.Asia Internet Domain Name Launched

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 10, 2007 — -- The new Internet domain .asia is now available for governments and companies to register, with those looking to expand their business in the region snapping up www.name.asia addresses.

The general public will be able to register, as part of the landrush, starting in February 2008.

"More than 350 companies have already applied for the .asia domain including Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, Amazon, the Economist and T-Mobile," said Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia Organization, a membership-based, not-for-profit group that is setting up the new domain under the oversight of ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Efforts to launch the .asia domain began in 2000.

DotAsia's vision for the new domain is "from Asia, for Asia" with the goal to create a globally visible and unified domain with relevant content for Internet users around the world. Geographical scope and governance of the .asia registry follows that of ICANN, with sponsor members from New Zealand to the Middle East all with country code domains.

"Today, there are already 400 million Internet users in Asia accounting for only 10 percent of the region's total population. With a rapidly growing Asian economy, we believe that the introduction of .asia will help fuel the continued growth of the Internet in the region and drive more opportunity for both business and individuals," Chung said in a statement. ".asia is prime Internet real estate that no business or individual should miss out on."

The main targets of .asia are regional companies in Asia, local companies expanding in the region, Asia headquarters of multinationals, Asia based events, Asian versions of global or regional media, and Asian focused businesses.

A domain can be registered from anywhere in the world, generally on a first-come, first-served basis. If more than one group wants a given domain, .asia will review application proposals and work with Deloitte as a verification agent. The best proposal -- with commitments to marketing and actual use of the domain -- wins. Chung hopes this will help avoid a rushed process, deter infringement and help companies protect their names and brands.

The first regional domain -- .eu -- was introduced eight months ago and has had strong activity since, according to Jonathan Robinson, CEO of Netnames. "It's more than just a region, it's a whole economic registry," said Robinson. "Of the 120 million registrations in the world, 50 percent are .com. The idea is to create some competition and diversity for .com and to address a conception that the Internet is only U.S.-oriented."

Through Pioneer programs, the .asia registry aims to attract Community Pioneers who are encouraged to propose domains for commonly used words and phrases, such as "music.asia," "invest.asia" and "trade.asia"; Global Brand Pioneers with well established brands who are committed to the Asia community; and Partner Pioneers to help promote the registry. DotAsia would also like to attract multinationals to go beyond their brand, buying domain names to complement their presence on the Internet.

"I am sure .asia will be a very popular domain, it is a very fast growing market. Companies that will want to do business in Asia will want to register," said Eleanor Bradley, director of Operations at Nominet, which runs the co.uk domain and has been operational for 11 years with 6 million registered.

Others aren't as optimistic.

"The situation harks back to the status of pan-Asian media. Once upon a time, there were some big pan-Asian magazines such as Far East Economic Review (weekly), Asia Week, etc. They are now defunct or cut back, and that reflects something," said Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth (www.zonaeuropa.com).

"The average Internet user does not really care about the domain name. The value lies in the content, not the domain name," said Soong.

Chung hopes that the domain name attracts businesses as "Asia" in itself is a popularly searched word (versus .eu or .com, which stands for commercial). He believes that when Internet users enter a registered company name with "Asia", the chance of search engines pulling up an exact match is increased, a benefit for businesses.

Additional reporting by Ben Barnier