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.ME – Still a Sizzling Top-Level-Domain
The Sizzle:dot .ME, the ccTLD (country code Top-Level-Domain) of Montenegro, even now, nearly two years after its release, is still as popular as ever, if not more! With the Registry’s second anniversary quickly approaching (second anniversary of “Go Live” on July 16, 2010), HEXONET is not only spotlighting the domain, but will also run a huge promotion towards their reseller channel and make obtaining a .ME even cheaper and better.
Personally I’ve always had an interest in .ME for a couple reasons:- At the very beginning of the Registry, I had the opportunity to advise and assist this TLD through the first few months of its launch in 2008
- The individuals running, maintaining and promoting .ME in Montenegro are not only great people with a true passion for this TLD, but are also people who I call friend.
- A sensational Success Story! Since July 16, 2008 (“GoLive”) dot ME has been on a tremendous journey of success. Highlights of the past couple of years:
- July 16, 2008 .ME officially launches and ushers in a new era of personalization on the web. Minimum registration period is 2 years at an average annual market retail price of 19.00 EUR per Domain/Year
- Within two (2) days, .ME has an astonishing 50,000 Domains under management with most registrants coming from the USA, UK, Germany, Canada and China respectively.
- August 5, 2008, just two weeks after launch, the registry announced that they had already surpassed 100,000 Domains under Management!
- September 2008, .ME auctioned the first set of eleven (11) premium domains during the Traffic Conference in New York, where proceeds amazingly total over 218,000 USD! – “date.me” was the highest sold .ME domain at 70,000 USD!
- Keeping the fast pace of changes going at the registry, on October 1, 2008, the Registry reduced the two (2) year minimum registration requirement to one (1) year, for the benefit for all.
- January 2009, the second .ME premium domain auction took place at the domain industry’s premier event “DomainFest Global ‘09″ – five (5) more premium .ME Domains were auctioned off successfully
- February 10, 2009, approx. 7 months after “GoLive”, dot .ME has over 200,000 Domains registered!
- April 2, 2009, Domain.ME releases another 35 premium .ME Domains for auction through SEDO
- May 18, 2009, Domain.ME announces “A Limited Time Auction of Premium Domains with NameJet™” where 15 additional premium .ME Domain names were successfully auctioned.
- May 20, 2009, less than a year after “GoLive”, .ME hits quarter of Million Domains under Management
- August 27, 2009, following up on the first highly successful auction with NameJet™, .ME announces the second premium domain auction with NameJet™.
- September 9, 2009, WordPress starts using “WP.me” as their standard URL Shortener
- January 5, 2010, FaceBook, The World’s Largest Social Network, uses .ME to provide access for its mobile users with “FB.me”
- January 26, 2010, Hollywood realizes the value of .ME domains, by branding the upcoming 3D/CGI movie from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment with the .ME domain Despicable.Me.
- Continued success after success after success has been the story of .ME. The dot ME organization has been a model Registry in the way it does press releases, attends key industry events, and most importantly, the way it stays in touch with its registrars.
- Why .ME Continues to Stay Hot! .ME is an ideal domain for the following:
- Personal use for blogs, family pictures, …etc.
- Great for call-to-action domains, such as call.me, date.me, insure.me, …etc.
- Ideal for brands to give your brand a more personal touch, basically making your brand more personal
- Some cool .ME Domains are fits.me, appo.me, despicable.me, fwd4.me, whyhire.me, … and many more.
- If you are interested in registering a .ME domain, simply go to www.hexonet.net, fill the online sign-up form, load your account and register away! Be sure to take advantage of our .ME Promo starting this April (running through to June 30th) where .ME domains will be going away for less than 5.00 EUR per Domain/Year! Get your personal domain today!
Acquiring High-Value, Soon to Expire .ASIA Domains, HEXONET’s Newest Innovation
HEXONET’s DotAsia backordering technology is one of the first, if not the first, backorderingservices for .ASIA domains – thousands of domains soon to expire on DotAsia’s anniversary.Vancouver, Canada March 3, 2010 — HEXONET (www.hexonet.net) announced today one of the domain industry’s first, if not the first, backordering services for DotAsia domain names. Utilizing HEXONET’s revolutionary domain backordering search engine and service platform, starting today, for the first time, anyone will be able to search for expiring .ASIA domains as well as backorder them even before they expire. Again, only at HEXONET, can .ASIA domain backorders be placed using this new technology.
“With DotAsia’s Landrush anniversary fast approaching, HEXONET was determined to launch the DotAsia backordering service as quickly as possible,” said Robert Birkner, Chief Strategy Officer of HEXONET. Birkner also went on to say, “On February 20th, thousands of domains, if not tens of thousands, first went into redemption (expiration) resulting from DotAsia’s massive launch two years ago. Many fantastic domains are going to be up for grabs towards the end of March and only HEXONET customers will have the newest technology to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Edmon Chung, Chief Executive Officer of the DotAsia registry, has been quoted as saying, “We are excited to see technological innovations built around DotAsia domains. With the implementation of the Asian Free Trade Area between China and 10 South East Asian nations earlier this year, the usage and demand of DotAsia domains will continue to grow, not only for new domains, but also for domains that have been previously registered as businesses expand to the regional Asian marketplace.”
Individuals, businesses, and organizations can sign up for free at HEXONET and immediately start backordering .ASIA domains. Backordering for other domain extensions–such as .DE, .INFO, .BIZ, .ORG, and more–is also available.
