.Asia Domains

The .asia domain was proposed to ICANN to represent the unified Asian market, much like .eu has done for the European Union. The .asia domain represents internet registrations for the vast Asian market, providing key business opportunities for expanding businesses in Hong Kong, China, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Australasia, as the development of digital brand services, such as domain names, continues to surge throughout the world. Asia has the highest number of phone lines of any region in the world, implying that the region has the largest internet market.

The .asia domain registry has stipulated 4 levels of sunrise relating to the launch of the .asia domain. These are as follows:

• Pre-sunrise & Sunrise 1

In this period, priority is given to governments in the Asian community to reserve and register domain names that are relevant to them.
• Sunrise 2

The next level of priority is given to applicants with registered marks. These include trade marks, service marks, etc. Well-established registered marks will proceed to registration sooner than “general” registered marks.
• Sunrise 3

In this phase, registered companies and organizations in the Asian community may register their corresponding entity name.

Landrush & Go Live

During the Landrush phase, anyone meeting the Charter Eligibility Requirements is permitted to register a domain name. In order to be eligible for a .asia domain, at least one of the contacts associated with the domain name must be an existing and current legal entity in the DotAsia Community (as geographically defined by ICANN). Types of legal entities include natural persons, corporations, cooperatives, government bodies, trusts, etc.

We are able to assist you with registration of .asia domain names throughout the 2nd to 4th phases of the sunrise period. Should you have any queries in this regard please contact our domain name registration department.

March 2007