Indian Celebs Get First Crack at .Asia Domain

Kapil Dev can now reach out to his fans through www.KapilDev.asia, while singer Shibani Kashyap intends to make previews of her songs and videos available on www.ShibaniKashyap.asia.

In the backdrop of ICANN's 31st International Public Meeting in New Delhi in association with Department of IT and National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), the DotAsia Organisation announced signups from India for its pathbreaking Celebrity Pioneer Program.

DotAsia is a not-for-profit organization formed by national top-level domain registries around Asia (including .IN in India), designated to operate the global ".Asia" Internet domain for the Asia region.

The Celebrity Pioneer Program offers Indian celebrities the priority to register their domain name with .Asia before the registrations are opened for public later this month on February 20, 2008.

Early adopters of the program in India include legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, pop diva Shibani Kashyap, TV star Rakshanda Khan, 'Indian Idol' Rahul Vaidya, and Channel [V] VJ Anoushka, among many others.

Edmon Chung, CEO, DotAsia Limited, said: "There are more than 450 million online customers in Asia, and the .ASIA domain name is a gateway to reach this largest Internet market in the world. .Asia is the first global top-level-domain that is headquartered in Asia and will be the platform for growth of the region."

Indian stars Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Kajol, Ajay Devgun, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sushmita Sen, Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, and Kapil Dev have one thing in common: none of them own their domain names.

Most Bollywood filmstars are unaware that their cyber identity has been hijacked or that sites in their names can be potentially misused for abusive purposes.

Kapil Dev said, "I lost out on securing KapilDev.com and KapilDev.in for myself. However, KapilDev.asia will be my home on the Internet. It is indeed a pleasure to join hands with DotAsia; it's doing commendable work through its Celebrity Pioneers Program."

"It's time for all stars – especially athletes and cricket stars – to take their online presence seriously. With .Asia website, they have a perfect platform to connect with their fans and audience," he added.

Pop singer Shibani Kashyap added, "I intend to make previews of my songs and videos available on my shibani.asia website. I think artists should be proactive and book their .Asia domain name before anyone else grabs it. Why pay a fortune to buy back afterwards?"

In contrast to the mad rush to domain names which had left brand owners around the world frustrated in past launches of new top-level domains, a comprehensive 'Sunrise' (priority period for trademark owners and businesses) process was implemented for .Asia.

Besides providing a phased approach to protect the rights of intellectual property rights holders, an important feature of the .Asia startup process is the leaving behind of the conventional chaotic first-come-first-served process, and the adoption of an auction mechanism to resolve contesting interests.

To date, the results have proven to be greatly successful. Over 130 countries around the world had participated in the .Asia Sunrise, submitting over 30,000 applications to date.

DotAsia Organisation believes that the .Asia domain will help fuel the growth of the Internet in the region by creating a new cyberspace infrastructure that offers breeding ground for online businesses.