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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.
DNSSEC – An Overview for Resellers
DNSSEC – An Overview for Resellers via HEXONET Blog
Why DNSSEC is Important to Resellers and End Users
Though technologies like the Domain Name System (DNS) are fundamental to making the Internet work, businesses using the Internet, typically don’t need to know the details of the technology to make use of it. Most resellers go on without ever giving such technologies a second thought. However, for those businesses, spending a little time trying to understand important technology shifts can result in real benefits and competitive advantage. DNSSEC (Secure DNS) is one such technology that resellers should monitor.
Without going into the technical mumbo jumbo, in a nutshell, DNSSEC is a secure version of the well established and insecure version of DNS. Cache poisoning, the unauthorized access and modification of DNS caches to intentionally spoof websites, hijack email, and even steal passwords has been a major vulnerability. DNSSEC ensures cache poisoning is prevented, that DNS data cannot be forged and that data originating from its stated source is not modified in transit.
DNSSEC is a High Value Security Feature
With the domain and hosting markets being so competitive, a new feature, especially a high value security feature like DNSSEC, can create an opportunity to gain customers. This is particularly true if one’s competitors are unable to offer the same feature. Right now, .DE, .ORG, .EU and .SE domains registered at HEXONET can be signed with the registrant’s DNSSEC validation keys. DNSSEC not only adds a technical layer of security for the domain holder, but more importantly, provides the registrant the peace of mind that their domain can’t be used for malicious purposes.
First DNSSEC Accredited European Registrar with .ORG
Robert Birkner, Chief Strategy Officer of HEXONET, “wants to congratulate the Public Interest Registry, for being the first generic Top-Level-Domain registry to fully deploy DNSSEC. We are delighted to support PIR in many of its initiatives and in particular its leadership in DNSSEC.”
“We congratulate 1API for passing the DNSSEC certification for .ORG,” says Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, the Public Interest Registry, “and applaud them for taking a leadership role in the European registrar community for supporting DNSSEC.”
Why Choose HEXONET’s Future-proof DNSSEC
HEXONET is one of the first registrars to fully support DNSSEC. In fact, HEXONET’s implementation of DNSSEC supports both DS based and DNSKEY based delegation to ensure seamless interoperability with a wide variety of registries for today and in the future. Technically this means, as a HEXONET reseller, we have you covered no matter how individual registries implement their DNSSEC.
“”As pioneer in DNSSEC, .SE welcomes 1API as a registrar that can offer DNSSEC to their customers.” – Danny Aerts, CEO of the SE Registry
HEXONET Makes Securing High-Value and Profitable .CC and .TV Domains Easy
HEXONET’s advanced backordering technology continues to rapidly expand with the addition of .CC and .TV domains, making HEXONET’s Backordering Service one of the industry’s largest – Twelve total TLDs offered and growingVancouver, Canada May 11, 2010 — HEXONET (www.hexonet.net) announced today the addition of .CC and .TV domains to its growing portfolio of backorderable TLDs (Top-Level-Domains). With over twelve TLDs to backorder from, including rare TLDs like .ASIA and now .CC and .TV, HEXONET offers one of the widest selections of TLDs for those looking to acquire high-value, profitable and soon to expire domain names.
Everyday, excellent domain names expire and become publicly available for registration, some even with existing traffic and returning visitors. Expiring domains for both .CC and .TV are highly desirable. Media and television type domains have long been sought after. And with the restrictive registration policies from the Chinese government surrounding .CN, .CC domains, used as “Chinese Company”, are growing in popularity.
According to Jens Wagner, HEXONET’s Chief Executive Officer, “right now the opportunities are tremendous for anyone wanting to obtain expiring domains, either for profit or to simply acquire a domain that one has always wanted. Up to now, the problem has been the lack of service availability for domains like .ASIA or .DE. We are changing the game by not only adding hard to implement TLDs, but by also rolling out many more hard to implement TLDs in the coming months. Stay tuned.”
Individuals, businesses, and organizations can signup for free at HEXONET and immediately start backordering .CC and .TV domains. Backordering for other domain extensions, such as .DE, .INFO, .BIZ, .ORG, .ASIA 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 600K thousands domains for its clients.HEXONET Media Relations
T: 604-637-5788
F: 604-909-1868
info@hexonet.net
http://hexonet.net.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!
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.
2009 in Review
2009 is slowly coming to an end, and what a year this was. Looking back, here are some of my personal highlights.
January 2009 – Completion of Consulting
I completed my consulting assignment for dot ME, which was a fantastic experience. Seeing a TLD with so much creativity grow was amazing. It was also beneficial to actually have had the opportunity to see the views of a registry and not just a registrar.
