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“Let’s Be More .MX”
Guest post by Patrick McCleery, Sales Manager North America & Asia/Pacific at HEXONET:
Seamosmas.mx, translated as “Let’s Be More .MX”, is the recent slogan used by NIC Mexico, the official registry operator of the newly liberalized .MX ccTLD. The idea behind this slogan is to showcase users of .MX, in an effort to reach and educate the Internet public in Mexico, as well as, highlight the change from third-level (.com.mx. ,net.mx and .org.mx) to second-level .MX availability. These recent iniatives and campaigns show the aggression that NIC Mexico is going into the market with. The Mexican domain market really has some great potential.
To share their thoughts and knowledge on .MX, we were fortunate to have garnered feedback from Sergio Igartua and Mike Culver. Sergio Igartua operates a successful marketing and media firm in Los Cabos, Mexico and also operates a very popular blog called DomainerBlog.org. Mike Culver, an active domainer and is also a publisher of domain sales and aftermarket research, specifically on .MX. Mike also runs Sales.Mx.
HEXONET wants to sincerely thank Sergio and Mike for their insight into the .MX ccTLD. It is clear that .MX is still at the early stages of adoption, but there is a tremendous and latent potential with the ccTLD.
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To read the entire Q&A Session, please visit HEXONET Blog
HEXONET Services moves to a new and better office
While I was in Asia, my colleague and partner Tony Kim moved our office. In the fall of this year we had briefly talked to our landlord about extending our office lease to June of next year. Unfortunately a few days later we received a letter informing us that he will regrettably not be renewing the lease, as he is expanding his lawyers office and he needs the space to add additional lawyers/partners. It was unfortunate as we had felt extremely comfortable in there.
Tony and I basically had two options.
Option1: We would simply stay in the office until June of 2011 and start looking for an office shortly before our lease expires.
Option 2: Start looking immediately. Why make it more difficult for our landlord and stay until June 2011?
We chose option 2, as our landlord had been excellent towards us and if there was a way for us to help him expand and grow his business sooner, then the choice was an obvious one.
Both Tony and I had most likely looked at 10 – 15 possible office space and finally chose one that suited our needs the best and gave HEXONET room to expand. We now have a work space twice the size of our previous office and represents HEXONET in what we do on a daily basis.
The new address is:
HEXONET Services Inc.
Unit 104 – 7455 132nd ST
Surrey, B.C., V3W 1J8
Special thanks to Tony for organizing the move while I was in Asia. Last Thursday all I had to do was drive to the new location and assume work in my new office. Everything had been taken care of and the office was already up and running. Picture of the new office will soon follow. If you are ever in the area, please do stop by our office for a visit.
.JP and Other Trends in the Japanese Domain Market…
Guest post by Patrick McCleery, Sales Manager North America & Asia/Pacific at HEXONET:
.JP and Other Trends in the Japanese Domain Market …
As a fluent speaker of Japanese and a former resident of Japan, I have always tried to keep my finger on the pulse the country including technology and Internet trends. I thought I would take this opportunity to shed some light on the domain market in Japan and in particular the Japanese country-code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) .JP.
Considering Japan is the third largest economy in the world with over 127 million inhabitants and an Internet penetration rate of 78%, one would think that the domain market in Japan would be large and highly developed. The strange thing is that it is not. Currently there are only 1,190,404 registered .JP domains. To put this number into perspective, the UK with only 61 million people has nearly 9 million registered .UK domains. More starkly, Canada with just 33 million people has almost 1.5 million registered .CA domains. To get some answers as to why .JP is so under utilized, I turned to an active domainer in the Japanese market and here are his conclusions:
1) The co.JP domain for many years was the only extension available for registration. Tight regulations like having to show proof of business registration to even qualify to purchase the domain of one’s own company name (to ensure that only Sony Corporation can buy sony.co.jp) made it difficult and discouraging for many small businesses.
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If you would like to read the entire article, please visit .JP and Other Trends in the Japanese Domain Market …
Does Size Matter?
Guest post by Patrick McCleery, Sales Manager North America & Asia/Pacific at HEXONET:
After reading up on the Libyan government shutting down the popular URL link shortening service called VB.ly. NIC.ly I thought the article “Does Size Matter?” would be interesting for my readers. In addition many registrars advertise ccTLD for URL-Shorteners and I believe this is not the right way of advertising a ccTLD. This article is definitely an eye-opener and worth reading. I hope you enjoy it.
