Hot-Or-Not Domains Appraisal Contest Grand Prize Winning Domain: “Discover.Asia”
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For Immediate Release
Hong Kong, 28 August 2008 – DotAsia Organisation announced today the successful completion of the .Asia Sunrise and Landrush auctions. Domains receiving multiple qualified applications in the respective Sunrise and Landrush phases were allocated through an auction system. The process proved to be a vast improvement of the dispute ridden pure first-come-first-served approach, and has provided a strong foundation for growth for the .Asia domain.
“We set out to implement a stable and orderly introduction of the .Asia domain into the social and technical fabric of the Internet. I believe we have accomplished our goal,” says Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia Organisation. “The .Asia startup phases were completed with zero disputes arising out of the process. The successful first-of-its-kind launch has also helped build a strong foundation for growth and value of .Asia domains. We already see regional events as well as small and large companies utilize the .Asia domain to reach the Asia market.”
Total auction proceeds exceeded US$7.2M, while winning prices for the top 1% of .Asia startup auctions averaged over US$10,000. Top 10 auctions averaged US$55,000 with the Top 3 being: discover.asia (US$112,111), sex.asia (US$ 83,334) and buy.asia (US$73,000). Maximum offers for particular domains reached the million dollar range. “These results and the already emergent secondary market confirm the strong value and growth potential for .Asia domains,” added Chung. As anticipated, the auction process also helped curb abusive registrations. A considerable percentage of auctions (~33%) went uncontested, indicative of potential speculators giving up on infringing domains. By design, DotAsia’s auction system featured an auto-extension mechanism to guard against last minute “sniping”. Critics of this built in feature had worried auctions could be excessively prolonged. The results however, proved otherwise. 67% of the auctions closed on time upon the 7-day period. Out of those extended, the average extension was for an extra 3 days only. The longest auction did stretch to 43 days and attracted 138 bids. The highest number of bids logged for a domain was 346, while the most participants for an auction was 424.
Hand in hand with the completion of the auctions is the final phase of the .Asia Hot-or-Not Domains Appraisal Contest. Many contestants had tipped “sex.asia” to come out on top, but ultimately the winning domain for the Grand Prize was “discover.asia”. The winner must now pass the final trivia test on the DomainMasters show at WebmasterRadio.FM (http://domainmasters.think.asia), next 2 Wednesday September 3, 7:00PM EST to win the US$10,000 Grand Prize.
Final weeks of the Hot-or-Not Contest saw lively jostling for position among the Top 10 auctions list. The winning names of the 5 weekly contests just a few weeks ago can no longer be found in the final Top 10 list:
- Week 1 (June 12): resorts.asia, US$22,501 – winner: Xavier Lee (Hong Kong)
- Week 2 (June 19): careers.asia, US$13,000 – winner: Dr. Lillian Nejad (Australia)
- Week 3 (June 26): southeast.asia, US$20,500 – winner: Jason Drake (USA)
- Week 4 (July 3): seo.asia, US$18,500 – winner: Ernesto Maisuls (Israel)
- Week 5 (July 10): vodka.asia, US$25,000 – winner: Rudy Khosumohardjo (Indonesia)
“The Hot-or-Not Contest was designed to be a fun event for the industry and an exciting watch to raise general awareness in the community about the value of domain names. With the weekly winners coming from around the world, it is exemplary of the global appeal for .Asia domains and our continued commitment to build the value of .Asia not only for those from Asia but also for those targeting services for the Asia market,” concluded Chung.
About DotAsia Organisation:
DotAsia Organisation is the Sponsoring Organisation and Registry Operator for the .Asia Sponsored Generic Top Level Domain. DotAsia is a not-for-profit, community-based organisation incorporated in Hong Kong. Asia has developed into a global force in the international commercial, political and cultural network. The .Asia domain aspires to embrace this dynamism in the Asia Century to become a nucleus, intersection and breeding ground for Internet activity and development in the region. To learn more about DotAsia, please visit: http://www.registry.asia.
Media Enquiries:
Pavan Budhrani: 37410015 (pavan@registry.asia)