February 2009 – Founding of HEXONET Services Inc.
HEXONET Services Inc. was formed and officially inaugurated in February. I am now back on track of what I always wanted to do. I have a great partner on board here in North America, and I have someone in Germany whom I trust and with whom I have worked together with before very successfully – Jens Wagner. In addition to this, I’m extremely happy to be once again working with Dennis, Chris and Sven in Germany with whom I’ve also worked very successfully with at Key-Systems, and have come to respect. It is amazing how things sometimes turn out.March 2009
HEXONET Services Inc. launched product offerings for North and South America in joint collaboration with our colleagues in Germany and we have started to sign up customers on our new control panel.
April 2009 – Pre-wedding Reception in China
Leona and I had our pre-wedding Chinese reception in China with my parents and Leona’s family. It was a wonderful and moving experience. This was my parents’ first trip to China, they had a great time touring in Beijing, Shanghai, then finally in Guangzhou, for the reception.
May 2009 – Nesting
Enough with moving from country to country, it was time to settle down. With help from friends, Leona and I moved into our new house and spent the next two months spending money and more money on furniture and accessories. The terrace is looking good, I got my BBQ on one side and patio furniture on the other, add couple Coronas, a dash of sun – voila, life is great!
June 2009 – New Office
HEXONET Services Inc. moved office – Hello White-Rock! A huge and exciting step for HEXONET Canada.
July 2009 – Wedding
My brother and his family came to visit for 2 weeks prior to the wedding. All of a sudden Leona and I had a full house and had to get used to 2 kids. Having a brand new house with two kids can be very tiring. Nonetheless, you get used to them so quickly and once they left Leona and I started to miss the two terribly. July was just a very busy but happy month. We had to take care of family and ensure that they enjoyed Vancouver. Both Leona and I were so thankful to having our parents come over, my brother and sister with family as well as family and relatives from Leona. And just like that, July 16, 2009 was upon us and what a day this was. Truly a day to remember, with perfect weather for our wedding at the Brockhouse. Shortly after the wedding it was already time to say farewell to friends and family as they traveled back home.
October & November 2009
These two months were spent traveling the world again. Thankfully Leona and I work in the same industry which allowed us to sometimes travel together. October was spent entirely in Germany visiting clients and potential clients, as well as spending time at HEXONET HeadQuarters. Towards the end of October we left for Seoul to attend the next ICANN Meeting. From there we went on to HongKong to attend a fantastic event hosted by .ASIA. It was good to be back in HongKong, the city held many memories for both Leona and I. Later in the month of November we were then off to Hawaii to attend a different fantastic industry event. Luckily for us, we were able to spend a few additional days on Maui and just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed life with a good book and even better cocktails.
That basically concludes a very exciting and significant 2009. I am happily married, have a wonderful wife, have a roof over my head, am working once again with people I trust and HEXONET is doing great and definitely heading in the right direction.
I am now already looking forward to 2010 and what this coming year has in store for me.
I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. In the event that you are traveling over Christmas, remain calm and travel safe! See you in the New Year.
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!
Why choose HEXONET?
Why Choose HEXONET Over Your Competitors? What Makes HEXONET Different?
With every phone call, meeting, or industry gathering, seemingly we at HEXONET always get asked the same questions – Why HEXONET? What makes HEXONET different from your competitors? Why should I want to partner with HEXONET? The answer is clear, HEXONET has the right people, the proven expertise, and best technology.The Team @ HEXONET
At HEXONET, our team is immeasurably greater than the sum of our individual parts. This can only happen when a team has a common vision and the passion to pursue it. HEXONET’s employees strive everyday to empower resellers through world-class engineering and innovation, whether that’s going above and beyond to answer a support call or simply investing countless of hours testing to ensure our latest builds are rock solid. This is who we are and how we work everyday.Our passion is fueled by the commendations from our customers. Emails, phone calls, and meetings where our customers not only give us praise, but also give us positive criticism provide guidance as to what we can do better and how we can innovate even more. At HEXONET we welcome our clients and partners to share in our philosophy and work with us towards making things better. This is how we grow.
And above all things, our team holds true to doing business the old fashion way – that promises are kept and our word is our honor. At HEXONET, we would rather close our doors than lose the trust of our clients and partners.