Earlier this month, many of our readers heard about the Libyan government shutting down the popular URL link shortening service called VB.ly. NIC.ly, the official registry operator for the .ly domain space, the official country-code top level domain of Libya, is now scrutinizing anyone using all .ly shortening services. In fact, NIC.ly has gone as far as restricting four character or less .ly registrations to only Libyian nationals. This decision is already having implications for companies that utilize .ly (bit.ly and ow.ly come to mind) in their URL shortening services.
What is a URL Shortener?
URL shorteners are not new. In fact, URL shortening services have been around since 2002, transforming long URLs into short manageable links. Among the most popular url shortening services are Bit.ly and Tinyurl. Twitter and its 140 character message limit has been driving force behind these services in recent years.
Prominent Companies/Organizations Using URL Shorteners:
Facebook: fb.me
Google: goo.gl
Coca-Cola: cokeurl.com
Twitter: t.co
Amazon: amzn.com
GoDaddy: x.co
NPR Radio: n.prWhat are Some Advantages of Shortening URLs?
1. K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Long URLs are cumbersome. With character limits in tweets, status updates and other modes of short-form publishing (micro-blogging), a shortened URL enables users to communicate rather than waste valuable space. Social media and the mobile Internet have made character limits front and center for millions of users.
2. Comprehensive Tracking (aka Click Analytics)
A number of URL shortening services now provide comprehensive tracking features. For example, Google’s URL shortener goo.gl includes a dashboard that shows statistics. These statistics include clicks over time, top traffic referrers, top countries users are visiting from, and even the type of browsers used or the user’s operating system.
3. Potential SEO Benefits
SEO via URL shortening is debatable. However, according to SearchEngineWatch.com , “Goo.gl could work into Google’s ranking algorithm and become a factor in real-time search results, and possibly even regular search results if the shortener proves popular. With all this data on what links are being shared and clicked, Google can see what’s trending, and likely use this as a ranking factor.”
What are Some of the Disadvantages of Using a URL Shortener?
1. Potential Domain Hijacking Threats
There is a possibility that someone could hijack the domain and forward all of the active shortened URLs to a malware.
2. Gone with the Wind?
As seen with the registry operator of .LY, a ccTLD registry can easily change their registration policies or many even go out of business. Additionally, small ccTLD registries many also have under-provisioned DNS systems increasing the likelyhood of DNS look-up failure.
3. Middleman and Reliability
According to Joshua Schachter, founder of the popular bookmarking site Delicious.com, “The extra layer of indirection slows down browsing with additional DNS lookups and server hits. A new and potentially unreliable middleman now sits between the link and its destination. And the long-term archivability of the hyperlink now depends on the health of a third party …”
Innovation Moving Forward…
1. In the future, perhaps registries or registrars will include URL shortening capabilities with every domain. This could be a very powerful tool for branding.
2. ICANN is going to open up the domain name space with the introduction of new gTLDs (estimated 2012). We may see corporations brand thier own TLDs for URL shorteners?
3. Twitter may offer the ability to hyperlink text within ‘tweets’.
4. Websites like Mapquest or Google maps may offer directions via built-in shortened links?
Networking and Having Fun on DNCruise
Guest post by Tony Kim, CMO of HEXONET and Co-Founder of HEXONET Services Inc.:
I thought I would post the Blogpost of Tony Kim and his feedback on DNCruise, as this is the first time, that such an event had taken place and it was the first time, that we HEXONET had sponsored in North America.
Networking and Having Fun on DNCruise
Sponsoring of DNCruise
HEXONET is a proud sponsor of Chef Patrick’s DNCruise. Over the next four days, I will touch upon what I saw and did at DNCruise. Today is about the fantastic networking at the event.
DNCruise – Bon Voyage
For four days, from October 11 – 15, the inaugural sailing of DNCruise, the first ever domain event held on a cruise-liner, took place on the beautiful high seas of the Caribbean. Some attendees of DNCruise came for the networking. Other attendees came for the training. Unexpectedly for everyone though, we walked away having a great deal of fun as well as making resonating friendships.
