Ever wanted yourname.it.com as a domain?

Source: it.com Domains. the .it.com domain suffix is now open to APAC.

The .it.com domain is now available to the Asia Pacific region (APAC) though a partnership with GMO Internet Group, the 1st ICANN-accredited domain registrar in Asia, and it.com Domains, the official operator for the .it.com domain registry.

The new suffix offers the opportunity to create short and easy-to-remember domain names, instead of settling for leftover domains in well-mined generic top-level domains (gTLDs), it.com Domains said, and comes with the prestige of the .com root as well as an affiliation with the technology sector.

Yutaka Kirihara, GM of Domain and Hosting Business Division at GMO Internet Group said: "We are excited about launching it com as we can offer more options to our customers, especially with the IT-related businesses. We hope to work more closely together moving forward to promote brand awareness and to enhance market position as well."

GMO Internet Group has the No. 1 market share in Japan*, and its domain registration service Onamae.com commands the No. 1 market share in Japan's domain industry, with more than 33 million domain registration records**.

Explore

Visit https://www.onamae.com/campaign/itcom/ to register a domain.

*https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/registry-reports

**https://www.gmo.jp/news/article/9057/

GoDaddy now offers .cn domain names

GoDaddy, a technology provider dedicated to small businesses, has brought the total number of domain name extensions it offers to 421 with the addition of the "dot cn" (.cn) domain name to its lineup. This is the country code for China and represents a growing Internet audience looking to get online.

There are more than 1.6 billion Internet users across China*, more than 600 million of whom are in the country. China has registered more than 16 million .cn domain names** but only also has a 50.3%** Internet penetration rate, showing more room to grow.

"Having the ability to offer cross-border commerce with China is important, especially in the Asia Region," said Roger Chen, Vice President of Asia, GoDaddy. “We are pleased to offer the .cn domain name to small businesses to address this growing need.”

“GoDaddy is one of our most important partners; we are looking forward to expanding our .cn domain name business worldwide with GoDaddy,” said CNNIC President & CEO, Xiaodong Lee.

The addition of .cn domain names is part of a larger Asian expansion for GoDaddy. The company recently announced its launch in 11 Asian markets. GoDaddy is now supporting 10 languages and 14 markets across Asia, including: Hong Kong (English and Traditional Chinese), Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia (English and Malay), Philippines (English and Filipino), Singapore (English and Simplified Chinese), South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In addition to providing domain names, GoDaddy offers associated services such as email addresses linked to the domain name, website creation, and Office 365 provision.

Interested?

Read the TechTrade Asia blog posts about GoDaddy's Asian expansion and about its globalisation strategy

Register a .cn domain name through GoDaddy

*InternetStats.com – November 15, 2015
**CNNIC 37th Statistics Report

GoDaddy is focused on building big, beautiful business identities for small businesses

Irving.

GoDaddy may have started out as a domain name provider, but it now much more. GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving explained that the company's vision is focused on shifting the emphasis to the small businesses which typically to make up the majority of companies in an economy.

According to Irving, small businesses are an underserved yet giant opportunity, even the ones so small that may only have a staff strength of one. "Small businesses are treated as enterprises or consumers and nobody really builds tools for them," he explained.

The business landscape has also changed. Where a simple website and an email address would have sufficed in the past, today's business is expected to maintain a social media presence, complex websites, understand search engine optimisation, market through email and more.

In addition to helping people "get a great name", which is still 52% of the business albeit shrinking in terms of its contribution, GoDaddy has also expanded its support of small businesses to helping them with business identities, from email addresses connected to the domain name to website creation. GoDaddy has also been an Microsoft Office 365 partner since early 2014.

Customer support is a priority for GoDaddy, which understands the small business owner is unlikely to be tech savvy and may need more hotline help for relatively basic tasks. The company has a team of 3,400-plus people in India, China, Europe and the US whose job is to resolve customer problems, no matter how long it takes. "Technology companies don't tend to talk to customers. If you're a giant company and you've got millions of dollars to spend you have a security guy who is yours. With a small business you're left to visit a website for help," Irving said of the typical tech vendor. "(Small businesses) just want to talk to somebody in the local language."

GoDaddy started looking outside of the US fairly recently. "Three years ago we were in English with US currency and US payment types. In 2016 we rolled out to Asia, and for the rest of 2016 we're going to MENA," Irving said. "Regardless of what country you enter, people want to talk with someone. The need for super simple software is everywhere. The problems are pretty homogeneous."

Localisation, Irving shared, includes offering local numbers, local language versions of a website, as well as the "nuanced differences" required by markets including the need to ensure that the imagery on the website truly represents that market.

Today, GoDaddy manages 61 million domains and has 13+ million customers, hosted in data centres around the world including its only Asian data centre in Singapore. Twenty-six languages are supported, as are 44 currencies, in 53 markets. The company has simplified Office 365 installation to a single setup screen against 22 from Microsoft, and can populate a small business' DNS details to create a related email address in under 100 seconds - a task that used to take an IT person 24 hours, Irving noted.

