.asia extension is due for general release on the 26th of March. The extension is similar to .com .net and .org as its a top level domain. It maybe another chance to grab that generic name you have always wanted. I have to add that although its not the 26th as yet many premium domain names have been taken already by the “pioneer” group, ie dotaisa’s friends that want to resell the best names in a couple of years. As china’s growth in Internet taken up surpasses the U.S. it make perfect sense to come up with a new top level domain extension. My only real worry is that there is already too many domain extensions out there in the ether and another one perhaps makes it all the more confusing.

I have spoken to a number of domainers via forums and message boards that have “pre ordered” thousands of domains just for SEO or domain redirects and parking. I must say that I have preregged a number of domains just on the off chance that it might be white gold in the future. Its hardly a risk as domain registration is so cheap these days it makes perfect sense to grab a few.

I think the only way dotasia will a success is that if china jumps on the bandwagon and come up with some killer sites on-mass. Then there lies another problem in delivering “wonder sites” to the world if its written in Chinese :). Buy.asia was the domain that received the most applications in landrush with more than 400 applicants, while Sex.asia received the most applications in the “sunrise” period of filing. Hot.asia, Gold.asia, Fun.asia and Girl.asia round out the top five sought after domains during the Landrush period. DotAsia reported 45,697 domains had more than one landrush application and will end up in auction.

Again speaking to people that actually make thier money from “flipping” domains, I have had very negative feedback on the whole dotasia process. There are various stages in making an application for domain registration. there has been a pioneer and brand group ( yeah right ), then there has been pre-sunrise and then sunrise. okay I am not going to even begin to explain the stages and what they mean as my fingers may fall off. Then of course Pre-registration landrush and finally landrush.

If you are looking for a .asia registry i would pick eurodns.com as they are one of the cheapest and also cover a problem with .asia registrations, you need a contact in asia to register.

Is dotasia a Turkey? well we will have to see! it may take a year to find out if it goes the same way as .TV, a good idea at the time but it did not have the stamina to stay the journey