Dot HK fears it shall lose registrations on the launch of GTLDS
An article I was reading about .hk the Hong Kong CCTLD expect to see a drop in registrations of the domain extension due to the launch of GTLDS.
Currently there are 240,000 .hk domain names registered, in 2010 ICANN approved the .HK to offer the IDN of .HK .香港, The IDN domains went live in 2011 but now Jonathan Shea Tat-on, head of the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation, which oversees “.hk” registered sites is concerned they shall see a drop in registrations due to the launch of GTLDS and I would bet he isn’t the only person worried about this issue when the GTLDS launch in the coming years.
You can read the full story here.
The number of websites registered as “.hk” is expected to drop as more globally tuned companies replace the suffix with their own initials.
The move is in keeping with the increasingly popular international standard of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a US- based nonprofit that oversees unique web identifiers and global net operations.
The new domain names will change the brand building landscape, said Jonathan Shea Tat-on, head of the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation, which oversees “.hk” registered sites.
There are currently just 22 generic top-level domains – including “.com,” “.org,” “.edu” and “.gov” – and 280 country codes, such as “.hk.” but this will soon change, with more than 1,900 applications for new domain names being assessed by ICANN.
For instance, MTR Corp and PCCW have paid US$185,000 (HK$1.4 million) to change “.mtr.com.hk” to “.mtr” and “.pccw.com” to the “.pccw” domain.
But the pair must prove their ability to run a domain, in terms of security, technical expertise and infrastructure.
Shea stressed that the “.hk” suffix is still preferred by many local firms.
“Some traditional businesses like bakeries still love to use “.hk” to build a locally based image,” he said. “Some mainland firms also love to use the suffix to broaden their business scope.”
Shea said the number of mainland companies with “.hk” domain names is on the rise, with about 240,000 registered so far.
But he believes smaller “.hk” firms will likely stay put as new domains also mean high website maintenance fees.