News Registries .ASIA Allocating Names to Pioneers | .ASIA Allocating Names to Pioneers |
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| Written by Bret Fausett | |
| Friday, 20 July 2007 | |
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One of the lessons learned by new gTLD registries from the launch of .INFO and .BIZ in 2001 is that a first-come, first-served landrush for new registrations isn't the best way to release names. It's not that first-come, first-served doesn't sell registrations quickly -- in fact, there's probably no quicker way to release names than through a landrush -- it's that it doesn't allocate them in a way that benefits the registry over the long term. Over the long term, a registry sells more names, in its long tail, if the TLD is perceived as having value by new registrants, years post landrush, who weren't thinking they needed a name when the TLD launched. A landrush puts the best names in the holding pattern of parking pages, for sale ads, and monetization. Those are certainly all legitimate uses, but they don't convey to prospective new registrants that the TLD has a distinct meaning and independent value. So what .ASIA is doing now is quite interesting. It has launched a "Pioneer" program (http://pioneer.domains.asia/) which allows prospective registrants to submit proposals for the best names. Persons submitting proposals need to have a business and marketing plan, a demonstrated viable operation with sufficient financial support, and reasons why the proposed use is in the community's best interest.Perhaps most clever of all though is how the .ASIA registry is going to use its registrants to promote the .ASIA TLD :
This application and review process isn't something that .ASIA can automate, so this is a personnel intensive service. If you think that, conservatively, .ASIA allocates only 500 names through the application process, those 500 names will generate a $5,000,000 .ASIA advertising budget. Not bad. .MOBI used a similar application process for some of its names and is about to enter a second application period for city names.
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Comments (2)
  written by Dirk Krischenowski, August 04, 2007
I like the idea of .asia to let so-called lighthouse and reference domains to be developed by interested parties. The .info, .biz and .eu launches missed the business critical opportunity to get the target groups familiar with the new top-level.
But .asia should be careful when giving away good domain names, since the Pioneer program is announced worldwide. It can be expected that the usual suspect domain speculators and investors step in for a relative small fee, compared to what a fully developed monetizing website could be worth. By this some domains might get some pretty good websites, but these will be only a smarter type of monetizing website with limited benefit to the Asian community at large. Therefore I suggest, that the Pioneer program should be limited to parties from the Asian community and that .asia checks who is behind the application to avoid the described phenomenons and phantom applicants as well. At .berlin we have a program comparable to the .asia Pioneer program since our start in 2005. We call it a Tender program, where relevant parties with interest in a frequently used community term (like hotel, trade, wheather) are invited to make a proposal for the use of the domain, including business plan etc. The tender conditions are based on common German tender guidelines and take special attention to the location of the applicant within the Berlin community and the benefits the domain/website generates for the community. By this we already allocated for instance the term "trade" to the Berlin Chamber of Trade. The revenues generated by these tenders are used to finance the .berlin application. Write comment
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 23 July 2007 ) |
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It should be interesting to see how things turn out for .asia over the space of a year or so. The .eu ccTLD is a wasteland with perhaps less than 16% of domains being actively developed as websites. The rest are holding pages, framed pages, PPC parking pages and redirected elsewhere. Far from being the prominent European choice, it is now very much a third choice for most Europeans. Unless a TLD finds its niche, it will exist at this level - if it is lucky. The target market for .asia already has strong ccTLDs and a good representation in the .com/net/org/biz/info extensions. Getting anchor registrants may help but the real development in a TLD comes from the ground up. The small businesses and developers are the ones, the real pioneers, who make an extension valuable. Without them, you've got a mess like .eu ccTLD where this core demographic loses confidence in the extension. So far, it looks like the .asia registry is smarter than others.