Dot VN, registration provider of Viatnamese .vn domain names, is going public.
I met Gary Thompson, Director at Dot VN, at Domain Roundtable a couple weeks ago in Seattle. Because relatively few are familiar with the company, I thought it worthwhile to get the 411 from Thompson.
DNW: .Vn is not as well known as some other ccTLDs. Please tell us a bit about the history of .Vn and your company.
Dot VN, Inc. is an International Corporation, with offices located in San Diego, U.S.A., Tijuana, Mexico, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The company is the exclusive provider and internet services leader for .VN (Vietnam) domain name registrations globally and related online business e-commerce solutions. The parent company of DotVN is Hi-Tek Inc. Established since 2001, the Dot VN has experienced rapid growth through the delivery of high value online communication and commerce solution. The Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC) awarded Dot VN an exclusive 20 years contract to be the first registrar to promote, market and register its country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) of .VN (Vietnam) via the Internet. Dot VN has formed strong alliances and co-operation with major Vietnamese and international ISP’s (Internet service providers) such as Netsoft, VDC, FPT, Verisign, Register.com and over 40 others to commercialize Vietnam’s Internet services. Since April 2003, Dot VN has increased .VN domain registrations online (at 35% annually) faster than the other 240 countries.
DNW: How many active .Vn registrations are there?
There are approxiatemely 17,000 .VN registrations currently. I expect this number to grow exponentially as our reseller channel grows, Vietnam
Internet continues to develop, the 2nd level opens up to the public and our renewal rate of currently registered domains stays at the high percentage it is now.
DNW: You are introducing second-level .Vn domains. Tell us more about how this will work. How will these compare to current registration options?
We have been offering 2nd level pre registration and priority sunrise registration to our official partners and resellers since December 2004. The VNNIC is currently reviewing the .VN applications we have submitted from our resellers and the 2nd level is expected to launch in a few weeks. Once the 2nd goes live we will offer it to the general public alongside our 3rd level domains at www.vn. The registration process will be identical to the current registration process we have set for the 3rd level.
DNW: When does .Vn plan to go public and on what exchange will its shares be traded?
We have applied to be traded on the NASDAQ OTCBB and expect to be trading on this bulletin board within a month from now. Our main goal is to get to the NASDAQ and become a major player in the international ecommerce industry. We have a strong PR/IR firm to help us with this and there has been strong interest from potential investors and brokerage firms. I am very excited to see how things pan out for the rest of year, this is a big development for Dot VN.
DNW: What are the requirements for .Vn domain names?
The requirements are as follows:
– Use only letters, letter and numbers, or hyphen (“-“).
– Do not enter spaces or other punctuation.
– Cannot begin or end with a hyphen.
– Must have at least 3 characters, but no more than 63 including .VN.
– No sexual connotation of any kind.
[Editor’s note: note the last requirement…different cultures!]
DNW: $100 for domain registration is expensive by today’s standards. Why is the price so much higher than other ccTLDs?
Before we started working with VNNIC and domain registration was a completely manual process the price for a 3rd level domain was around
$500. Today, you can register a .VN domain for $100. While this may seem high by today’s standards, Dot VN feels this is a fair price for someone
who wants to register a Vietnam domain name. Domains that are not available in the TLD market may still be available with a .VN extension.
When it comes down to it, we’re running a business here and we have set to the prices high enough so that our company has a decent profit margin.
Our arrangement with VNNIC stipulates that we pay them X amount of dollars for every domain name we register. In the future we hope to lower the cost of .VN domain names but at this point it is not economically feasible to do this.
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dot VN’s web site is www.dotVN.com.
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