With a projected 2 billion Internet users in 2013 language becomes an increasingly important factor in domain strategies as most of these users will not be navigating the web in English. Here is an update on new IDN initiatives within Asia.

A. IDN.asia

DotAsia is launching an IDN program. While IDN behind the dot is still vacant DotAsia Organisation announces the global launch of Chinese (Traditional and Simplified matched), Japanese and Korean IDN .Asia domains. The phases for introduction are as follows:

–> Sunrise Phase: from Wed 11th May 2011

The Sunrise phase will accommodate registrants with “prior rights” to names to register IDN domains with priority. These include Governments, Trademark Holders, Registered Businesses as well as current English alphanumeric (ASCII) domain name holders with Romanized or transliterated names.

–> Landrush Phase: from Tue 2nd Aug 2011 until Tuesday, October 11, 2011

–> General Launch: date to be determined

If more than one successful application is received for the same domain name, an auction will be held to resolve between the successful applicants. For more details, please visit: http://idn.asia

B. IDN.한국) (Korea)

Plans are in progress to launch Korean IDN domain names (.한국) in May 2011. The tentative timeline is:

  • Trademark Phase: 25 May 2011 – 21 Jun 2011
  • Landrush: 22 Aug 2011 – 31 Aug 2011
  • General Launch: ~09 Oct 2011