Expertise of the Team @ HEXONET
There are HEXONET competitors who are way better at marketing than us, no doubt. Also, there are some of competitors who also have top notch engineering like us. And there are some who have been in business longer than us. So how are we different? At HEXONET we believe we have the right balance of skill and experience, that when combined properly, is vastly more superior than any one skill our competitors possess.HEXONET’s foundation is world-class engineering, which is lead by some of the industry’s foremost technical talent. Though technology serves as the foundation for the company, it is our business leaders who make what we do special. Worldwide, there are only a handful of individuals who have both the high-level strategic acumen and the practical and practiced exposure in our industry to actually make things work correctly.
Altogether, HEXONET has more than thirty (30) years of experience in the domain and hosting industry, as executives, programmers and operational managers. We know the top-down strategy and most importantly the bottom-up mechanics for success.
The Technology – HEXONET eats, drinks and breathes Technology!
HEXONET technology is a reflection of a single philosophy heralded by its founder and CEO, Jens Wagner – automation is the key to success, and making automation faster and more stable only brings success that much sooner. So how does HEXONET technology bring success faster to our customers?The foundation of HEXONET technology is an ultra-fast, highly reliable, and scalable domain registration system that provides anyone who uses it the widest selection of domains from a single source (see the list). Simply connect with the platform once and everything else is entirely automated. Even if technology changes, new registries arise, old registries die, or new regulations becomes mandatory, HEXONET does all the hard work of automation for our customers!
Add to this amazing platform an abundance of ways to connect, whether it be via API, web control panel, EPP 1.0, or our newest way, Registrar Operations Center (RegistrarOC), moving from a decision to registering the first domain with us can literally be minutes.
Whether preparing for the impeding new gTLDs or looking for ways to save money without sacrificing performance, HEXONET technology even makes the decision to try totally risk-free. Risk-free because anyone can start off as a reseller (no signup fees or commitments) and seamlessly switch to their own accreditation utilizing RegistrarOC when the volume makes sense. In fact, switching requires no engineering, no effort to migrate domains onto one’s accreditation (fully automated and free of charge), and once done, saves customers even more money since afterward, domain registration and management only costs a small administrative fee per domain.
Talk with us, work with us, and see how our technology is easier to use, more reliable, and more cost effective!
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.
ICANN Regional Meeting and More Questions on nTLDs
ICANN Regional Meeting – Toronto, Canada
Thanks to ICANN for hosting the North America Regional meeting at the Sheraton in downtown Toronto, Canada. This event was done first class and was in my opinion a highly successful meeting. A special thanks goes out to Afilias for sponsoring the “Blue Jays” vs. “Red-Sox” baseball game at Rogers Centre, it was a blast.
At this regional ICANN meeting many interesting topics were covered. Some topics though not at the foremost of my mind, surprisingly were not only highly interesting but very informative. The topics were:
- ICANN Policy
- Terminated Registrar Transition Process
- new gTLDs
- Contractual Compliance
- Registry/Registrar Dialogue
- Update on the Registrar Constituency
- Security Issues
- National Cyber Forensic Training Alliance (NCFTA) & FBI
Among all the topics, the new TLD process continues to dominate mind share as expected. Specifically for nTLDs, my take away from the meeting in Toronto, was that the next draft guidebook for applicants should be ready prior to the ICANN meeting in Seoul in late October. So it looks like full steam ahead for nTLDs!
With so many TLDs (estimate 100 – 200 plus) presumably in queue for filing (.food, .wine, .blog, .movie, .eco … ), I would really like to get some insight on how these new TLDs will be introduced. Moreover, if applications are to be approved in batches, in what order will these approved TLDs be released and in what groupings. Questions that come to mind are:
a. Will there be a specific order in which new TLDs are launched?
b. If yes, what is the criteria in determining launch order? Will the criteria be open and reviewable?
c. If there is no order and it becomes “Launch whenever ready”, what potential confusion could there be to the market if too many nTLDs are released in the same month? How will the market be able to compensate this?
d. Other open questions? YES!
A License to Print Money
One big lesson everyone is learning now from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, is that free money is not free. The loosening of restrictions in the housing market (anyone could get a house or borrow against their home) let the unqualified to buy and borrow, which in the end (when they couldn’t pay their debts) started the collapse of the house market. In some ways, there are parallels in the way we are treating nTLDs.
Not to say the applicants for nTLDs are not qualified, but more importantly, to point out the fact that running a successful registry today is increasingly more difficult. The days of simply opening a registry and seeing millions of registrations are long gone. Yes the days of “printing money” in my opinion are over, unless you have a unique concept.
I believe our industry is projecting the idea that running a registry is easy – No experience necessary, work only a little, make big money! Without giving applicants a dose of the operational reality of running a successful registry, we are only increasing the chances of having more of them fail. When enough nTLDs fail, just like the housing bubble burst, everyone will get hurt.
