The dotAsia Debacle
Well tbh, I don’t subscribe to TLD bashing. Its a common enough pass time for trolls and others alike on most boards. Some people do it to downplay competition, some coz they want to push something else, some coz its just fashionable to kick something when its down. But a really small percentage do it for educating the sheep (aka followers) who’re being led down the garden path by people with vested interests (not to mention huge holdings) in a particular TLD.
Some of the hype and hoopla on some TLDs really hurts some new domainers and wannabe investors. Its the guys who put in the rent money or the kids college education fund in these domains who really lose the shirt off their backs at times. Because they buy as its ‘hot’ hoping to sell to some sucker who doesn’t know better. The problem is most of the times they’re the ’suckers’ and they don’t even know it.
Take .ASIA for example. (A few people asked my views on .asia, here they are)
Theres a mammoth scam going on at the moment. Some real smart businessmen have come out with the ultimate ponzi scheme. A legal way to rip people off. They realized they couldn’t get a leg up on .com or any other established TLD – so they created a nonsensical, non targetted, unusable extension for ’speculative’ purposes.
How its done:
- Build the hype.
- Reserve 10,000 or so top ones (the only ones to actually eventually make good ROI) to milk later for higher amounts through auctions.
- Get a few hundred suckers to buy the domains in large quantities or at least pre-order them
- Get another 1,000 sheep who’ll follow those suckers.
- Show about 50k names as ‘multiple registrants’ and send them to auction
- Add mysterious non-regs or predated regs to show ‘viability’
- I’m not even going to go in-depth on the on the ‘available domains’ that are suddenly not available, cancelled orders, rigging or sale of tms here, suffice to mention them.
- Then lead in the sheep for the slaughter. Sell them whatever you can, however you can. Leave them holding the bag, while they laugh all the way to the bank.
You have to give them something though, the execution is impeccable. Even mTLD looked like amateurs when it comes to comparison with dotAsia milking the extension. They’ve been slick, smart and licked the cream clear off before offering the cone to the gullible lot.
The whole logic of this extension is totally wrong:
- There is no Asia aside from the continent. Only americans and some Brits even call all the people from the subcontinent that. No local considers themselves as ‘Asian’… Chinese, yes; Indian, yes; Pakistani, yes; Russian, yes; Afghan, yes; Malay, yes; Phillipino, yes; Thai, yes. WTF is an Asian?
- Its as viable as .nsam would be – lets club americans, canadians, mexicans, columbians, brazilians and a few dozen other nationalities. Would it work? If your answer is no, why is it yes for .Asia?
- Since people living in Asia are so nationalistic (try clubbing Chinese and Japanese and you’ll know what I mean) what is the need for a separate TLD? The chances of an Asian Union or anything that resembles it are less than that of a snowball in hell.
- Almost 100% of the countries here have border or cultural disputes with their neighbouring countries, without resolution of that there is a certain degree of hostility between these and being clubbed together is not going to work.
- There is no single currency for this region, unlike for .eu, and we know what happened with that one also, same cycle – hype, hoopla, con and crash.
- There are very few ‘asia’ level companies, either they’re national or worldwide, I don’t see those who target only the continent. And even if there are a few, is a gTLD worth the effort?
- There are a lot of other TLDs that have gone down the same route, especially 4 letter extensions – .mobi, .info .name and of course .eu, .sc, .cc and even .us to some extent.
- Only about 7% of the names registered in total will ever be worthwhile and of those a large percentage are .com, followed by well known gTLDs (.net/.org) and some ccTLDs (.co.uk, .de, .in). .Asia comes up on the list last, if at all.
What’s even more amazing is that people are booking names in .asia where the .com is still available. Reality check – a domain does not become valuable just because you registered it. So good luck to .asia investors, I really hope you make a million with your names, but wouldn’t count on it.
I have been speaking about this exact issue of why .asia is going to be a failure for a long time.
Also, it was unfortunate that when I met, Edmund Chung, he didn’t have very nice words to say about domainers even though we are only people they are relying on to fill their coffers.
Very Very well, said. What made me sick about .asia is that as you have written mwzd, .asia is a ‘legalized scam’. Using names like ‘landrush’ and the word ‘rush’ as a marketing ploy to get people hearts beating and fingers regging. I think the word ‘rush’ being the operative word behind the .asia ploy is kind of like openly saying that they had planned before hand for people to rush and buy boatloads of rubbish names as the whole reason for creating the .asia extension. Really the people behind .asia are despicable. Tailoring to human greed does not justify their actions!
You sound it like “everyone” is a scammer who buys any other extension that what you own. Companies that reg these extensions really dont care and have never thought (and will never) about what you wrote. sounds like you are writing about ghosts/fairies.
Not everyone thinks you way. So you and i have both wasted time discussion something that will never have any impact on the extension.
