VeriSign

There is little dispute that the dot-com gold rush is now well and truly over. The industry is undergoing a healthy consolidation and the young dot-com entrepreneurs are focusing on B2B - which is now a pun for "back to business-school." Behind this apparent slowdown, the registry for all .com, .net and .org domain names, and the world's largest domain name registrar, VeriSign, is still seeing good demand from the traditional economy. "Today, more companies recognise the value of the Internet," Managing Director for VeriSign Asia Pacific Arthur Chang (left) said. "These traditional companies are still registering domain names. They are still doing development of the Web sites, and their IT managers are spending more on Web development than in previous years." VeriSign, the company that directs you to every Web address you type in your browser and secures nearly every item you buy online, today registers a domain name every two to three seconds. A far cry from the 30 Web addresses it registered a day in 1993. The traditional .com is still the most popular choice when it comes to registering a domain name, but a lot of end users are using the new domain .name for their Web site, he said. Seven new top-level domain names - .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .aero, .coop, and .museum - are expected to help domain name registration growth continue as businesses and individuals scramble to register their names before someone else does. Even in Hong Kong, which compared to the whole region is a relatively small market, the company is poised to make a killing if every company in the territory - not to mention end users - were to register a domain name. Mr Chang said be believes that will most likely happen within the next one to two years. "The domain name will become like a telephone number. If you start up a company you will get a business license. You will get a telephone number. You may not get an office because you can communicate from home. And you will get an email address," he said. Communicating under a company email, rather than a Hotmail or Yahoo email address, obviously instils greater confidence among potential clients. However logical establishing one's own business email address may seem to be, companies in Hong Kong have been resisting the idea. Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company Limited (HKDNR) figures show that just 56,948 domain names as of January 17, 2002, are registered as .hk. Mr Chang estimates that total domain names registered by companies and individuals in Hong Kong is between 135,000 and 140,000. But this figure does not mean 140,000 companies have a domain name. Companies and individuals tend to register more than one domain name, so if each company has about three domain names, this means that the total domain name registration rate in Hong Kong is still very low. He reckons the slow uptake is partly due to the belief that if you register a domain name, you must build a Web site. The cost and expertise needed to do this puts many businesses off the idea, but this has always been a misconception, he said. "A starting point should be with your own email address. You may not get a Web site, but you get your email. This is a brand building and marketing exercise for the company," he said. The cost of registering a domain name runs at about HK$273 per year, regardless whether it is .com, .org, .biz, .name, or whatever. A .com.hk name costs HK$200 per year. Mr Chang said the jury is still out on whether the new name registration will appeal to people. Interest so far has been from large companies that need to protect their brand online. Small businesses may have a handful of domain names, but a multinational company may have a few hundred registered Web addresses to protect its name and brand by registering in various domain forms, not to mention the existing 243 country-specific domains. Failure to renew their names on time could mean the company loses that address to someone else. VeriSign, which in addition to offering e-commerce security, payment and soon telephony services, recently expanded its domain name services to help corporations keep track of all their Web addresses online and search for misuse of trademarks, logos and other intellectual property on the Internet. Prices for the new services will depend on the size of the company and the number of domain sites that it owns. Mr Chang said he feels that even though the dot-com industry is undergoing a consolidation, companies increasing their spending online will therefore need to ensure the protection of their branding and investment through such services.