VRSN in Asia:
HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2000--
Businesses in Asia and Around the World Now Able to Establish and
Protect Web Identities in .com, .net and .org Multilingual Domains
Network Solutions (NSI), a VeriSign Company (Nasdaq: VRSN), today announced that the NSI Registrar will begin registering domain names in Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese and Korean, enabling businesses and individuals in Asia and the rest of the world to establish a .com, .net and .org Web identity in multiple languages.
This revolutionary new service is being introduced as part of a registration test being conducted by VeriSign's Global Registry Services, which accepts registrations in .com, .net and .org domain names from registrars worldwide. Network Solutions, the world's leading provider of Internet registration services with more than 12 million Roman character domain names registered will begin offering Chinese, Japanese and Korean language registrations coupled with NSI value-added services in October 2000. New domain names will be available on the Web approximately one month after registration.
Until today, .com, .net and .org domain names have only been available in Roman characters, meaning that subscribers could not register names in other language character sets. Now the letters to the left of the dot will be available in multiple character sets, increasing domain name availability for consumers throughout Asia and accelerating the growth of e-commerce web sites and electronic mail addresses around the world. The potential for a new set of Asian-language 'business.com' and 'ask.com' type domain names alone is significant. Following the launch of these Asian-language domain names, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic domain names will be available in the coming months.
"The Internet is never going to look the same. The opportunity for consumers and companies to connect in their own language is a major milestone for the globalization of the Internet and e-commerce," said Jim Rutt, chief executive officer of Network Solutions, a VeriSign Company. "Multilingual domain names are a major inflection point in the history of the Internet."
"Now, businesses and individuals in China, Japan and Korea--as well as multinationals around the world--can register and protect their trade names, product and service brands, and e-mail addresses in a highly localized manner," said Doug Wolford, general manager and senior vice president, Network Solutions Registrar. "There are millions of Web pages that offer content in Asian languages. We expect the owners of and visitors to these Web pages to be among the first to secure Asian language domain names."
NSI's complete package of services that will go live at the start of the testbed include three levels of translations - machine, human, and bi-directional. NSI also introduced bulk registrations of up to 100 domain names. Additional value-adds include customer service in multiple languages and trademark protection management. New multilingual domain name registrations will also enhance the breadth of services offered by NSI partners - a network of ISPs and web hosting companies who resell domain names to their customers world-wide. Pricing will be announced at the start of the test and will be based on NSI's unique value-add services.
Joe Sweeney, Asia Pacific research director for the Gartner Group noted, "While there remains different regional and localized standards and approaches to internationalized domain names, the low cost of investment and the potential high-return (and high risk for not securing your brand) should motivate organizations to secure international domain names now."
Registration Process
The NSI Registrar offers three easy options for registering a multilingual domain name. Customers may register directly from the NSI Web site at www.networksolutions.com . NSI will also offer registrations through our partners in Asia enabling purchase through local currency. The third option is through NSI's idNames(TM) services. IdNames registers and manages multiple domain names for corporate customers who seek to protect their multiple brands globally. Registrations will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.
Asia Pacific registrations up 78 percent in past year
Although Asia Pacific registrations are up 78 percent from 1999-2000, non-English speaking customers have had to use a language that is not their own in order to participate in the Internet. Even with the language barrier, the Asian community has been registering domain names in record numbers.
In the latest NSI Dotcom.com(TM) rankings, a leading indicator of domain name registration trends, NSI customers in Seoul registered more domain names than any other city outside of the US. Korea has seen phenomenal growth with registrations up 169 percent in the last six months. Japan and China are also embracing the Internet in record numbers according to Dotcom.com: |
