After .eu, Asia gets own online address

After .com, .org, .net and a host of other domains, Asia is next in line to get its own domain name. Due for its "sunrise" launch tomorrow for trademark owners, '.asia' is aimed at providing another option to domain-name seekers.

The process started from October 6, and trademark owners have the chance to register domain names in the new .asia top-level domain (TLD), prior to a general release of .asia names in 2008.

"Most of the names of companies are already taken, hence new entrants in the field are restricted due to the unavailability of the desired domain name," opines Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4india.com, one of the over 100 domain name registrars.

Ching Chaio, vice-president, community relations, DotAsia Organisation, says: "The new domain is for Asia, from Asia and about Asia, and with the largest number of internet users in the world, it has a huge potential. It not only provides an added option but also gives the advantage of putting up language-based content which is specific to the region."

He added: "We are not trying to compete with the .com space; it was the first domain, and hence, its popularity cannot be replicated. However, we are aiming at reaching the numbers and growth that .eu reached with over 2 million registrations."

With the support of 73 countries in the region, .asia is looking at means to bind the Asian community. Sawhney adds: ".Asia has arrived to give Asia the much needed regional cyber space."

The registration will be open to governments and sovereign bodies in the first phase of the sunshine period, which will go on till next year, due to a higher need for domain name protection.

After the sunshine period ends on 15 January, the registration will be open in the landrush period from February next year. Interestingly, in this phase, in case of duplication in the applications for a domain name, the domain will be up for auction.

Net4india will charge a processing fee of $100 (approximately Rs 4,000) followed by an annual registration fee of Rs 800, with a minimum registration for two years. Hence, the total cost of obtaining a .asia domain name amounts to Rs 5,600.

"We are hopeful that the .asia domain will be as successful as the .in domain was for us. We have already received business of about Rs 25-30 lakh with companies like ICICI Bank signing up for the domain even before it is launched. We hope to get at least 25,000 to 30,000 registrations for the domain," said Jasjit Sawhney, adding: "We are going to market it as aggressively as we did for .in with various means of online and offline advertising including reaching out to our existing customer base of about 300,000."

But, is there a need for a .asia domain? China (.cn) has around 6.15 million registrants. India has around 2 million registrants. Japan, Australia and Korea have a little less than 1 million each.

Sawhney retorts: "We had undervalued the success of the .in domain as it surpassed our expectations by almost thrice the expected number. Since .in was only open for government bodies and trade mark owners, its reach was more limited than the .asia domain which opens up registrations to companies which have applied for a trademark as well."

However, with a gamut of domains like .mobi (which, till date, has only a little over 0.63 million registrations), .biz, .travel and .info unable to make a mark in public memory, it is yet to be seen whether .asia will be able to cash in on a regional connect.

NET FIGURE

.com + .org +.net account for 80m registrations (about 65m would be .com registrations)

Combined country-specific domains are about 60m

India has around 2m .in registrations

China has around 6.15m .cn registrations

.mobi has over 625,000 registrations