Why is it important?

Out of all existing gTLDs registries, only 1 registry represents Asia (dotAsia). Asia should take this opportunity while it last to create more targeted gTLDs focusing on addressing certain communities or cities. This creates financial impact with the flow of funds for gTLD into the community or cities which can significantly boost the economy.

Internet communities have acknowledged the importance of the gTLD program and have begun work on new gTLD proposals.  There are a number amount of gTLDs that are publicly announced, but only a handful are from Asia.

All this despite the fact that Asia is the largest continent in the world, with 47 countries and 4 billion inhabitants (60% of the world population, making it the largest and fast growing Internet population in the world).

Needless to say, there is a tremendous opportunity for Asian communities or businesses to create gTLDs that address global and regional community needs.

The new gTLD program will enable you to create a more focused name space to address specific community needs and expand your international presence via a globally recognizable identity. Furthermore, by applying a new gTLD for a certain name space will help users.

Here is Tad Yokoyama of Interlink explaining on how the new gTLD can help mobile users in Japan.

ICANN also accepts geographical gTLDs (requires government approvals) to be applied like dotBerlin representing Berlin or dotBKK representing Bangkok.

For example, .beijing would enhance the city’s digital presence and create a unique identity amongst other TLDs. The audience would easily know what to expect from contextually-relevant domain names such as Hotels.beijing and Olympics.beijing.

Besides generic, community or geographically based gTLDs, there is a greater importance for the Asian internet community to establish a world-class internet presence – an opportunity to close the digital divide between the East and West.