dot ASIA - What's Next?

The continent of Asia and the nation of China in particular has been an area of high interest for me this past decade. Asia and specifically China is obviously a massive opportunity and clearly the domain market of the future. Though many impediments and hurdles exist to entering the Asian market, those with the right timing and execution of entry are poised to win big. I myself have almost taken the plunge several times, especially right after the hugely successful launch of .CN.

Given all this potential, .ASIA, operated by dotASIA Organisation in Hong Kong, is uniquely positioned to be a very important TLD for the region. How important, I didn't realize until I had the opportunity to meet with dotASIA representatives and fellow registrars at their annual .ASIA Retreat in Hong Kong. Over the two day period, I was impressed by some of their creative marketing campaigns, which were done in partnership with some of Asia's celebrities, as well as, how wide and deep many of Asia's ccTLD registries support .ASIA.

Though .ASIA has gotten off to a slower start than expected, around 250,000 domains under management in two years, I am confident the Registry will increasingly expand its influence and popularity in Asia and outside of Asia. The fact that .ASIA has the support of so many ccTLD registries in the region almost certainly assures their longevity. Additionally, given the information I received at the retreat, some of which I will share in this post, the future success of .ASIA is looking bright.

Community:

dotASIA has as their mandate to invest heavily into community projects, as well as, provide monies for Internet expansion and awareness in Asia. These efforts are slowing starting to pay off. Couple this awareness with the growing Internet user base and the formula for success becomes clear.

Internet User Base:

Three of the top five countries worldwide are in Asia, according to Internet World Stats as of March 31, 2009. Furthermore, Asia as a region has the largest Internet user base in the world.

Internet Users By Country: 1. China - 298,000,000 Users 2. United States - 227,200,000 Users 3. Japan - 94,000,000 Users 4. India - 81,000,000 Users 5. Brazil - 67,500,000 Users
Asian Bloggers: According to the ADMA market Yearbook for 2009, the growth and popularity of blogging in Asia is in overdrive. Even in comparison to the US the numbers are amazing. Just looking at the "Average Monthly Unique Visitors", Asia is approx. 44% larger than the US.

Unique .ASIA Websites:

I expect to see much success for .ASIA in the coming years, especially given the demographics of their target audience, their partnership with ccTLD registries, and their bold marketing philosophy.
We at HEXONET support .ASIA.  In the event that you are interested in registering larger volumes of .ASIA Domains, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] and allow us to make you an offer.