Networking Over Flip-flops and Long Islands
Going to many different types of technical trade-shows and events for countless number of years, I really found the networking on the DNCruise refreshing and more satisfying. Meeting new people in one’s shorts and a T-shirt forces you to drop your guard. And as a result, introductions were more genuine and friendly. Though we all still carried our titles, a new and more important title for the cruise was emerging – DNCruiser!
As a DNCruiser, networking went beyond just asking someone what they did for a living. The same ritualistic question-and-answer dance that I was accustomed to at trade-shows had to be thrown out the window. One couldn’t simply ask a few questions and then just walk away. Knowing that you will see these individuals many more times over the course of four days, it became appropriate to ask and be prepared to answer deeper questions. In the end, every DNCruiser said DNCruise was by far the best networking event they had ever experienced.
Domain Training and Learning on the High Seas
Tomorrow’s post will be on what I learned at DNCruise and why some of my shipmates say DNCruise was one of the best training events they have ever been to.
To read the entire series of Tony Kim’s updates on DNCruise, please visit blog.hexonet.net.
Want to Resell Domains? Choose Your Registrar Wisely!
With the multitude of registrars offering reseller solutions and platforms, it can be difficult to find the registrar that is right for you. The best registrar will be one that offers a comprehensive set of features, a long history of operational excellence, and an abundance of services to resell:
1.) A Large Variety of TLDs from a Single Source
Whether one is only interested in selling a few TLDs or many, going with a registrar with a wide selection of TLDs is better than a registrar with less. More TLDs means more options and less headaches over the long term.
Imagine being approached by a large customer of yours about a TLD that you don’t offer. You check with your registrar and they don’t offer that TLD. Now you are in a bind. You either tell your customer, at the risk of losing their business, that you can’t offer the TLD or you frantically try to provision the new TLD through another registrar. Trying to bring up another TLD through another registrar can entail:
- Review and execution of a new reseller agreement, which possibly adds more financial commitment or requires upfront capital.
- Possibly time and energy to integrate a new API with the new registrar
- Additional time for initial and ongoing testing to ensure the integration stability
As one can see, the scenario is not pretty. With a registrar like HEXONET, which has a wide variety of domains, such problems are avoided. In fact, adding a new TLD can be as simple as a few mouse clicks. This is the power of a registrar with hundreds of TLDs.
2.) ccTLD Growth
Market economics are hard to deny. The domain industry is seeing a prominence of ccTLDs. At of the end July, 2010, the following stats were published:
- .COM – 88,831,766 Domains
- .DE – 13,752,101 Domains
- .NET – 13,241,122 Domains
- .UK – 8,654,260 Domains
- .ORG – 8,611,202 Domains
- .CN – 7,246,686 Domains
- .INFO – 6,753,547 Domains
- .NL – 3,976,037 Domains
- .EU – 3,220,758 Domains
- .BIZ – 2,142,157 Domains
As the .com namespace becomes ever so scarce, ccTLDs as an alternative will continue to grow in popularity. Having a registrar like HEXONET, who offers the wide selection of TLDs makes reselling ccTLDs a snap.
3.) Importance of High Performance Real-Time Systems
In a nutshell, having transactions execute within seconds mean more business for a reseller. Resellers on a fast platform will have advantages over the competition on a slower platform.
- Check Domain Availability – Execution in seconds results in more domain searches; long execution times will result in customers leaving or never coming back to use your domain search again.
- Domain Registrations – Some registrar have parts of their system running in manual or batch mode, this means the actual registration may happen long afterward, putting a registration in jeopardy. Registrations need to be completed within seconds and the respective WHOIS should be available immediately (registry dependent)
- Domain Modifications (such as WHOIS Uupdates, DNS Updates, …etc.) should get processed to the respective registry immediately, thus providing you immediate feedback if an update was successful or not.
Speed and execution of the reseller platform will effect how customers view a reseller. The faster and more reliable the registrar platform the better a reseller looks to the buying public. At HEXONET, not only do we pride ourselves on having real-time systems throughout our platform, but also for having some of the fastest domain checks and transactions anywhere.
4.) Comprehensive Registry Features
Features and functionality provided by the various registries are intended to assist in the registration and management of domains. Given the importance of these features, strangely enough not every reseller platform makes these features available. HEXONET prides itself on allowing for as many registry features in our solution.