"GoDaddy is the natural on ramp for people to get their business online. We will educate the market on our brand and build awareness for the services we can deliver; we're here to stay," he said. "We will offer locally relevant products, that help small businesses grow and succeed."

Interested?

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about GoDaddy's Asian expansion

GoDaddy launches in 11 Asian markets

GoDaddy, a global technology provider dedicated to small businesses, has launched in 11 Asian markets, bringing its suite of cloud-based products and expert customer care to millions of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the region.

With the launch of 11 new markets, GoDaddy is now in a total of 10 languages and 14 markets across Asia, including: Hong Kong (English and Traditional Chinese), Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia (English and Malay), Philippines (English and Filipino), Singapore (English and Simplified Chinese), South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Following the launch in Asia, GoDaddy is now helping small businesses in 53 markets, supporting 26 languages and 44 currencies. GoDaddy has more than 4 million international customers.

“Asia is home to one of the largest, most vibrant small business communities in the world,” said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving. “As Internet growth and smartphone adoption continue to accelerate across the region, it’s important that these businesses are able to create strong digital identities that will help them achieve their goals and compete online. GoDaddy is committed to providing the products and services that will enable Asia entrepreneurs to easily start, confidently grow and successfully run their own ventures.”

Small and medium enterprises account for over 97% of all enterprises and employ over half of the workforce across APEC economies*. At the same time, more people in Asia are utilising the Internet and connected devices to stay informed and make purchases. Seven in 10 (72%) of people in Hong Kong access the Internet daily and 74% use a smartphone**; 81% of people in Singapore access the Internet and 88% use a smartphone**. Overall, Internet growth across Asia has grown 1,319% between 2000-2015***.

With such trends in progress, the impact of creating an online presence for small businesses can be significant. A RedShift Research survey of 1,000 very small businesses in Hong Kong and Singapore that built websites for their ventures found that 45% saw their business increase by 25% or more.

Localised, purpose-built products

GoDaddy offers a suite of cloud-based products in the local language and currency to help businesses find the perfect domain name, create a beautiful website, find new customers, and improve business productivity. Specific product highlights include:

Domains

• As the world’s largest domain registrar with more than 62 million domains under management, GoDaddy offers the largest top-level domain (TLD) inventory in each of the new Asia markets. GoDaddy’s extensive inventory includes country-specific domains for Asia markets (e.g., .sg for Singapore and .tw for Taiwan). 
• GoDaddy also offers .cn for mainland China to help facilitate cross-border commerce between China and neighbouring markets. 
• GoDaddy has an aftermarket platform as well, where users can buy and sell domain names. 

Website hosting

GoDaddy hosts more than 10 million websites across more than 55,000 servers around the world and is hyper-focused on delivering fast, reliable and easy to use Web hosting.

The company offers options such as Managed WordPress Hosting, an optimised platform for customers who require performance and scalability. All of the technical hosting aspects are managed for customers including setup, software updates, network security and daily backups.

Build a website

GoDaddy Website Builder provides a do-it-yourself design tool for building a full-featured website. Website Builder gives customers hundreds of customisable designs to choose from, integrates social media, and allows quick and effortless changes.

Business applications

Productivity tools make the business of business easier. GoDaddy provides customers with professional email connected to domain names and productivity solutions, enabling them to communicate and collaborate more effectively.

Personalised customer care

A dedicated team of customer care experts who understand the needs of small business owners complement GoDaddy products. GoDaddy offers local language customer care and a direct phone number in each of the new Asia markets, enabling customers to get personalised assistance as they create their digital presence.

*Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
**Google Consumer Barometer
***Internet World Stats

'Dot World' domain name in Chinese, Japanese and Korean now in sunrise period

The DotWorld_IDN Registry, operated by Stable Tone has launched the sunrise period for the DotWorld_IDN top level domain (TLD) in Chinese, Japanese and Korean. This sunrise application period will end on November 10, 2015.

During the sunrise period, prior rights holders with a registered mark in the Trademark Clearing House, as well as rights holders with a nationally registered trademark around the world can register DotWorld_IDN domain names ahead of the public launch. The public launch will open on November 17, 2015, allowing DotWorld_IDN domains to be available for registration by anyone on a first-come, first-served basis.

The two-character domain extension, 世界, pronounced "shijie" in Chinese; "seikai" in Japanese and "segye" in Korean, means the "world" across all three languages, and can target a population of over 1.5 billion.

"We are taking care to ensure that trademark rights holders have a chance to register their brand names with priority in the DotWorld_IDN TLD," said Jason Du, CEO of Stable Tone. "DotWorld_IDN domains are a must-have for brands looking to grow and prosper in China, Japan and Korea."

Namesphere, a sister company of DotAsia, will work with the DotWorld_IDN registry, promoting the  TLD in Asia and beyond.

Interested?

Register a .世界 domain

Landrush for .global, .website and .press domain names today

Online brand expert IP Mirror has announced that several top level domain (TLD) names will be in the landrush phase as of August 27 Singapore time (GMT +8). 

