Hostway push for .Asia Registration

UK domain registrar and Web hosting provider Hostway announced on Thursday that it is recommending companies to quickly register for their .asia domain names following the opening of the land rush period on February 20.

Companies and other individuals who do not take action quickly to guard their brand identity risk losing the domain name to other companies or cybersquatters, says Hostway.

With 60 percent of the world population living in the Asia-Pacific region, and in excess of 400 million Internet users, companies may be dangering their pan-Asian product identity if they fail to register for their domain name, says Hostway. This can produce undermining of company trademarks and the costly re-acquisition of the name afterward.

Thomas Herbert, product manager at Hostway stated “With global brands such as Google investing strongly in this area, exemplified by its acquisition of a stake in Chinese social networking site Tianya, the Asian market is seeing significant potential for growth at the moment. Anyone who hasn’t yet registered shouldn’t waste any more time. The cost is minimal especially when you compare it to the cost of not registering.”

Throughout the land rush period, which is open until March 12, the .asia registry will consider all domain name registration applications as received simultaneously, giving companies the chance to bid on domains with numerous applicants. After a break to process applications, the live registration period will begin again on March 26 where registrations will be considered on a first-come-first-served basis.

Hostway’s North American division launched two .asia promotions earlier this month.