- Autorenew feature, including allowing for an autorenew grace period (a defined period of time, which allows you to delete a domain in this period and still receive a refund)
- Multiyear registrations
- IDN (Internationalized Domain Names) capabilities – though many registries allow IDN registrations not many registrars support it. IDNs are however on the horizon.
- Transfer capability via all methods – many registrars do not offer the full range of transfer capabilities for the respective TLDs they sell
5.) Integration Flexibility
Many registrar systems only offer one way to connect with them. As it is with TLD selection, a wide variety of choice makes it easier for the reseller. HEXONET for instance allows for six different ways for resellers to connect and register domains:
- Mailrobot
- SOAP
- XML/RPC
- HTTPS-API
- WebInterface or User Interface or Control Panel
- And as of recently possibly an EPP Gateway
6.) Future Proofing Through Accreditation Management
A reseller many potential one day have enough domains of a particular TLD to consider becoming directly accredited with a respective registry. Reseller platforms without a TLD management solution will create huge pains for the reseller at the point of separation or migration. This pain is also evident if the TLD management solution only supports a small number of TLDs (typically gTLDs only). Again, support for a wide variety of domains is key.
HEXONET has a decade of experience and expertise with gTLDs/ICANN and ccTLDs. Accreditation migration and management has been made as simple as flicking on a switch. Because of the wide selection of TLDs offered at HEXONET, all gTLDs and most ccTLDs accreditation can be quickly and easily migrated for a reseller.
7.) Updated Engineering – The DNSSEC Example
Some reseller platforms are stagnant. Feature releases are slow or nonexistent. New TLDs may rarely happen. Resellers stuck on such platforms are losing out on both revenue and big profits. Resellers should look for a platform that is growing and constantly improving. A simple test, as of the fall of 2010, for your registrar’s engineering speed or willingness is to check if your registrar supports DNSSEC.
DNSSEC is a significant change to the way DNS is handled over the Internet. If your registrar doesn’t have DNSSEC or doesn’t plan to support it, this might indicate engineering slowness. To read more on DNSSEC and why your registrar should already be on top of this topic, please read the recent blog post “DNSSEC – Overview for Resellers“.
If you have any questions or need advice on reseller platforms please feel free to direct your questions to sales@hexonet.net. HEXONET would be happy to provide more insight.
HEXONET’s Industry Leading Backordering Platform Shines Bright with the Addition of .ME Domains
HEXONET’s advanced backordering technology, now totaling fourteen TLDs (with the addition of .IN and .ME domains), legitimately creates the domain industry’s most comprehensive and advanced backordering service anywhere.
Vancouver, Canada June 1, 2010 — HEXONET (www.hexonet.net) announced today the availability of more backorderable TLDs (Top-Level-Domains), including .ME, to its growing and expansive list of domains to be backordered (snapping up high-value domain names as they expire). The additional TLDs, especially .ME, elevates HEXONET’s Backordering Service into a class of its own. Arguably, this new addition makes HEXONET’s service the most comprehensive backordering service industrywide.
Since the .ME registry opened on July 16th, 2008, .ME domains have been extremely popular. Some of the most identifiable domain names in the domain industry are either being registered or purchased through auction, including domains like fits.me, trade.me, and date.me. According to Robert Birkner, Chief Startegy Officer of HEXONET, “The appeal of .ME is its ability to create personalized or call-to-action domain names ever so naturally. Also, as social media continues to grow and the Web becomes more personal, .ME domains will, undoubtedly, be more important and be more valuable.”
Predrag Lesic, Chief Executive Officer of dotME Registry, was quoted as saying, “Though there are countless great .ME domains open for registration by anyone, we are excited to see technological innovations like .ME backordering making it possible for people to acquire .ME domains in non-traditional ways. Honestly, backordering is probably the best way to possibly obtain some of the most prized .ME domain names that have already been registered. ”
Individuals, businesses, and organizations can sign up for free at HEXONET and immediately start backordering .ME domains. Backordering for other domain extensions, such as .DE, .INFO, .BIZ, .ORG, .ASIA, .IN and more are also available.
About HEXONET
Since 1999, HEXONET has been a leading developer and service provider of reseller technologies for the domain industry, including domain backordering. Thousands of resellers, startups and service providers from across the world trust HEXONET as their domain platform provider. And, today, HEXONET manages over six hundred thousand domains for its clients.HEXONET Media Relations
T: 604-637-5788
F: 604-909-1868
info@hexonet.net
http://hexonet.netdot 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:
1.) www.KeepClicking.asia 
2. www.Listenup.asia 
3. www.apea.asia 
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.