During the 'sunrise' phase for a domain name, trademark owners have an opportunity to register their trademarks, whereas others can come in during the landrush phase to obtain any of the remaining available names at a premium.  

According to the company, .global as the domain descriptor implies a property which reaches an international audience. The landrush phase for the domain name is between 27 August and 4 September, after which registration opens up to the general public on a first-come-first-served basis on 9 September.

The top level domains .website and .press are also beginning their landrush phases on 27 August. 

Public Interest Registry announces .org domain name in simplified Chinese

Public Interest Registry, the not-for-profit operator of the .org domain, has announced the general availability of a new internationalised domain name (IDN) in simplified Chinese, .机构. 

Source: Public Interest Registry website.

This IDN is one of three new domains from Public Interest Registry in non-Latin-based scripts -- including Cyrillic and Devanagari -- which translate to "organisation" or "institution" and is now available for registration to all interested companies, organisations and individuals.

"Our mission at Public Interest Registry has always been to help organisations maximise their audience reach and better communicate their missions, activities and accomplishments. The launch of these new international domain names speaks to the heart of that mission," said Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry. "Now, organisations of all sizes will have the opportunity to brand their website addresses in localised scripts, ensuring that their causes and passions resonate on regional and global levels."

With more than 238,000 .org registrations, China is the seventh largest .org market globally. Currently, there are 1.4 billion people speaking and writing in some form of Chinese. The new simplified Chinese IDN will enable website owners to brand their addresses in the native script, and in turn, make their website more relevant to audiences who speak and write the language.

In recent years, Public Interest Registry has emerged at the forefront of support for use of alternative scripts, having worked closely with standards-setting bodies and members of the engineering community to create and launch a number of alternative scripts for second-level names associated with .org.

Second-level registrations for '.id' domain names are open

Domain name registry IP Mirror has reported that the 'grandfather' phase of second-level .ID domain names has started and will end on 12 June 2014. Second-level .ID domain names end directly with .ID, e.g. example.id. 

 

Source: IP Mirror newsletter

This exercise is open to holders of existing third-level .ID domain names such as example.co.id. The domain name has to be an exact match with the third-level domain name. Auctions will be conducted if multiple applications are received for the same domain name.

The landrush phase will start on 16 June 2014, ending on 13 August 2014. It is open to legal entities registered in Indonesia and Indonesian citizens. Auctions will also be conducted if multiple applications are received for the same domain name.

More information about the landrush phase is here.

NetNames opens online brand protection services to companies in SE Asia, Australia

NetNames is offering Southeast Asian and Australian corporations more direct access to its online brand protection services through the acquisitions of Adicio, its long-time partner in Singapore, and WebIP, a corporate domain name management firm in Australia. 

According to NetNames, online brand protection services are used by global brands to prevent counterfeit sales and other forms of online brand infringement.  

Chan Loy Lye, Founder and Managing Director of Adicio, who will continue to lead the business under the NetNames brand, said: "Our partnership with Netnames enabled customers to register domains across every territory worldwide. Extending this to encompass brand protection services comes just at a time when customers are aware of the threats of online piracy leading to the need to safeguard their intellectual property." 
Gary McIlraith, CEO of NetNames said: "We are seeing growth in the number, scale and global reach of brands domiciled in the Southeast Asia region and we believe that there will be an increasing demand from corporates in the region for the comprehensive and integrated set of online brand protection services that NetNames provides to many large companies in Europe and the US." 

In addition, companies in Singapore and Australia will also have access to NetNames' global domain name registration platform, enabling them to work with a single partner to register and manage domain names with direct accreditation in virtually every domain registry worldwide.

New top level domain for brands with global expansion in mind

A new top level domain (TLD), '.global', has been launched at ICANN 49. The TLD will allow growing organisations with an eye on expanding beyond their home bases to create a level playing field in competing against more established brands in Europe and North America which dominate in the well-recognised '.com' TLD space.

Source: .GLOBAL website

 

The new TLD is likely to be on many corporate wishlists. While the '.asia' TLD is already in use, it has a regional feel, while '.net' does not have the same ring. “The launch of .GLOBAL today is an exciting opportunity for Asian businesses to finally get the perfect international business domain name that has been unavailable to them with .com,” said Rolf Larsen, CEO at .GLOBAL. 

“Companies in Asia had previously found themselves at a disadvantage as their rivals in Europe and America acquired the best domain names early, forcing them to pay extortionate prices on the second hand domain market.  .GLOBAL is here to re-open naming opportunities for Asian businesses who want to become global and spur innovation across the internet.”

According to the company, the .global domain is a borderless strategy which offers presents businesses with an unrivalled opportunity to establish a global online identity, which in turn can re-define or enhance their business model.  

Domain registrars worldwide will offer the choice of .global domains. Trademark holders can register their names for .global on July 9, 2014 while .global names will be open for public registration on September 12, 2014. Premium names for a select group of high-value generics and business terms will be priced separately and released via an auction system provider.

Click here for more information on new TLDs.