The .asia Stupidity

[John Scott]

http://www.registry.asia/

The problem with these domains are obvious to anybody living in Asia.

What would you say to .america? What would that even mean? Mexican? Canadian? Peruvian? It's nonsense. It's just another way for some domain brokers to make money on domains that are going to remain, for the most part, worthless.

Asia is not one country. It's not one language. It's not even very well defined. (East Asia, Near Asia, Far Asia)

The other problem I see is the same problem all those non-dot-com domains suffer from. That is that people tend to automatically type .com

Let's say you bought "whatever.asia". Every cent you spend promoting it will inadvertently promote whatever.com, because a certain percentage of people will always type in whatever.com first.

[nks]

I came across .asia domain a few days ago, and it is indeed to my surprise that such domain name is actually existing in the market. Of course, there is needless to be much hassle over this, as almost anything is possible with the Internet.

I agree with John in this aspect that .asia domain carries lesser weights than .com. But, that's what usually people have to come to face with as the names for .com has started to saturate, and so is .net and .org.

Whether should this be considered as stupidity, it remains within the debating arena until the actual results reveal in the future.

[NexusWebLinks]

well, i beg to disagree on some points.
but the gretaer asia has almost 80% of world's population.
and i am sure that more than 25% would most likely get a dotasia.
just my opinion.

[swapw]

Originally Posted by NexusWebLinks

well, i beg to disagree on some points.
but the gretaer asia has almost 80% of world's population.
and i am sure that more than 25% would most likely get a dotasia.
just my opinion.

Dot Asia doesn't mean anything.

What do the folks in Asia get in domains? Dot coms! All big firms will continue to stick to that. Yes, there are many people that started to migrate to the dot net and dot info, but how's that selling?



Yup, nowhere. For your info, people prefer their country's prefix if not dot coms in other countries:

ex: dot jp, dot tw, dot cn, dot blah blah....

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by swapw

people prefer their country's prefix if not dot coms in other countries:

ex: dot jp, dot tw, dot cn, dot blah blah....

Exactly. Japanese prefer .jp or .co.jp for their domains. I can't see them going to .asia, especially with the inter-Asian ethnic hostilities. Chinese prefer to be thought of as Chinese, and Japanese prefer to be thought of as Japanese. They don't really espouse the term "Asian" too much.

[beymaga]

Originally Posted by John Scott

Exactly. Japanese prefer .jp or .co.jp for their domains. I can't see them going to .asia, especially with the inter-Asian ethnic hostilities. Chinese prefer to be thought of as Chinese, and Japanese prefer to be thought of as Japanese. They don't really espouse the term "Asian" too much.

You're probably right in that aspect John. Yeah the Japanese are generally very proud of their history, culture and traditions. They tend to regards other Asians as less intelligent, smart etc. It's kinda funny even the American has high regard of the the Japanese compare to other Asian nationalities.

I'd expect slow take up of the .asia domain - unlike the .eu. Well the american doesn't need .america - coz they created the .com, net, org everything. In any other part of the world - we often see - eg. australia - they have www.xyzz.gov.au, japan - www.japan.gov.my - but the american - they have www.cia.gov

[ryukenden]

Originally Posted by John Scott

http://www.registry.asia/

.....
Let's say you bought "whatever.asia". Every cent you spend promoting it will inadvertently promote whatever.com, because a certain percentage of people will always type in whatever.com first.

You are right. One thing is that currently google put more weight to the local domain names. e.g. for searches in UK, they like to show more websites with .co.uk extension. It might happens to .asia domain in future when google would like to show websites with .asia extension and put more weight to them. It is just speculation.

[Thanoz]

Well, i share the same opinion as you John but why not to consider that too..there exist .eu domain names. I think they are a bit the same with .asia apart that they are littler in characters. They refer in a larger area too where it is possible to buy ccTLDs.
Still though a lot of people runned to buy a .eu and yet they've become really popular! I see more and more local stores starting their websites with a .eu extension rather than my country's ccTLD.
But i guess .asia is not the same. Perhaps it's the difference of view in some things and they way you see them!
Anyway, buying a .asia can't be considered a smart move at the moment. You can go with .cn probably

[ryukenden]

Originally Posted by Thanoz

Anyway, buying a .asia can't be considered a smart move at the moment. You can go with .cn probably

Let's wait and see. I am sure if you got good keyword .asia domain , it is really smart move.

[chowbow]

Very good point John Scott. Asia has no identity in common and there was no actual need for that TLD.

[MD.]

It's just a matter of time before .asia increase in value. Everyone flamed .eu too, yes .com is the most branded TLD, and most used...by Americans. But in many countrys nowadays the companys prefeer the ccTLD over .com, if not going global. Localization is the future, relevant search results, TLD:s will be a big part of this.

