For websites, popularity and hit rates are an important measure of success. And some of that has to do with the domain name. Just ask Edmon Chung Wang-on, a Hongkonger who is developing domain names in Asian languages.
When Chung was in graduate school in Toronto, Canada, domain names in Asian languages were non-existent. Yet he and a few classmates were already developing a prototype.
'At the time only dot-com, dot-org and dot-net could be registered. We developed a multi-lingual engine which would allow domain names and e-mail addresses to appear in Asian languages such as Japanese, Korean, and Chinese,' the 36-year-old says.
After he graduated, Chung founded an IT company with the Innovations Foundation at the University of Toronto, which helped to obtain him a patent. In 2000, he was selected by Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper as a Young Canadian Leader. And his invention won an award for innovation from a Chinese-Canadian group of entrepreneurs.
Chung moved back to Hong Kong in 2005 and continued to work on developing Asian domain names.
'It's about embracing diversity and adopting a world view. A domain name is like an address and a direct navigation [tool]. Just think about all those internet users who don't speak and write English, and how they will be able to search your website if the domain name is in their own language,' he says.
Since 2006, Chung has been the chief executive of DotAsia, a not-for-profit IT company that promotes internet development and adoption in Asia. In 2007, the company launched the top-level domain name dot-Asia. Chung says it gives any local website a significant competitive edge over others.