.Asia sunrise auctions are over with solid results.
I haven’t written much about .asia, a new top level domain. Perhaps it’s because I think it’s a silly domain (coming soon, .SouthAmerica!). So I missed the conclusion of the .asia sunrise period auctions earlier this month. Here’s a look at the top sales:
discover.asia $112,111
sex.asia 83334
buy.asia 73000
sexshop.asia 53607
gold.asia 46602
models.asia 41009
homes.asia 40000
gifts.asia 38003
book.asia 34005
apartments.asia 31000
pharmacy.asia 29855
sexy.asia 29001
business.asia 29000
girl.asia 28556
diamond.asia 28000
promotion.asia 26000
vodka.asia 25000
car.asia 24001
spa.asia 23200
gps.asia 22515
resorts.asia 22501
fant.asia 22501
sushi.asia 22500
online.asia 22155
baby.asia 21505
cooking.asia 21500
videos.asia 21019
sourcing.asia 21001
ace.asia 20501
pos.asia 20500
southeast.asia 20500
roulette.asia 20500
youporn.asia 20499
vacation.asia 20000
The auctions were not without controversy as bidders complained of bid rigging and collusion. The auctions were held at Pool.com.
So what’s the big deal with .asia? Well, Asia is big with a massively growing internet population. But I doubt people associate themselves with “Asia” as opposed to their country. And non-roman character domains make a lot more sense than many of these English domains that sold at auction. Right? Or am I just a naive American? Judging from the results of .eu, I doubt it.
Some early indications are positive. Ill be honest, Im an investor so im biased!
But some of the really positive signs include.
honda.asia
ing.asia
Check for a corresponding .eu and you can see they haven’t seen the importance of building on eu as they have in Asia. Also seen smaller businesses adopting .Asia.
Another factor to consider is that Demand for names in India and china is huge. I think a lot of this demand is going to spill in to .Asia. If a company builds on .cn, they have to live with the stigma of being pegged as Chinese. So all the stereo types go along with that. Cheap low quality products. Etc Etc. If a company builds on .asia, the association with the region is a lot broader and generally more positive. Also gives there business space to grow and not be penciled in to a particular nation.
“Or am I just a naive American?”
There is an element of this in your tone, yes. In the nicest and friendliest possible way.
All new TLDs are of course speculative, but for someone with a business in Singapore for example, where surround countries are effectively a domestic market, .asia theory is even more compelling than .eu.
Moreover, the whole point of the .asia auctions was to prevent the fiasco that was the .eu Sunrise where domain-pros got head of the game by retying on Benelux same day trademark.
Your normal “.com rules” rationale, eg that all new TLDs will simply strengthen the .com brand, and pseudo extensions like .me and all together silly, is a well founded and powerful message.
But I for one do think you have been a bit hard on .asia.
Nic
Nic – I bet .eu wishes it had done an auction on sunrise for reasons other than avoiding the fiasco. There was quite a bit of money to be made!
Asia and EU are not comparable. The .eu acronym will leave many to think of a political block of nations and so on.
Politics is boring and most people or businesses want as little to do with the subject as possible, certainly not advertise themselves as part of one particlar political entity or other.
DotAsia is more appealing and broader in scope.
A .europe on the other hand would have worked well, because it would have allowed for a wider scope of cultural associations, rather than some political stigma.
However, I guess the ICANN board probably voted in favor of .EU at the time, simply because the bureaucrats of that particuar organisation really like the sound of it.
Eurasia – keep in mind that .eu is a country code domain (unlike .asia). I’m not sure, but I believe country code domains have to be two characters.
Good point! However, EU in my mind stands for Europan Union. Europe or the European Union can not be considered a country. I’m based in Europe and have never had a desire to register a .eu for any purpose, unless perhaps I would have had a project specifically relating to the European Union as in the governmental organisation or monetary union. For some reason I feel dotAsia is far more appealing as a general purpose TLD, relating to whatever the users in the region or elsewhere considers Asia.
The success of new TLD’s has been and still is strictly limited to the imagination of the ICANN board and its rules and procedures, which has served well mainly to those who own a good dotcom. That simply isn’t enough.
There is also the second round of investment, with Dot Asia rolling out IDN, what effect will it have on registration and businesses?
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So where is the best place in 2016 to sell premium dot asia domains? I have a LLL.asia that I’m looking to part ways with.