[nks]

Originally Posted by MD.

It's just a matter of time before .asia increase in value. Everyone flamed .eu too, yes .com is the most branded TLD, and most used...by Americans. But in many countrys nowadays the companys prefeer the ccTLD over .com, if not going global. Localization is the future, relevant search results, TLD:s will be a big part of this.

I hope you're right. I do own a couple of .asia domain (and I think John does as well, since he's in Japan). I would expect the value of these domain names to grow, especially with the lack of supply of .com TLDs. Hopefully, it won't take too long for me resell them.

[robmac]

hey john, you think even generic .asia's are a waste of time ie: monies.asia or centrefold.asia etc?

your right in argument ( its the first proper argument against the extension I have heard ) also, a lot of top ranking "asian" sites such as nifty.com have not bothered regging the .asia to protect their brand.

saying that, all the reports are that the internet will explode in asia and overtake u.s. users by 2010 ( 2/3 years ) and as there are not enough .coms to go around ( unless you want rewrwr-rwerwr-rwrwrw.com there has to be another usable extension.

I read on a forum somewhere about .WEB - why oh why did not some smartass just deliver that extension as it would sit nicely with .net etc.

there are to many extensions falling on their ass ( pro / tv / eu ) - perhaps a rethink as to a new way of domain extensions.......

[SonnyCooL]

Originally Posted by beymaga

You're probably right in that aspect John. Yeah the Japanese are generally very proud of their history, culture and traditions. They tend to regards other Asians as less intelligent, smart etc. It's kinda funny even the American has high regard of the the Japanese compare to other Asian nationalities.

I'd expect slow take up of the .asia domain - unlike the .eu. Well the american doesn't need .america - coz they created the .com, net, org everything. In any other part of the world - we often see - eg. australia - they have www.xyzz.gov.au, japan - www.japan.gov.my - but the american - they have www.cia.gov

typo, .my is Malaysia ccTLD .....


Yes i do agree some of john point but we never know what will happen with the asian market, they know how to create and they might kill it accidentally ...

I'm a small business man in Malaysia, i love China product cause it boost up my sell but at the same time i hate it so much also (i'm no longer sole) .....

BTW i do purchase two DOT asia MX5.Asia (my friend will run this site, my hobby too) and JustProperty.ASIA cause i going to develop justproperty.org (can't afford .com) for my customer .....

Last hopefully all those domain extension will help the domain hacks market ..... cause i have a few good hacks name example Http://This.was.my

[LinkPopularity]

Originally Posted by John Scott

http://www.registry.asia/Let's say you bought "whatever.asia". Every cent you spend promoting it will inadvertently promote whatever.com, because a certain percentage of people will always type in whatever.com first.

let's say you buy www.travel.asia, www.hotel.asia ... mmm ... nice keywords for a market with lot's of affiliate options ...

then again; in general I do agree ...

[markf]

Actually, a long time ago, ".com" was synonymous with the US. Now that there is a ".us" do you see a big rush? - no, because ".com" is so deeply ingrained.

Now, saying that, I am going to say something from my experience that you've probably not read anywhere... in asia, they are far more willing to take a ".net" before ".com", even when the ".com" is available. I've been to asia several times for extended periods of time and I've seen this happen many times. Why? - my theory is that ".net" is more descriptive; "Internet". A quick example.. do a google for "tesco lotus".. the first result (english) will be dot com.. the second result (thai) will be dot net. Yes, a search from within Thailand would give you the dot net first.

So, while many people are banging on about the importance of dot com, a whole bunch of people in asia are saying, "so what?" and they choose something a bit closer to home. Meanwhile, a business in europe is wanting to trade with asia knowing damn well it's cheaper.. he sees a dot com and a dot asia, which one is going to click?

Considering the amount of ground dot asia covers.. and considering the potential for dot net and dot asia.. and considering that next year we will be faced with an avalanche of new extensions.. I would say, maybe in 5 years time, those holding dot com will be in a minority. And I didn't even mention the influence of China!

I do concede, however, that in the short term, language is a potential barrier.. but we can hardly call that an insurmountable challenge.

[James Trotta]

Yeah, John did say they will mostly remain worthless. Obviously a few night be in demand but a .com will always be superior.

Originally Posted by LinkPopularity

let's say you buy www.travel.asia, www.hotel.asia ... mmm ... nice keywords for a market with lot's of affiliate options ...

then again; in general I do agree ...

[Govind]

.asia is indeed a dumb idea.

One could have thought... malay.asia ..but even that doesn't fit in! How about a .earth extension !! It'd certainly make Ol' Al happy!

[Napa]

All these new extensions just add .com values, and take away speculators money. I'm sure there a many more new extensions they will make up in the coming years.

[bubu]

where can i get a cheap domain?