B.T.W

By Eileen Yu

By the way, ZDNet Asia has more to say

Does what comes after the .dot matter?

Posted in By The Way by Eileen Yu on Friday, October 12 2007 11:49 AM

Would you pay the same amount of money for a domain name that ends in ".asia" as you would for ".com"? If your answer is no, which of the two domain names would you fork out more cash to own?

If your company is headquartered in Asia and serves primarily the Asian market, you would logically be more willing to pay a higher sum to own a domain name that ends in ".asia".

I suspect, however, that this isn't always the case right now.

Most major organizations today are global by nature, whether they're based in Singapore, India or Belgium. There's really little reason for companies aiming to grow big, to restrict their business to the local market when they can expand their revenue potential by opening up to a global audience.

Marketing a company that is fronted by a Web site ending in ".asia" could limit its ability to sell to customers outside the Asian region.

But this is starting to change, thanks largely to India and China, which have helped prop Asia as an upcoming major player in the global economy.

So, is it time for businesses in the region to start registering domain names ending in ".asia"? Some certainly think so.

According to DotAsia, the introduction of .asia as a TLD (top-level domain) "fulfils a market need and a dream". The Hong Kong-based, not-for-profit organization is the registry operator for ".asia" domains, and the first gTLD (generic top-level domain) registry headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region.

Over 60 percent of the world's population live in Asia, and the region has begun to emerge from its financial and economic problems in the 1990s, DotAsia said. "A special, dedicated domain can help players in the region realize their global citizenship, as well as the potential for regionally-targeted efforts".

Singapore-based ornamental fish supplier Qian Hu, owns four URL links: qianhu.com, thaiqianhu.com, kimkang.com.my and qianhuchina.com. It has no plans to add ".asia" to the list, but it's not ruling out other domain names--specifically those ending in ".biz".

Over a brief e-mail exchange, Kenny Yap, Qian Hu's executive chairman and managing director, said he believes the online business and user communities are ready to recognize domain names that don't necessarily end in the conventional ".com".

"Domain names ending with '.asia', '.biz' and '.info' are quite meaningful and easy to remember," Yap said. "In my opinion, ".biz" domain names will be widely used in the near future."

Because Qian Hu is championing to be a global business, and not only an Asian entity, the fish import/export company has no plans to own URL links that end in ".asia", he explained. Chong Wei Khee, who heads the company that manages Qian Hu's IT infrastructure, added: "However, domain names ending with '.biz' and '.info' might be part of our consideration in future."

But if the company indeed intends to do that, it might want to do so quickly. According to DotAsia, good domain names have become prime cyber real estate.

"Poker.com" was auctioned out earlier this year for over US$27 million, while "Business.com" is currently estimated to be worth between US$300 million and US$400 million.

With cybersquatting predicted to be on the rise, Asian companies might want to scurry up if they want to ensure they own the domain names that most relevant to their business.

Has your company registered a domain name ending with ".asia"?

Disclaimer:
Views and opinions expressed in this blog are the author's, and do not necessarily represent those of ZDNet Asia.

Talkback 2 comments

Hi Eileen,
I think with so many websites out there, most of us just want to channel our energies to remembering the name of the website or company, and automatically lock it in with a .com. I'm more apt to think of squatter.com than squatter.asia or what have you. There're already so many variations, with .com.sg or other. If I were a business, it makes sense for me to put my money on .com.

If in doubt, look at zdnetasia.com. It's not zdnet.asia.
Posted by Alvin Lai on Thursday, December 27 2007 11:42 AM

Hi Alvin,
You're absolutely right, it can be cumbersome managing several domain names. But, doing so may be a necessary evil specifically for companies that have presence across several countries/regions, and that deem it necessary to acquire top-level and country-coded domain names to reflect their commitment in these markets. Doing so will also allow them to provide localized customer content relevant to each market. And, of course, some companies do so to prevent cybersquatting.

That said, though, there has been great interest in SEO (search engine optimization) amongst companies/sites that place importance on generating pageviews. In this instance, acquiring the different domain names will ensure their users can find the site/company more easily via search engines. However, managing more than one URL could also result in lower pageviews since site traffic will be distributed across the various domains. One common solution here is for the company to divert traffic from its various domain names to one central site.

Obviously, this issue has several implications. I guess the best solution to adopt really depends on what the company's key business needs are.

And, btw, we are already looking at zdnet.asia :-)
Posted by Eileen Yu, Senior Editor, ZDNet Asia on Thursday, December 27 2007 05:23 PM

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About the blogger

Eileen Yu

Eileen Yu began covering the IT industry when Asynchronous Transfer Mode was still hip and e-commerce was the new buzzword. These days, she gets stirred up over issues concerning Internet regulation, intellectual property rights and software patents, online privacy and data protection. Eileen is senior editor at ZDNet Asia, where she oversees the business tech news site.