Top 5 Reasons to register .ASIA Domains:
#1: With all the restrictions CNNIC has now imposed on .CN Domains, why not change to a TLD that provides security and stability and is used and commonly known for ASIA?

Recently, CNNIC the official TLD Registry of China disabled .CN registrations from international registrars, meaning international accredited registrars were no longer permitted to register .CN Domains on behalf of their customers.  Just recently CNNIC has opened registrations once again for international registrars, however the burden is now on the registrars to collect the required documentation from the registrant prior to submitting the registration request.  With all this manual work, the prices of .CN Domains are bound to sky-rocket or you may even see many registrars start taking .CN off the shelf.  It is very unfortunate that it had to come this far with .CN Domains.  Everything was working fine without any problems, until CNNIC started giving away .CN Domains at a few cents, basically opening the gates to Spammers worldwide.  Based on the above one should now consider if a .CN Domains is the right choice.  Given all of the above, I would recommend going with a .ASIA Domain, which is stable and secure.

#2: Anybody can register a .ASIA domain, quickly and easily without the hassle of documentation

An .ASIA Domain can be registered within seconds and no additional documentation is required.  You immediately know, if you got the domain or not, thus providing more security and stability to the registrant.

#3: Asia is the market of tomorrow.  Did you know, that a .ASIA Domain improves SEO for searches relevant to the Asia Market?  With all other SEO elements held equal, domain anmes make a difference in search results.  The term “ASIA” itself is already one of the most popular search keywords.  A “.ASIA” domain helps improve search engine rankings naturally, especially when Internet users search for information about Asia.  Getting a .ASIA is a cheap and efficient way of increasing your SEO.

#4: Did you know, that every .ASIA registrations helps fund community work in ASIA?
DotASIA has a core mandate towards digital inclusion, education and development.  Today, DotAsia is already supporting many major community projects: Relief.ASIA, ISIF.ASIA (R&D Grants Fund), CreativeCommons.ASIA, OLPC.AISA (One-Laptop-Per-Child initiative in Asia), … and many more.  Every registration contributes funds to the social and technical development of the Internet throughout Asia.

#5: How likely is your desired domain to be taken beneath .COM and still available in .ASIA?  Very likely indeed.  The .ASIA namespace is still fairly young, hence the chances of your desired domain name taken beneath .ASIA is significantly lower than searching for your domain in .COM.

To emphasize on this prime opportunity, HEXONET is offering a special price promotion throughout the months March and April 2010.  The required Asian CED Contact is provided with each registration free-of-charge.

In the event you are interested in registering larger volumes of .ASIA Domains, please drop sales@hexonet.net an email and allow HEXONET to make you an offer.

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.