Indian companies opt for Indian flavor in domain addresses

Sufia Tippu
Tuesday, 07 November 2006 13:34

IT Industry - Market

Looks like the Indian Union Minister for IT and Communications, Dayanidhi Maran’s wish is finally coming true. Two years ago when he became the Minister, he passionately urged Indian firms to be proud of their Indian foundation and said this should be reflected in the country code based Internet domain address which was “co.in” at that time.

Later, there was a re-launch and the “.in” domain address was positioned as the official space for all things uniquely Indian on the Internet. For “virtual India”, the .in domain is the best place to have a Web site or e-mail address if you want to say you are from India or want to reach the Indian market in an authentic manner.

Today, there is an unmistakable rise in the popularity of ".in" domain addresses with over 200,000 users opting for it since it was opened for public in January last year.

While 63% of registrations of .in domain was from India, 37% were registered outside India. Over 150 countries have .in domain owners, out of which the most popular countries, which account for 81% are India, US, and Germany, followed by the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland and Italy.

“The revitalization of the .in domain has proved to be a tremendous success,” said Amitabh Singhal, telecom analyst and board member of the National Internet Exchange of India NIXI. “Since re-launching the domain in January of 2005, registrations have increased significantly enabling many Indian organizations, businesses, and Internet users around the world to establish their unique online presence,” he added.

The registry has grown nearly 30 times the initial size of around 6,500 domains before the January 2005 re-launch according to NIXI and Afilias India, the Indian arm of the global registry and today it has cross the 200,000 mark.

The re-launch included a more competitive price, expanded eligibility, a better technology platform and broader distribution through the global registrar network, he said.

According to Maran, this was an important milestone in the 10-point Agenda for India he had introduced in 2004. “I am happy that the .in domain address is now firmly established as a leading country code domain and reflects India’s leadership in technology and the Internet," he said.