DotAsia Seeks Partnership With Korean Firms
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
DotAsia Organization, the Hong Kong-based group that operates the .asia Internet domain name registry business, is seeing a bigger chance to increase its brand recognition here by signing deals with mid-sized South Korean firms.
"Currently, we've sealed partnerships with six medium-sized local players. Now, we want to see more business chances here by boosting more tie-ups," Edmon Chung Wang-on, chief executive of DotAsia, said in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Friday.
"Infringement issues are the main risk factor of doing business in one of the world's most Internet-savvy countries. But we have been very good in dealing with those issues with a set of related policies," he added.
DotAsia's rights to run the registry business was delegated in 2006 by the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the assignment of domain names and internet protocol addresses worldwide. A domain name identifies one or more IP addresses.
ICANN sources say internationalized domain names could debut from early next year, following the formulation of policies to better manage ambiguities.
According to DotAsia, it received some 46,000 domain names and they will go to auction. Industry watchers say the value of Internet domain names has risen to staggering heights in recent years.
Among more than 20 large domain name acquisitions by DotAsia since 1996 were poker.com that was sold for a record $26 million early last year and diamond.com that fetched $7.5 million in 2006.
"With over 80 percent of people having Internet literacy, South Korea is the fastest-growing audience in the world as a single country. In these terms, the South Korean market is much brighter than that of Japan," he said.
DotAsia is hoping to participate in long-term projects possibly with Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics as the nation's two electronics giants would sell their new products or strengthen consumer policies in the Asia-Pacific Rim by using the domain.
"We are starting to talk with them though no substantial progress has been made yet. But hopefully a result will come out soon," said Chung.
"There would be a clear demand for the .asia suffix in South Korea initially capitalizing on culture fields such as movie communities," he said, adding, however, that technical policies were necessary to prevent Web sites from being spoofed and used for phishing purposes.