As the largest registrar of domain names in the southern hemisphere, INWW will initially offer registrations of domain names in Chinese, followed by the structured roll-out of domain names in other non-English languages. With the i-DNS.net alliance, INWW will be well-positioned to significantly contribute to the acceptance of the Internet as a communications and business tool, and aggressively expand its available business opportunities.
Previously, domain names could only be rendered in Roman or English characters. This presented a significant challenge to non-English speaking users who do not use these characters in their written language. With the increasing proliferation of i-DNS technology, this barrier to Internet access will be eliminated. i-DNS is built upon Unicode and currently supports more than 55 languages (including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Hebrew, Russian, Thai and Tamil) and their respective multiple encoding. It is also fully compatible with commonly used Internet browsers and inter-operable with the current Domain Name System (DNS).
The company is confident that the technology will exponentially increase Internet adoption among the non-English speaking population world-wide - estimated at approximately 68 per cent of the total population - and present a level playing field for all companies wanting to leverage e-commerce opportunities.
Domain names represent the electronic brands of the New Economy. Companies today realize the immense potential of establishing a web presence, and being able to communicate with your customers in their own language immediately allows you to establish an affinity with them, said i-DNS.net Chief Executive Officer Michael Ng. i-DNS.net has already received overwhelming response in the markets that we have launched in, and this alliance with Melbourne IT will certainly propel our vision of bringing the Internet beyond an English-centric cyberspace, to create an Internet equally accessible to everyone.
INWW General Manager Clive Flory said, "We are standing on the brink of the birth of the first truly international Internet community where language is no longer a barrier. From a business perspective, language-specific sites make the marketing of Web addresses easier and more effective. Internet Names WorldWide has the unique opportunity of partnering with the pioneer of multilingual domain names to support the rapid expansion of Internet adoption by the non-English speaking world.
The service is anticipated to be rolled-out in the near future
About Melbourne IT Ltd
Melbourne IT Ltd is a leading supplier of domain names and eCommerce
infrastructure services to the global market. On December 14, 1999
Melbourne IT's shares were listed on the Australian Stock Exchange,
trading as MLB. The Company's domain name registration business,
Internet Names WorldWide supplies a variety of ccTLD and gTLD domain
names (.com, .net, .org) to customers worldwide and offers secure,
scaleable and robust registration services and 24-hour customer service.
With its leading edge technology, research and development and highly
skilled staff, Melbourne IT makes eCommerce accessible to businesses of
all sizes.
For more information, please visit www.melbourneit.com.au
About Internet Names WorldWide
Internet Names WorldWide is a division of Melbourne IT. It was one of the first registrars in the world to go live offering the .com domain service and is the largest domain name registrar in the Southern Hemisphere.
Internet Names WorldWide was formally known as INA (Internet Names Australia). The role of INA was to manage the .com.au registry which is the third largest domain space in the world after Germany (de) and the United Kingdom (UK). In 1999, INA was accredited by the US-based Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to officially administer the .com, .net and .org domain names world-wide. In recognition of the new global presence, Internet Names WorldWide was born.
For more information, please visit www.internetnamesww.com
