To put my point, I will use IDN.भारत for proposed Indian version of IDN.IDN and IDN.कॉम for aliased version of Hindi IDN.com.
What may happen if Hindi IND.भारत is released and Hindi IDN.com domains remains undeveloped
- .com is King because of first usage of .com. All major companies adopted it. dotCom boom marketed this TLD as they all almost opted for it.Millions of dollars (or should I say billion)were spent on indirect marketing of .com TLD. But, consider a scenario when Hindi IDN.com are not developed and Hindi IDN.भारत is released. The competitor of IDN.भारत will be IDN.कॉम aliased version of IDN.com TLD.Given a choice that I have to type complete domain name in Hindi including the TLD part भारत or कॉम, both extension will be new for me..com will no more remain .com it will become कॉम.Someone needs to market this “new” .com(कॉम) extension.
- If Hindi tld.com remains undeveloped the first site(if it is very big) or first few site which goes online may set the trend of कॉम or भारत choice.You may say that .com(कॉम) may be used for global content and .भारत will for local content.That may not happen as almost all Hindi tld will be targeted for Indian, Hindi speaking population.In sense,they will be true competitor.
- Also keep in mind,if company like Google ever opt for IDN Hindi domain,they may choose .भारत.So if you wait,you are on mercy of outcome of early adopters.
- Also, keep in mind, millions of native users are not online because language do have barrier for them,there are a lot of house wives in India who do have Internet(computer) at home but don’t simply use it because they don’t know English.Adoption of Hindi in general and Hindi IDN in particular will open door for many millions of internet user in coming decade.For them .com won’t matter as well.
- Even for Bilingual users (who will form initial user base for Hindi IDN based websites.) it would be easy to remember complete name including after .(dot) in Hindi(devnagri) unless they are used to type in domain name in Hindi (devnagri) and and they can form a habit to type .com in roman(it’s some work as you have to change keyboard layout) after first part of the domain.Unless, this window of opportunity is capitalized to get attention of these user (which is now, before release of country level IDN..भारत), advantage of being .com will be lost.
- On bright side to see this is, that even .net investor will be at par with .com if none of them is developed soon. Because,after aliasing both will be “new” extension.
- Adult domain may still survive even if Hindi IDN.com is not developed now,because Indian registry doesn’t permit use of domain for adult content.So, if Hindi IDN .com left undeveloped your only hope will be if someone develops few popular adult sites and make .com or कॉम competitive.
This is a good post Anjan.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered the brand appeal of .com ? What I mean is that I think .com is a brand and that people that already publish on the internet, whether they have a blog or a full portal, will probably favor .com(कॉम) over .in(भारत).
Let's consider the webpage of a Hindi newspaper that already publishes articles in Hindi. This newspaper has a .com domain. When it hears about IDN.IDN, it will most certainly register a devnagri domain. Will it be [devnagri].कॉम or [devnagri].भारत ? I think it will be .com over .in, the same way .co.in is sometimes favored to .in
I agree however that this is a good time to develop and I certainly agree that if there's a hundred of top IDN.com already developed once aliasing comes, it won't hurt the status of .com in India.
Let us know about your development efforts.
1. JS Why it will be .कॉम over .भारत..com is brand but .कॉम is not a brand.That is my whole point.We have to create awareness among people that [devnagri].com website exits so that even after aliasing, we have an edge for .com or कॉम.
ReplyDelete2.On the other hand if both remains undeveloped even I will prefer .भारत than .कॉम because .भारत is meanigful.
.com > .in > .co.in > .भारत
ReplyDeletePretty much forget about .कॉम imho.
Not that I think any Indian IDN is worth investing in for the next few years.
Samit,
ReplyDeleteI am quite encouraged by one of my IDN.com hindi amateur project.Its getting 200 visit just purelyu because user is typing that term in Hindi and domain name is exactly same as keyword.Google is showing that domain in top 3 with just one page content. However, its same for Hindi IDN what it was for internet in 1994. People who have Hindi keyboard will prefer to type .कॉम but not .com. That was my point.We need at least couple of IDN.com in alexa top 10000 if it not happens probably .भारत will take over as hindi IDN extension. That's my fear.