No matter if you already have operations in Asia, the .Asia domain allows you to immediately establish a presence in the world's fastest growing market.

Internet users around the world are actively looking for information about Asia. Overture statistics report that the word "Asia" (or "Asian") is included as a search term almost 5 times more than the word "Europe" and over 20 times more as the term "EU".  As a natural word and a highly relevant type-in keyword, a .Asia domain provides the simplest way for your customer’s company to improve their visibility on the Internet.  Your customers are seeking for services and information in Asia.  But will they find what they are looking for?

.ASIA value
"From Asia / For Asia" describes the core philosophy of the DotAsia Organisation, which exemplifies our belief that the .Asia domain provides as much value for companies in Asia as companies outside of Asia.  We believe that the .Asia domain provides especial value for small and medium sized enterprises outside of .Asia, such as in Europe or the US to show their commitment to the Asia market.  For multinationals or companies that have already established more advanced presence in Asia, perhaps dedicated sites for China, or India or Japan already exists, however, what about Indonesia? Malaysia? Sri Lanka? Thailand? Bhutan? The .Asia domain presents an opportunity for your customers to show their commitment to the "rest of Asia".

From Asia / For Asia, describes also DotAsia's mandate as a not-for-profit organisation and the first gTLD (generic top-level-domain) to be headquartered in Asia, to contribute its surplus proceeds back into community projects in the region.  These include digital inclusion initiatives to bridge the digital divide, education projects that bring more schools online, as well as research and development efforts in the region.

Extended protection
As a community organisation, DotAsia also has a strong commitment towards facilitating brand owners to protect their intellectual properties during the launch of the .Asia registry.  The Sunrise process provides a comprehensive priority program for brand owners to register relevant domain names before the Landrush.  Recognising that a significant level of cybersquatting and infringement cases involve "brand + generic term", the .Asia Sunrise is introducing a innovative phase (Sunrise 2c) to provide brand owners with Extended Protection.  While brand owners would be able to register their own brand, e.g. "brand.asia" in previous sunrises, during .Asia Sunrise 2c phase, brand owners are invited to submit "<brand+genericterm>.asia" domains, before the registry is open for general availability for the public.  Based on the goods and services class (Nice Classification System) of a trademark registration, brand owners may include words describing the class to the domain names applied for during the Extended Protection Sunrise Phase (Sunrise 2c). For example, if you have a trademark, "ABC" in Class 1: "Chemicals", you may register names such as "ABCchemicals.Asia", "ChemicalsABC.Asia", or "ABCacetate.Asia" and many more based on the words found under the Nice Classifciation system
( http://www.wipo.int/classifications/nivilo/nice/index.htm). This provides brand owners with the tool to better protect their brands with proactive pre-emptive registrations.

Commitment
The DotAsia Organisation is equally committed to promoting the usage of .Asia domains.  We believe that the long term value of the .Asia registry will be built on real usage and building of relevant content and services on .Asia domains.  Earlier, DotAsia introduced a Pioneer Domains Program inviting global brand owners and entrepreneurs to be .Asia pioneers and to commit to building real content on the best .Asia domains.  More than 350 domain names was applied for through the program.  DotAsia intends to engage in joint marketing and announcement events with our pioneers to promote and encourage the move from protection to utilization of the .Asia domains.

.Asia will become the platform for growth
While .COM provided the impetus for the explosion of Internet commerce,
especially in the US, .EU was launched for the European Union countries; .Asia will become the platform for growth of Internet business communications for Asia.  Asia has developed into a global force in the international commercial, political and cultural network.  The .Asia domain aspires to embrace this dynamism in the Asia Century to become a nucleus, intersection and breeding ground for Internet activity and development in the region.
This article has been written exclusively for Ascio.