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From TIME Asia
Culture on Demand: Black is Beautiful The American Express black card is the ultimate status symbol Asia Buzz: Should the Net Be Free? Web heads want it all -- for nothing JAPAN: Failed Revolution Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori clings to power as dissidents in his party finally decide not to back a no-confidence motion Cover: Endgame? After Florida's controversial ballot recount, Bush holds a 537-vote lead in the state, which could give him the election |
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Simplicity, once again, has a price By ERIC ELLIS January 27, 2000 Web posted at 6 a.m. Hong Kong time, 5 p.m. EST Chalk up another point for prescience. Seoul's NASDAQ-listed broadband Internet provider Thrunet is preparing to pay $5 million to a Korean-American student who registered the domain name Korea.com way back in 1995, when the Internet was mostly a glint in an investment banker's greedy eye. Thrunet aims to develop Korea.com as its main portal into its e-network, and in Seoul, Korea.com (which the student had developed into a Korean culture site) speaks a bit louder than Thrunet.com.
But what about some other country names? Tap in Indonesia.com, Malaysia.com or Vietnam.com and you'll end up in the server of Vancouver company Communicate.com touting the domains for sale. It doesn't list a price but Korea.com's is a fair indication. The same goes for India.com, Europe.com and Asia.com. All undeveloped as sites, they have been locked up by the equally expansively named Mail.com of the U.S. Same goes for Japan.com, also under the Mail.com umbrella. The U.S. company Great Domains is asking over $10 million for America.com. That's a rare example of a country domain being owned by someone from that country. But if Kim Jong Il came along with $20 million, I'm sure Great Domains could be persuaded to sell it to North Korea. Then it could do what it does anyway: use old media (er, propaganda) to diss the imperialist U.S. so everyone with a Net connection can read its take on the world. That's a bit like poor old Philippines Long Distance Telephone, who gets hosed every time someone logs onto Pldt.com, which turns out to be Notquitepldt.com. The Manila-based carrier is embroiled in legal action for Pldt.com's wacky architects to cease and desist. So far, it's not going well, and the results are there, online, for anyone to see. Indeed, it's pretty rare for a domain name to be owned by someone within the country it signifies. That might be galling to one's nationalism but there's little governments or the law can do about it. It must really irritate the Taiwanese that Taiwan.com is controlled by the China.com crowd, a company that is part-owned by Beijing's state-run news agency, Xinhua. Write to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com Search for recent Asia Buzz
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