First off, it’s important to note that the TLD can technically only be registered by Austro-Asians, but this restriction is easy to bypass. All one simply has to do is find an agent in the region to handle the registration, which most registrars will do free of charge.

Personally, I would only recommend a .asia name to someone with business interests in the region. Targeting such a linguistically diverse continent with one website would be a challenge unto itself. You would be much better off picking an Asian country and a ccTLD to target, even if it means creating multiple websites. But if you already have an active business in the area, register one now to protect your brand.

Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia, stated:

Asia is one of the most important regions for IDN. Asia is already the largest Internet marketplace with over 700 million users online. However, that represents only 18.5% penetration. IDN will bring the Internet to the rest of the people in Asia who do not speak English.

The IDN launch will include a sunrise period to ensure trademark holders can get register their domains before cybersquatters. DotAsia says it will be the first TLD registry to apply with ICANN for the use of IDNs.

Photo | clix

Unfortunately, only government applications for the new names will be accepted at that time. The .sg registry will use the following schedule for IDN adoption:

• Phase 1: Government Applications 23 Nov 2009 – 31 Dec 2009
• Phase 2: Trademark Owner Applications 7 Jan 2010 – 18 Feb 2010
• Sunrise Period: 25 Mar 2010 – 6 May 2010
• General Launch: 10 June 2010 onwards.

Singapore adopted IDNs to increase registration numbers and also aid firms conducting business with China. They will be available at any level of the .sg extension, including .sg, .com.sg, .org.sg, .net.sg, .edu.sg, .gov.sg, and .per.sg.

It is important to note that Chinese is only one of Singapore’s four official languages. The other three are English, Malay, and Tamil. It will be interesting to see whether or not the 4.9-million strong nation adopts Malay and Tamil IDNs as well.

Adding further gloom and doom to the situation is the fact that only 8% of ISPs have started using IPv6. Most IPs are used for Internet access, so this is not good at all.

Internet providers and other companies are hesitant to upgrade to IPv6 because the transition is costly and would cut into profits. Most will likely wait until hardware is too old to use until upgrading to IPv6 compatible equipment.

In my opinion, the government needs to do more to step up IPv6 adoption. Why not offer tax incentives for ditching IPv4 or provide grants for purchasing new network hardware? At the rate things are moving now, IPs will run out long before the world is ready to use IPv6.

Photo | Rotorhead

Faced with this reality, Mynic is now pushing companies to get on the .my bandwagon. To help lure them in, it will only allow available business names to be registered by the legitimate corresponding businesses. This measure will also help reduce cybersquatting, perhaps making the .my domain the safest against squatters.

So far this year, 85,000 new .my names have been registered. At a recent media briefing, director Shariya Haniz Zulkifli stated there was a general lack of awareness about .my, and that it was common for businesses to register both .coms and .my names.

Source | Business Times

Photo | Flickr

They are looking to partner with HP, IBM, and Dell to help small businesses get started on a small budget.

“There’s a big saving on cost, because businesses won’t have to worry about bringing in technical expertise to deploy the OS,” said Khoobchandani (senior director of business and marketing for Microsoft Singapore).

On competition posed by Linux, he said the familiarity of the “established” Windows experience is also expected to “take away the complexity of how to use a server”.

Linux provides more advanced features such as virtualization and fewer imposed restrictions, but Microsoft believes small businesses will not have an immediate need for those features. They believe the trade-off will be having a server with a “familiar interface” that will make starting their businesses easier and more affordable.

Source: ZDNet Asia