MD
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mwzd replies –
Quite the contrary, I’ve called people who invest in .asia as sheep, not scammers, you can read the article again if you like. And I don’t subscribe to TLD bashing, hence have given some points, that you might have missed with your incisive take on .asia.
Well, putting SHEEP photograph and liking it with domainers/investors & .ASIA TLD, does not mean that .ASIA is so cheap and waste.
Am happy to see that, .ASIA which is not even 50 days old domain extension is creating waves around the globe. What else, an experienced domainer like you have invested precious time talking & writing about .ASIA.
Even bad publicity is an good publicity.
The fate of .ASIA which is an TOP LEVEL DOMAIN EXTENSION, can not be decided by writing an blog against it.
It would be great if you invest your precious time in telling/informing people on how to make full use of .ASIA domains and how to make bucks out of it in a long term.
Few senior domainers who invested heavily in .COM .NET and .ORG always criticize other domain extension. its an common and usually i have ever seen.
you may have XYZ.COM, but you are not happy to own it rather you are worried so much that someone else also got XYZ.ASIA
And thats make you wrote this article.
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. I wish you the best with xyz.asia but you better have some real good contacts, and leverage, to sell that anytime soon.
mwzd replies –
surji, i wish I had xyz.com or any lll.com for that matter
Well said Suri. I agree with you. When an extention has people making such a fuss who hold a large financial investment in dot com, I take notice.
Here is my opionion on it all coming from someone living in an asia pacific country.
It will not be overnight success for dot asia. It has to do the hard yards for a while as it become established. As quality websites come together and are hosted in one of the asia pacific countries, search engines will start ranking well accordingly on keywords for searches in those countries. Once keyword websites start profiting and the industry starts seeing this profit the extention will begin to gain credability. When that happens and the press start focusing on that, the extention will become more familiar. This is when the serious value for dot asia will be realised and generic terms that are so so now, will inflate in price as people scramble to brand themselves under dot asia.
There is room for another dot com. Dot com was embraced by Americans. Dot com feels to us outside of America that it belongs to America really – not the world. I am sure those living in America like to think it means everything to the rest of the world, but it doesn’t.
We will embrace the new dot asia. We are not fools saying that we are not asian so it will never succeed or has no relevance to us. It is NOT dot asian. It is dot asia. We are proud to be part of the asia pacific region. That does mean something to us.
Those who love dot com can keep loving dot com. Those of us sensible enough to see the value in dot asia can keep working towards our long term goals.
I agree that people who bought dot asia to flip overnight will be dissappointed. Aren’t those kind of “hares” always dissappointed!
I laugh when I see some posts. A few days after dot asia goes public and people are posting their names proudly. Many are saying to those people it is way too early to be buying egold or igold.
Wouldn’t we all have liked to have jumped in way too early on dot com. So just when exactly are they suppose to buy egold.asia or igold.asia – after someone else already has???
None of these negative people will pay you back the value of the name in three years that they talked someone out of buying now.
For those who see the long value for themselves just listen to your own instinct. I bet those who keep bagging dot asia have got at least a few put aside that they are not telling us about.
Think long term, be sensible with your name selections and buy no more than what you can afford to renew for at least 3 years as a safety net. Then with the practicle stuff covered try to monetize each domain to make at least your renewal fees for the following year so that you do not have to dip into those safety net funds avaiable for the renewals.
Dot asia is here to stay and many will be thankful for the opportunities that come with it.
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mwzd replies –
just fyi,
1. My ‘big’ .com investment is under pretty low.
2. I live in India, think I qualify as an asian too.
3. There are 300 TLDs now, gTLDs / ccTLDs / Speciality TLDs, .asia fits none of the above.
You’re welcome to your opinion, not to mention your .asias, but read my post for its content and refute my points if you can, don’t just generalise, in 2056 even .55 names will do well.
Great Take. I love the strong opinion and I agree. I think you have spoken the painful truth that a lot of people will not want to hear.
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mwzd replies –
Experienced domainers can understand my stance, like you v2, Josh and Lord. We’ve been around for the other failures and are not brainwashed by hype. But I think people who think like us are fewer than those invested into .asia. Top domainers won’t even bother commenting on a non-existent (for them) TLD, so the massed believe the PR machinery for the TLD.
I am glad I found this site – I fell victim to this apparent rip-off where the auction rules keep changing even during an auction (e.g. extensions) so as to pump up the price even higher –Unfortunately I am winning one auction and like a complete sucker I have bought a couple of other .asia domains but will seek to cancel them all with my registrar — and challenge the dotasia.fool.com folks via my credit card company if I am unlucky enough to win the auction I am currently participating in — Thanks for this thread hopefully others will figure it out before it’s too late —
I disagree with you anaysis of .asia. The majority of fair to excellent domains will be sold to businss interests not on the continent of asia but wanting to establish a presence there.
