Business
.Asia Internet Domain Launched
Bidding began Tuesday for prime new pieces of Internet real estate with the launch of the “.asia” domain name, which aims to become one of the web’s most desirable addresses.
The regional domain comes after the launch of the European-based .eu name last year and aims to join .com and .net as a widely used website suffix.
Businesses with trademarks, governments and official bodies will be allowed to register website addresses ending with the suffix during the initial offer period. The general public will be allowed to bid from February.
Firms and global brands from both inside and outside Asia were likely to be interested, and the suffix would act as a complement to country-specific domains such as .cn for China and .jp for Japan.
The initial bidding period will be used to try and prevent disputes between organizations and individuals vying for a specific domain name. If several claims are deemed equally valid, they will eventually be settled by an auction run by the not-for-profit group.
Top-level domains, which include .Asia, country-specific suffixes and around 20 generic names, such as .biz or .org, are regulated by the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, with specific addresses sold through registrars.