“To .BE or not to .BE” – ccTLD of Belgium
It has been a while since I last posted something on ccTLDs. I decided this time to write about .BE, the official ccTLD of Belgium, operated by DNS.BE.
Brief History of .BE:
- The first .BE Domain was registered in 1989
- Until 1994, only 129 names had been registered
- In February of 1999, the non-profit association, DNS Belgium was formed (articles of association) to assume operational responsibility for the .BE registry. The actual transfer took place on January 1, 2000
- Initially registering a .BE domain was extremely restrictive, only organizations could register .BE domains and the name had to correspond to a company name, trademark or well known brand.
- In June 2000, the board of .BE decided to open up the registry to anyone worldwide, which officially took place Dec. 11, 2000.
- The effect of opening up the registry produced tremendous results. Prior to the liberalization, DNS.BE managed only 40,000 domains. After only 3 weeks of opening up, registrations jumped to 89,718, more than double, and by the end of March the registry was managing nearly 125,000 domains.
- On July 1, 2001, the registry dramatically reduced the price for registrars (Agents) down to 10.00 EUR per domain from 25.00 EUR. A year later the price was brought down further to 6.00 EUR per domain.
- On October 15, 2001, DNS.BE permitted transfers, thus allowing .BE domains to be traded freely.
- Today, DNS.BE manages nearly 1 Mill. domains (947,070 Domains – reported as of Sept. 20, 2009)
Though the chart above gives the indication that the registry has reached maturity, the ups and downs are likely attributable to various promotions. Some such promotions lowered the price a lot increasing the registration numbers, but my suspicion is that in the end, this just lead to poor renewal rates; thus, the fluctuating registrations.
If I recall correctly from one of numerous .BE Registrar Meetings I have attended in the past, then companies dominate the registrant user base for .BE mainly due to past registry policy. Over 80% of all registrations are from businesses and only 20% are from individuals. It would be extremely interesting to see the results of a whois-scan to see the latest makeup of organizations vs. individuals.
Registration Rules and Facts:
- .BE Domains can be registered for 1 Year
- Registration System is real-time
- Min./Max. Characters: 3 and 63
- Numbers (digits) are permitted
- Hyphens (“-”) are permitted, however not at the beginning or directly in front of the TLD
Trade Feature of .BE:
Unlike gTLDs, .BE Domains require a special command be sent to the registry for change of ownership, called a TRADE. A TRADE is like a classic domain transfer – registrar however remains the same – , meaning upon successfully processing of a TRADE, the registrant information is changed and the registration period starts from new. The registry charges an annual fee for this feature and registrars naturally bill for this on their end. This same feature is also used within dot EU, which is basically a mirror of the DNS.BE System. This “TRADE” feature is unique to .BE and .EU. I am sure many registrars worldwide would prefer to see .BE and .EU get rid of this feature and give the registrars more control over their customers.
HEXONET offers .BE Domains at very affordable prices. In the event you are interested in registering large volumes of .BE Domains, please reach out to the Sales Department at HEXONET at sales@hexonet.net for negotiated pricing.
Source: http://www.dns.be
Next TLDs in line are those managed by ICB – .AC, .IO, .SH and .TM
Instead of introducing just one TLD this time, I thought I would introduce four (4) that are run by the same back-end provider ICB Plc.
- .AC – The ccTLD of Acension Island, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America.
- .IO – The ccTLD of Indian Ocent Territory, located south of India
- .SH – The ccTLD of Saint Helena, located south of Ascension Island
- .TM – The ccTLD of Turkmenistan, located to the North of Afghanistan and South of Uzbekistan.
Some basic facts about registering these TLDs:
- All the above domains listed have no restrictions and can be registered by anyone worldwide.
- Min. characters 3, max. characters63
- Transfers can be done, however it would be desired that the respective registries upgrade to an “authorization code” system
- Registry System is real-time, as are whois- and nameserver updates
The only TLDs of the above that really stands out is .TM, as anybody interested in registering this TLDs has to register it for 10 years upfront.
Unfortunately no stats are available for any of the above listed TLDs.
