Transcriber: Leonardo Silva Reviewer: Matt Chan
HIV, as we've just heard,
is a killer disease.
Every ten seconds,
someone dies from its fatal consequence, AIDS.
I want you to look at the person sitting on the right of you.
And now, please have a quick look at the person sitting on your left.
In this short time that I'm up on this stage,
it might have hit those two,
and yourself.
Well, actually no.
That's not true,
because even if you're all living with the virus,
you won't die from it.
HIV is now a treatable illness,
very much like diabetes.
You are so happy to reside in a country
that takes care of your healthcare.
But no one on this Earth should die of AIDS anymore.
Still, we face millions of deaths every year,
and every single one of them
is even more cruel and more painful,
because the means were there to prevent it.
Today we have the power to end AIDS.
To do so, we need to take the next step.
The fight against AIDS is very much a question of more money,
but it's also a question of attention.
The problem is everybody wants our money
and everybody wants our attention.
So, how do we give the HIV movement the push it needs?
Back in 2010,
Philip, an old friend of mine,
stopped to visit me in Berlin.
We went for a drink, and as the evening grew late,
he told me about this crazy idea he and his colleagues had:
".hiv", a domain ending
as a global AIDS awareness campaign.
Philip is a calm guy,
and his story was no sales pitch,
but so full of excitement and so full of opportunity
that it didn't let me sleep for three nights in a row.
On day four, I knew I wanted to see this happen,
and I wanted to be a part of it.
It's often small moments that change the course of our lives
and that make all the difference.
I call them "moments of truth",
and this was my first one.
To end AIDS, we have to achieve something
that is different from standard charitable giving,
and different from classic awareness campaigns.
The question is:
can we make the fight against AIDS
a daily practice in our "nowadigital" lives?
Can we even embed it in the DNA of the internet?
My second moment of truth
was again two years later.
It was in Washington D.C.,
where I was attending the International AIDS Conference.
This conference is the biyearly epicenter of the HIV world,
with over 25,000 participants.
We were making big steps with ".hiv" at the time,
and I felt I was at the right place, at the right moment.
And then, there was Debbie McMillan.
Debbie is what is called "high risk", in HIV world.
She's African American, she's transgender,
she's a former sex worker and a former drug user.
She also was and still is
the best speaker I've ever listened to.
Debbie McMillan gave me an enormous gift:
her talk turned me into an activist.
Her story, but also her beauty, her wit and her pride,
changed me.
Since that day, I no longer only think ".hiv";
I feel it, with all of my heart.
So, how does ".hiv" work?
I want you to think about your grocery store for a moment,
the one you visit regularly.
Imagine if that store changed something
and upgraded one of its entry doors.
So, from that moment on,
and each time you visit this store through that door,
you would trigger a small donation to charity.
Wouldn't that be great?
So, now let's switch from the offline to the online world.
Domains are like doors to websites.
They have two elements:
the domain name and the domain ending.
The domain ending, until now, had only very reduced meaning:
".com" for "company", ".de" for "Germany".
This is about to change.
Better domain endings are coming to the web,
offering broader choices to website owners.
And here's the best one: ".hiv".
It is the only domain ending, and the first one on the globe,
designed exclusively for a social cause.
Every single ".hiv" address on the web raises awareness,
and every click on a ".hiv" site
triggers a small donation to fight AIDS.
It's really easy to use.
You get a ".hiv" domain for 13 euros a month.
Just pick the same name as in the ".com" address you already use
and redirect your visitors from "example.hiv" to "example.com".
So, here it is again, the upgraded entrance to your grocery store.
Same website, two domain doors.
And only one ".hiv" triggers a donation.
Which one will you choose?
My third moment of truth is again two years later.
It is here, and now.
Ten days ago, we started global sales of ".hiv" domain names,
and with BMW.hiv, Amazon.hiv,
Cure.hiv, Poz.hiv, and Chanel.hiv already registered,
and over 10,000 clicks on ".hiv" sites,
it starts to sink in that Philip's crazy idea became a reality.
For ".hiv", I quit my PhD, I quit my job,
I dedicated my whole life over the last four years
to this project,
and I've traveled so many miles
that they would let me go around the globe
more than four times to see this happen.
I can't tell you how happy I am
to be finally able to present that to you.
From now on, every single domain sold
and every click on a ".hiv" site counts.
This is why I want to ask you for your moment for ".hiv".
Buy a domain, surf on the sites,
make click4life.hiv the homepage of your browser.
Tell your friends and, more importantly, your boss about this,
get your company a ".hiv" site and promote it.
Use your own very special stage
and your personal network to spread the word.
Don't forget to hashtag ".hiv"
and to send your followers in our direction.
Together we will start a new digital movement.
So, this is my third moment of truth.
Please allow me a second to keep it safe.
(Laughter)
Can you please say "cheese", everyone?
(Laughter)
Thank you so much.
(Applause)