DotAsia Organisation, a regional not-for-profit organization promoting Internet development and adoption around Asia, has announced the opening of the "Landrush" period for ".Asia" internationalized domain names (IDNs) registrations.

All qualified users can now apply to register any unregistered or unreserved domain names. If a domain name is applied for by more than one user, it will be auctioned at the base price of $10.

The Landrush period follows the successful "Sunrise" period when the organization received up to 10,000 applications for Chinese, Japanese and Korean ".Asia" IDNs between May 11 and July 20. DotAsia invited registered companies, brand owners and existing ".Asia" domain name holders to register during the initial Sunrise period to secure their branded IDNs.

Around 2,000 applications during the Sunrise period were from businesses and 2,500 were for Chinese, Japanese and Korean governments.

"The Internet is moving towards an IDN world. The hundreds of millions of users in China, Japan and Korean are searching online with keywords in their own language. DotAsia not only recognizes the SEO (search engine optimization) value of IDNs, but is committed to supporting businesses and artists to better reach their customers and fans with '.Asia' domains," said Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia.

The opening of the Landrush period follows several recent announcements that indicate a ripe IDN market in Asia. Google announced in July their full IDN support for Adwords, allowing Google Ads content and URLs to be in Chinese for the first time, while Baidu reportedly doubled net profit growth through a surge in search revenues.

"Businesses are known in their native languages and the development of English domain names has reached its utmost point. Promoting domain names in native languages will make Internet easier to access for people in less developed regions" said Ching Chiao, vice president of DotAsia.

After the Landrush period, ending on October 11, IDN ".Asia" registrations will follow the principle of "first come, first serve", said Chung.

All money collected from ".Asia" IDNs registration will be used to promote the development of Internet, Chung said.

DotAsia is formed as an open membership consortium of official domain authorities around the region, including .CN (China), .JP (Japan), .KR (Korea), .IN (India), .NZ (New Zealand), .PH (Philippines), and regional Internet organizations including APNIC, APNG, APCERT, PAN and APTLD. DotAsia has a core mandate towards digital inclusion, education and research and development.