DotAsia expects keen mainland interest in Net domain name allocations

DotAsia Organisation, a Hong Kong-based non-profit group that operates the .asia top-level internet domain name registry, is banking on strategic mainland partnerships to encourage adoption of the new online domain by mainland enterprises.

HiChina, Xinnet, 35.com and Now.com - mainland domain name registrars accredited by the Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) - will help DotAsia today as it starts the so-called sunshine period for governments, holders of registered trademarks and service marks, and companies in the region to register their preferred and known names.

'Those four partners are the fastest-growing registrars in the world,' said Edmon Chung Wang-on, chief executive of DotAsia Organisation. 'They are part of more than 110 accredited registrars around the world that will start accepting priority registrations from registered trademark and service mark holders as well as governments in the region.'

Icann oversees the assignment of domain names and internet protocol (IP) addresses worldwide.

A domain name identifies one or more IP addresses. Each domain name includes a suffix of the top-level domain (TLD) that it belongs to. The number of so-called generic TLDs is limited and these include .com (for businesses), .edu (educational institutions), .gov (government agencies), and .org (organisations). A country code TLD, such as .hk, denotes location.

'Beyond just brand protection, the .asia domain can be an asset to an enterprise's corporate identity and can be used as a portal to the whole Asia market,' Mr Chung said.