Hostway News & Events

.Asia sites are now live on the web and UK businesses are being encouraged to register domains if they trade with the region

London, 26th March 200 - Hostway is today announcing the start of live registration for the .Asia domain name following the end of the “sunrise” and “landrush” name reservation periods. Companies and individuals can now register for the names of their choice, which will immediately be accessible on the web. Companies trading with the pan-Asian market may risk losing credibility as a supplier if they do not have a relevant local domain name for their company.

“Most people based in the U.K. would for instance go straight to Amazon.co.uk rather than Amazon.com to do their shopping, and the Asian region is no different,” said Thomas Herbert, product manager at Hostway UK. “Users expect companies doing business or offering services within a given area to have local domain names. There is an opportunity here for businesses to employ the .Asia domain as a geographically collective name, rather than having to buy individual country-specific domain names in the Asia-Pacific region. Even if companies already have country-specific domain names, they need to consider registering a .Asia domain to protect their brand name. 60% of the world’s population live in the Asia-Pacific region - companies risk losing substantial revenues if they do not show they are serious about dealing with the region.”

According to DotAsia, the administrative body for the .Asia domain, over half a million registrations have been received for the .Asia domain name to date, 24% of which came from Europe. During the landrush period, online auctions have been held for domain names which were contested between two or more companies or individuals. The domains ace.asia and mediaworld.asia for example were sold for $20,000 and $10,000 respectively, demonstrating the relatively high levels of demand people are seeing for these domain names.

“The demand for these names is such that organisations should take notice of the potential influence of this new domain,” continued Herbert. “UK businesses that deal with the pan-Asian region would be short-sighted not to consider the benefits of having a name and site specifically tailored to the area they are trying to appeal to.”

Hostway is offering two year registrations for the .asia domain name at £18.95, as well as a £2.95 yearly proxy service fee for companies based outside of the Asia-Pacific region.

Further information can be found on Hostway’s website at: www.hostway.co.uk/dotasia

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About Hostway Corporation

Founded in 1998, Hostway Corporation (www.hostway.co.uk) is one of the three largest web hosting companies in the world with a direct presence in 11 countries, 15 worldwide operation centres, and more than 700 employees. Serving customers both small and large, Hostway combines best of breed hosting infrastructure with innovative online tools that help customers broaden their reach and grow their businesses online. Hostway offers a wide range of managed hosting services ranging from Windows and Linux based shared hosting plans, to complete dedicated server and Enterprise managed solutions to now over 600,000 customers worldwide. Hostway franchises include - Affinity Internet, Bigstep, DiscountDomains, Hostway UK, Hostway Netherlands, Hostway Korea, Hostway Australia, Hostway Denmark, NetNation, PowerMedium, RegistryPro, Server Service, Service Over Internet, ValueWeb and WinSave.

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