Corporate domain name management - eBrand Services

Internationalised Domain Names Gives Global Internet Users Online Opportunities

Internationalised Domain Names are now coming online with several benefits for internet users and businesses in those languages adopting them. IDNs allow internet users whose language uses local language letters or characters from non-ASCII scripts (for example, Arabic or Chinese).

Internet users will see benefits of IDNs as in languages where they are being introduced. The most important is the ability to type and read a domain name completely in one’s own language. In countries such as China, Russia and Egypt where many people are not familiar with English characters this will be a great help when getting online.

"IDNs are important to facilitate non-English speaking people to get onto the Internet. Although they can use search engine to locate websites by typing keywords in their native language, this takes a long time especially if the desired website is not listed in the first few pages of the search result, said Jonathan Shea, CEO of HKIRC, the registry for .HK.

This point is backed up by Alexey Lesnikov, Director General of RU-CENTER, the leading .РФ registrar, Russia’s Russian language IDN.

One of the goals of the introduction of IDNs, according to Lesnikov, is to broaden the appeal of domain names and encourage internet use. Indeed, one of the most pleasing things, and a guide to how successful the Cyrillic domain would be, was that his grandmother was impressed with the idea. Breaking down language barriers for Russian users is important as internet users not familiar with Latin characters found it difficult to understand domain names.

"Cyrillic domain names will be widely used within Russia within five years, especially within emails, and during this time Russian internet users will become used to Cyrillic domains," Lesnikov said.

Within Russia there is widespread support of the Cyrillic IDN. Prior to applying for the IDN, RU-CENTER conducted opinion polling and of more than 10,000 internet users who participated, about 60 per cent said "yes" to the idea of a Cyrillic domain.

"Actually there is no guarantee that the user can see that website in the search result. It is much quicker and direct if the user can guess and type in the domain name of the website he is after, in his native language," said Shea. "On the other hand, the ’brand’ value of a company or organisation is substantially reduced if its name cannot appear in the native language. It is very difficult for non-English speaking Internet users to guess or remember the English translation or English abbreviation of the name of a company if it is best known by its name in a language or languages other than English."

IDNs will also be of great benefit to business with internet users being able to better recognise domain names in promotional materials such as advertising and in documents providing information. This will help "companies and organisations fully reveal the value of their brands to the target audience," believes Shea.

Another advantage of IDNs is the likely reduction of online crimes. Among internet users familiar with Cyrillic languages, Lesnikov believes that the greater familiarity with the language will lead to lower levels of cybercrime such as phishing as the users will be more aware of the web addresses they are going to.

But there have also been concerns from trademark holders who fear their trademarks will be registered in IDN scripts and be difficult for users and trademark holders to realise. It is for this reason that EuroDNS, parent company of eBrand Services, has developed DomainRecovery.com together with a number of international experts.

DomainRecovery.com allows trademark holders to search for their company and brand names in domain names across a wide range of Top Level Domains.

"It is the first online interface that offers comprehensive services around Domain Recovery and is a perfect tool for IP lawyers and brand protection companies," said Xavier Buck, CEO of EuroDNS.

To date ICANN has received 31 requests through its Fast Track process for approving IDNs representing 19 languages and to date has approved IDNs in the following languages and countries:

• Chinese (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)
• Arabic (Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates)
• Russian (Russia)
• Chinese Tamil (Singapore)
• Sinhalese Tamil (Sri Lanka)
• Thai (Thailand).