There will be more top level .asia names sold in New York than there will be in Beijing.
Your article is very well written. The .asia launch is more than a debacle, its possibly criminal.
I applied for a domain on the first day of landrush so I could expand my business in the Asia region.
I wish I didn’t bother. Its been a saga of a few months.
Firstly the dotasia.org website is total rubbish in its crappy auction ticker and very poor information layout.
Dotasia.org showed that the auction for my domain was scheduled in April. I kept checking to see the schedule and it kept changing. The next time I looked it stated early May, and then magically the auction for my domain wasn’t even listed!
I emailed firstly who I ordered the domain from and their reply was to “patiently wait”.
On the 25th of May I looked for the auction schedule and almost had a heart attack. The auction was ending on the 26th May, and I had no log in to bid.
No auction email notification, and I definitely checked that it wasn’t classed as spam.
After some frustrating emails to dotasia.org which were never answered, and to the registrar who finally answered my email today their was an interesting twist.
The auction for May 26th mysteriously didn’t happen.
Today I was told the domain I applied for is listed as Sunrise 2b, instead of landrush!
It is very questionable how this transfer to sunrise status happened.
The registrar is going to refund my application once the “status” is confirmed. The sunrise 2b auction is now scheduled for the end of June.
Needless to say that the magical transfer from a “landrush” to “sunrise” status is testament to the whole criminal dotasia organisation.
I can’t wait to do a whois on the domain I was registered to bid on.
Somehow I don’t think I will suprised who owns it.
realestate.asia which is supposed to be auctioned later this month was already awarded to an Australian dentist according to Moniker in April 2008, with an address in NY.
Work that one out.
Makes me wonder how you got into the domain game in the first place. Relax, it’s just another extension. This time next year you will have a zillion more extensions to complain about.
I accept there may be dodgy dealings going on inside dotAsia but no less than I would suspect for any other company working inside this space. To me, it’s just a matter of time before something blows and hits the headlines… just like any other industry.
But you know, you come across as too negative. I can think of hundreds of examples where people behave like *sheep*, that’s life. If people want dotAsia or dotSheep, why should you care? Must all dotComs be commercial? Must all dotNets be network related? That was their original purpose, right?
From my experience, as webmaster and from living in asia, I’ve found people in asia are more accepting of dotNet and in many cases choosing a dotNet before a dotCom… my theory is, they read it as dotInternet – so maybe dotNet is more descriptive?
And, you know, if I am sitting in europe wanting to outsource some work.. or wanting an asian bride.. or seeking local services like couriers or translators.. if I saw two links, one dotCom and one dotAsia, which one am I going to click?
If you don’t like these extensions, start your own root servers or use an alternate root like UnifiedRoot.. that way you can have any extension you wish (or not).
You said, “What’s even more amazing is that people are booking names in .asia where the .com is still available.” – see, you’re right and all these other people are wrong. Would of been a better reality check to say dotAsia was not selling.
In short, it would of read better if you kept to the scandal without putting down it’s users too.
Lord Brar mentioned that: “Also, it was unfortunate that when I met, Edmund Chung, he didn’t have very nice words to say about domainers”
I find this strange. I have been one of the very few in the registry industry to openly say that we support domain investment. If I had said anything inappropriately, I apologize. But personally, I am supportive of domainers not because they buy domain names but I believe in the business. What we stand against is infringement and abuse. But I personally feel that domain investment is constructive.
Also, DotAsia is a not-for-profit organisation setup to contribute to the Asia community. It is disheartening to hear the remarks above, but I think our actions speak for themselves. We have been I think one of the very few that had our policies openly developed which included public drafts of our sunrise and landrush policies for over half a year to solicit response. The .Asia Pioneer Domains Program can be attributed to feedback we got from the DomainFest event in Hollywood 2007. Please do take a look at the materials including our policies and press releases at http://www.registry.asia and I am confident that you will find that we are working hard to ensure that the registry is run with integrity.
Finally please feel free to contact us directly and suggest to us how we can improve our processes and policies. You can always find me at edmon at registry dot asia.
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mwzd replies -
Hi Edmon,
Please feel free to open an account at http://www.namepros.com – there are enough people who wish for an open dialogue with .asia promoters, i’ll be happy to get it started, please let me know your username when you’re registered.
Sound Like nice discussion and you wrote article before seeing the results. Sound like we are in good shape for our big investment. Getting 50 offers every month by mail, but looking for best and higher offers. Good luck to all .Asia Investors and keep Patience you will see the result.
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mwzd replies-
Sell now or be left holding the bag when the crash comes. How about showing me the development in asia instead of domainers ‘investment’.