About HEXONET
Since 1999, HEXONET has been a leading developer and service provider of reseller technologies for the domain industry. 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.5 Top Reasons to Register a .ASIA Domain
Considering all the turmoil going on in Asia with .CN Domains, this may be the best timing for .ASIA to make some head-way.
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.
A New Years Resolution We just had to Complete
For years, in the back of my mind, Jens and I have had the idea of building a better “domain backordering” service. Though we had the concepts in creating a better service and having the specialized engineering experience and skill, we never got around to actually putting one together. Often business trips, customer and employee needs, projects, and operational reasons seem to have always impeded us. After opening the North American wing of HEXONET in 2009 and getting back together with Jens, one resolution was clear from the beginning, build a better “domain backordering” service.
Clearly from my perspective:
- HEXONET has the know-how
- HEXONET has the right people with the right skills and expertise who could make it happen
- HEXONET showed me in preliminary models, the company was already highly successful in grabbing backorders, some which turned out to be worth a lot
- HEXONET further proved to me, the company’s technology is FASTER AND BETTER than others at grabbing domains, when DE introduced single/two character domains and HEXONET kicked butt in acquiring them
- HEXONET offering one of the widest selection of gTLDs and ccTLDs, makes HEXONET the perfect company to be building domain grabbing technology for all TLDs
For these reasons, we simply had to build the HEXONET Domain Backordering Service by January 2010. And strangely enough, it became our first new year’s resolution for 2010! Yes, committing to a new years resolution in the fall of the previous year is kinda odd, but we were serious about making the domain backordering service our first milestone of the year. And we actually accomplished our goal (resolution) January 5th, 2010!
On January 5th 2010, HEXONET launched the better “Domain Backordering Service” for .COM, NET, ORG, BIZ, INFO, MOBI, US, DE & SE. Though starting off with just a handful of TLDs now, more ccTLDs are already in the pipeline. And by the end of 2010, we believe, this service will be the premier ccTLD backordering anywhere.
Being Better than the Lowest Price
A colleague and a close friend of mine Tony Kim – CMO at HEXONET just wrote a very interesting blogpost that holds so true.
Check it out under BLOG.HEXONET.NET.
Enjoy!
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:
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.
Introducing .AG, the ccTLD of Antigua and Barbuda
Continuing with more “A” ccTLDs, the next one I want to highlight is .AG, the official country code Top-Level-Domain of the beautiful island of “Antigua and Barbuda”.
Antigua and Barbuda Facts*:
- Located East to South-East of Puerto Rico between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic
- Estimated population of 86,000.
- 37,500 Telephone Lines in use (est. 2006)
- 2,215 Internet Hosts
- 60,000 Internet Users
The .AG Registry:
- The official website http://www.NIC.AG
- Restrictions: None (anyone worldwide)
- .AG, .com.AG, .net.AG, .org.AG, .co.AG and .nom.AG.
- Statistics – not currently available
Reasons for registering an .AG Domain:
- .AG represents the country of Antigua and Barbuda
- .AG can be used to represent certain types of companies, especially targeting PLC companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The abbrev. for such companies in these countries is .AG (e.g. AUDI AG)
- .AG can be used to represent “Agricultural Businesses”
If you are or service German, Austrian or Swiss companies and are interested in registering multiple .AG domains, please do not hesitate to contact Dennis Nizard at dnizard@hexonet.net or sales@hexonet.net.
* https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ac.html.
.ME continues down the road of success
On July 16th 2009, .ME celebrated their first anniversary from “go live”. .ME, simply an amazing success story of a Top-Level-Domain. In just 1 year a ccTLD has nearly 300,000 Domains under management – speechless … How many TLDs worldwide can share a similar success story? How many of the highly anticipated new TLDs will be sharing a similar or same success story? Probably not too many …
The popularity and continued growth of .ME is a testament to the work of the Registry and the value of .ME as a truly personal TLD.Some more interesting information about .ME:
- Top Five Countries: (Distribution by Registrant)
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Canada
- Montenegro
- Additional Facts:
- 79% of all registered .ME Domains are active websites
- Over 560 .ME Domains in the top 1 Million ALEXA Ratings
- Already 6 .ME Domains in the top 10,000 with ALEXA
- Google has already indexed more than 8.3 Million .ME Pages
- Organizations verse Individual Registrations:
- 59% Organizations – Businesses are truly adopting .ME as well!
- 41% Individuals
- Why Register a .ME Domain For your Business?
- dot ME can be used in catchy business marketing phrases like “find.me”
- dot ME is a call-to-action domain that can easily direct clients to do something not just read about it.
- Protect and make your brand stand out even more with a .ME Web-address.
- dot ME can renew corporate brands to be new, cool and chic.
- Over 180,000 business worldwide can’t be wrong, clearly these businesses are using .ME as an innovative, progressive and stylish tool for their brands and products.
Check out a cool video of .ME under http://www.hexonet.net/domainpromo.php
To celebrate the .ME Registry’s first anniversary, HEXONET is offering some amazing reseller discounts on .ME domains. Effective immediately through to August 31st, 2009, all new .ME registrations will only be 10.50 EUR per year. This promotional price is applicable only for NEW single and new multiyear registrations and transfers. Renewals are excluded from this promotion.
If you are considering purchasing larger volumes of .ME Domains, please don’t be shy and contact sales@hexonet.net and let HEXONET make you an offer.
