.Asia Auction Reaching US$6 Million, Discover.Asia Displaces Sex.Asia at the Top

hot-or-not-contest

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For Immediate Release

Hong Kong, 18 July 2008 – DotAsia Organisation announced today the successful completion of the 5 Weekly Hot or Not Domains Appraisal Contests. Winning domains for the 5 weeks were: Resorts.Asia, Careers.Asia, Southeast.Asia, SEO.Asia and Vodka.Asia. The winners came from 5 different countries: Hong Kong (China), Australia, US, Israel and Indonesia. Contest entry period ended July 13th with just under 1,000 submissions. The competition now moves to its most anticipated round, the Grand Prize with a cash prize of US$10,000.

According to the rules of the contest, winners must correctly answer a domain related trivia question before they can take home the cash prizes. Live Trivia rounds for the contest continues on the DomainMasters show at WebmasterRadio.FM, Wednesdays 7:00PM EST. Tune in or check out the archives at: http://domainmasters.think.asia. “It’s been a wonderful experience meeting the winners on DomainMasters. The fact that contestants are coming from around the world confirms the global appeal for .Asia domains,” says Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia Organisation. “We set out to produce a fun contest for the industry and to raise general awareness about value of domain names. I believe the smiles from the winners, which included domain pros and new comers, are the best proof that the contest has been a successful event.”

Expert appraisal and comments on .Asia domains from Sedo, Pool.com and eName can be found on the ‘Hot or Not Blog’ along with the Top 10 Auctions list at www.think.asia. Recent changes in the top 10 list have been exciting to watch. Ace.asia, which had been on the top of the list for many weeks dropped completely out of the Top 10 list. Coming in strongly over the last couple of weeks were GPS.Asia (US$22,515 and ongoing), Models.Asia (US$41,009) and Vodka.Asia (US$25,000). Baby.Asia (US$21,505) reached the Top 10 for a while and fell off, while Discover.Asia (US$93,000 and ongoing) displaced Sex.Asia (US$83,334) today to lead the way. “This is what is making the Grand Prize so intriguing, constant jostling at the top makes it hard to know which domain will eventually come out on top,” added Edmon.

Total proceeds from the .Asia Sunrise and Landrush auctions is fast approaching US$6 million, after surpassing the US$3 million mark just a few weeks ago. .Asia domains, which are all by definition geo related domains, are also proving to attract more interest than geo domains in .com based on the results of the recent Geo Domain Expo Domain Auction, where the top 10 average was US$23,350, whereas average in the .Asia auctions to date has already reached US$41,917, 2 almost doubling the .com dominated auctions in the secondary market. This demonstrates the great investment and growth value of .Asia domains.

The winner of the Grand Prize of US$10,000 for the .Asia Hot-or-Not Domains Appraisal Contest is expected to be revealed in August when the .Asia Sunrise and Landrush auctions are complete. For contest details, and the latest Top 10 list, live auction ticker, and winner announcements, make your way to www.think.asia.

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:

For press enquiries, please contact Pavan Budhrani at 37410015 (pavan@registry.asia)