customers and partners as SINA continues to expand into other markets around the world as a leading online media and Internet services platform.
In addition to providing consumers with shorter, memorable, and intuitive domain names to help customer navigate the website, SINA envisions best in class safeguards to minimize any potential phishing, pharming, or spam that have plagued the customers of other internet portals or content providers.
SINA has proven track of record on collaboration with major record label companies (EMI, Warner Music, Sony Music, etc.) as well as worldwide movie studios for online streaming services. Hundreds of Chinese celebrities have actively use Weibo.com services with verified credentials. SINA strives for the protection of copyrights and the operation of .微博 TLD will continue to ensure that the users can enjoy high quality entertainment without worrying about potential copyright infringement on the Internet.
SINA will make sure that accurate and current domain name information is collected from the registrant readily available in connection with each .微博 domain name. If other individuals and or companies are eventually permitted to register domain names in the .微博 gTLD, SINA will re-evaluate its policies at that time to ensure that its policies are in compliance with adequate policies ⁄ best practices at that time.
As mentioned in 18(a), SINA understands that the usability and acceptance of IDN gTLD are still being enhanced, particularly in the software application areas where worldwide user may not be 100% satisfy with the overall IDN experience. Therefore the .微博 TLD will be introduced in a careful and commercially reasonable manner that user will be notified with limited functionality of the IDN.
Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
As documented in Section 18(a), during the Initial Period of operation, SINA is intending to restrict registration and use of domain names with the gTLD to limited number of eligible registrant. Because of this condition precedent, any registration and use requirements are more appropriately vested in these corporate⁄subsidiary agreements and not in a domain name registration agreement. SINA mark is a valuable brand whose protection is of paramount important, any registration and use (e.g. trademark quality control provisions) must vest in these other agreements.
Aside from these concerns, SINA will incorporate all required ICANN consensus policies and other legal⁄policy requirements imposed on new gTLD applicants into the terms and conditions of the domain name registration agreement. Based on ICANN Registry Agreement, SINA sets and enforces .微博 registration policies. General Registry Policies will be developed and made available prior to launch of TLD. Such policy decisions, based on ICANN Registry Agreement and relevant industry best practices, include but are not limited to:
- Registration eligibility requirements
- Which registrars may become accredited and sell domains
- Wholesale prices offered to registrars
- Reserved names
- Phased allocation (Sunrise, Landrush, etc.) of the domain space at the second and third levels
- Dispute policies
- Technical policies, including SRS security and access.
This .微博 (.xn--9krt00a) General Registry Policies pertain techno-operational policies in the following areas:
- Domain Registrations (Domain Objects) and the .微博 Zone File
- Domain Contacts (Contact Objects) and WHOIS Service
- Dispute Resolution Policies
- Obligations of Registered Name Holders
The General Registry Policies provides the framework for the general operations of the .微博 Registry. Other policies, such as the .微博 Eligibility, Reserved Name Policies, Sunrise Policies and other relevant policies are described separately in other documents published at the .微博 TLD registry Websites. Pricing and technical specifications are published for Accredited Registrars only and provided separately.
The .微博 TLD registry is committed to maintaining the integrity of the data within the .微博 Registry and to implement policies that deter infringements. The .微博 TLD Registry adopts the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for facilitating the resolution of disputes over the registration and use of a second-level domain name registered under the .微博 Registry. All domain name registrations must submit to the mandatory proceedings commenced under UDRP, which is available for review at http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄dndr⁄udrp⁄policy.htm. Complaints under the UDRP should be submitted to an approved dispute-resolution service provider listed at http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄dndr⁄udrp⁄approved-providers.htm.
Beyond the UDRP, all domain registrations must also submit to proceedings commenced under formally adopted dispute policies as set forth by SINA from time to time and published on the .微博 TLD registry Website(s). Such dispute policies will take effect at the time they are announced on the .微博 TLD registry Website(s), with or without prior notice to registrars or registrants.
Such dispute policies may include for example, but not limited to, expedited processes for suspension of a domain name by claims sought by intellectual property right holders (URS), Internet engineering and security experts or other competent claimants in the purpose of upholding the stability, security and integrity of the .微博 Registry. Dispute policies may also include for example challenge processes adopted by the .微博 Registry for special programs when occurred.
Moreover, based upon SINA’s commitment and established track record in providing a safe eco-system for businesses and individuals, SINA intends to provide best in class safeguards that will evolve over time.
Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures
SINA will conform with section 1.8.6 of ICANN Registry Agreement:
Registry Operator will: 1) implement appropriate measures to avoid abuse of this feature (e.g., permitting access only to legitimate authorized users); and 2) ensure the feature is in compliance with any applicable privacy laws or policies.
Meanwhile, SINA recognizes that this is an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard, the measures for protecting the privacy and confidential information of registrants or users will be developed based on industry best practice such as Registrar Accreditation: Model Privacy Policy provided by ICANN (see http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄registrars⁄model-privacy-policy.htm)
SINA as a registry operator shall take reasonable steps to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. SINA as a registry operator shall not use or authorize the use of personal data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrar(s) ⁄ registrant(s). Personal data shall refer to all data about any identified or identifiable natural person. SINA as a registry operator will not make commercial use of, or collect, traffic data regarding domain names or non-existent domain names for purposes such as the determination of the availability and health of the Internet, pinpointing specific points of failure, characterizing attacks and misconfigurations, identifying compromised networks and hosts, and promoting the sale of domain names.
Publicly available registrant information such as WHOIS service is intended only for query-based access. Specific WHOIS service access policy will be listed within the general registration policy .
Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
As noted above, while SINA sees the potential for the .微博 gTLD to serve as a cornerstone for its future online strategic initiative, there are a number of unanswered questions concerning consumer recognition, security and stability, and broader industry adoption of new gTLDs within the marketplace that must be satisfactorily answered first. Once these concerns have been answered to SINA’s satisfaction, SINA is committed to making prominent use of the .微博 gTLDs in printed and online material as well as across its network of websites, affiliates, and partners. As of end of 2011, SINA currently spends over USD 135 million annually in sales and marketing. SINA is expecting to allocate resources on marketing and branding of .微博 TLD when appropriate.
18(c). What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs?
What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)?
Although SINA intends to offer .微博 TLD to eligible registrant, it is expected that trademark owners may wish to apply for 2nd level string in this TLD. SINA shall conform to necessary requirement in the ICANN New gTLD program Applicant Guidebook as well as ICANN Registry Agreement in regards to trademark protection (i.e. utilization of trademark clearinghouse on required Sunrise and Trademark Claim services, URS, etc.), as well as relevant domestic and international rules or best practices. This shall also provide eligible registrants and users at-large with a single trusted source for this gTLD with a substantially lower risk of fraud and⁄or scams for its customers. SINA believes that the safeguards set forth in the Applicant Guidebook and the proposed business modeled outlined in Section 18(a) will minimize and potential negative social costs.
What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences⁄costs imposed upon consumers?
SINA believes that the proposed operation of the .微博 gTLD as set forth in this application has no known negative consequences or cost implications on consumers. To the contrary, the proposed operation of this registry will likely lead to direct and quantifiable benefits to consumers. SINA believes that by following the core corporate goals as identified in Section 18.2.1 it will be able provide real value to consumer, and minimize any potential negative consequences⁄costs.
How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?
SINA plans to refer to past gTLD operation practices to resolve multiple applications for a particular domain name in a fair, predictable, and transparent way. This would include, and not limited to: Request for Proposal (RFP), public or private auction based on set(s) of policy and business requirements, lottery, or first-come⁄first-serve basis. Multiple applications may be processed at once or in batch, depending on various internal and external factors. This allocation policy (i.e. .微博 Registry Policies for Pre-sunrise, Sunrise, Landrush phases) will not be determined until SINA completely evaluates and decides upon a best in class allocation mechanism that can include and balance the interest of rights holders, registrants, registrars ⁄ resellers, as well as users in general.
Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).
SINA understands the discount benefits and price sensitivity to the market it currently serves, and shall be ready to adopt advantageous pricing or discount if necessary. On the other hand, it is irresponsible for SINA to determine any pricing strategy at this point, in which such strategy may sacrifice registry’s long-term profitability and lead to financial risk of the registry. Therefore, SINA will not make the the decision of offering introductory discount pricing or bulk registration discount for .微博 at this point.
Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.
SINA is committed to providing the domain name registration periods set forth in the registry agreement. However, as noted above the registration and use of the domain name is conditioned upon the eligibility of a registrant initially, providing contractual commitments in a domain name registrant agreement regarding the magnitude of price escalations does not seem relevant or appropriate. SINA shall be ready to further explore this option when necessary.