The Nameify Blog

What do you do when an entire continent gets a domain name extension?

That was the problem ICANN faced last year when .asia was first opened to registers. The collision foreseen was between competing factions (all wanting the same .asia domain name) with similar claims.

Now, back to the problem.

With the new extension, .asia, opening up, you can bet that everyone and their brother would like to register IBM.asia and then turn around and sell the name to the real IBM.

But that’s not all.

What if there were already a company in Taiwan called something like, “Ichibod Boola Mocha”. They have a claim to the domain name IBM.asia, and they are actually in Asia.

Ah, but there’s even more.

China is part of Asia. India is part of Asia too. With those two powerhouses of population, there are going to be collisions even between and among countries in Asia itself. So, Ichibod’s might come into conflict with Illasha’s Bountiful Melons, and multiple other businesses or individuals who can claim IBM.asia.

What to do?

Well, you start by recognizing another organization whose mission is to specifically address this problem. Enter (in 2004) another non-profit group, The DotAsia organization. And here’s what DotAsia did:

• Policies. Spent 3 years coming up with policies and procedures. This generally gave them the heft and the authority to take the next steps.


• Pre-sunrise period. Governments get first crack at ‘reserved’ names. (Don’t they always cut the line?) You can bet that China.asia went fast. This was on a first-come first-served basis.


• Sunrise periods. Back to back in late October 2007 and early November 2007) companies with existing trademarks in Asian countries could register their trade names as domain names. This would also apply to celebrity site names like BradPitt.asia. Brad gets a crack at buying his own name. The second period also allowed businesses to register functional names related to their types of business– Telephone.asia for AT&T would be an example. Conflicts in this period were resolved in a gentlemanly fashion, by auction. You can bet that Ichibod didn’t end up with IBM.asia. The most popular domain name applied for during this period (the one with the most applications) was Sex.asia. Go figure.


• Landrush period. Now we move into early 2008 and the fun really begins. The doors are flung open and names not yet registered are up for grabs by anyone. The settlement mechanism is the same, an auction. The name with the highest number of applications? Buy.asia. A half-million domain name applications later and we are at the last step.


• Go Live. This is where DotAsia is now. First-come, first-served on registering domain names not yet taken.

Is there money to be made?

Here’s the current auction price for mediaworld.asia: $10,000. The top one currently at auction? ace.asia at $20,501.

Feel like bidding?

Go to www.dotasia.org. Bring your checkbook.

Look for the .asia extension to keep on going strong for quite a while yet. There are hundreds, if not thousands of marketable (and profitable) names to be had simply by registering them.

From here on in the auctions will slow and die off. It will be the creative and the bold who buy and hold tomorrow’s most popular new .asia domain name.

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