Cyber estate prices hit rock bottom
The .in registrations on the internet have grown almost 70 times over the last four years "" from 6,500 in 2004 to 230,000 in 2007. And, between October 2007-March 2008, almost doubled to 440,000, thanks to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) reducing its wholesale prices to Rs 100. The rates have normalised since April 1. The numbers may look small when compared with .com, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the world's domain name registrations. However, an NIXI official maintained that he expects around 10,000 .in domain registrations every month. With the increase in internet and broadband penetration, the numbers are only set to grow. |
The .in domain names make a lot of sense since 60-70 per cent of internet traffic is domestically generated. In the absence of an exchange like NIXI at the gateway, the traffic goes over the gateway to exchanges in the US or elsewhere and then gets redirected to India. It consumes international bandwidth and results in delays.
Moreover, with the .in domain initiative (servers in India), India-based organisations can enhance their web identity and digital brands. It is also expected to help internet service providers (ISPs) cut expensive international bandwidth costs.
Till 2006, while India rated 63 per cent in the usage of .in domain names, 37 per cent were registered outside India. Over 150 countries are represented by .in domain owners.
The most popular ones are India, the US and Germany, accounting for over 81 per cent registrations, followed by the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, Italy, and China. The current composition is being updated by NIXI and the results should be out by the second half of this calendar year.
NIXI took the initiative to set up state-of-the art hardware and software, and re-launched the '.in' registry in 2004. It is not an ISP, but enters into agreements with ISPs and has around 46 accredited registrars (licensed to issue domain name registrations). Of these, 32 are Indian registrars who resell domain names bought from NIXI at wholesale prices.
Mumbai-based Directi and Delhi-based Net4 India control 70 per cent of the domain names business between them. Net4, for instance, hosts around 75,000 websites.
While the wholesale price (which was Rs 100 from October 2007- March 2008) is around Rs 500, most retailers make their margins by packaging plain vanilla domain name registration along with web hosting services (server space, designing of pages, etc.) at nominal rates. The rates vary according to the registrar's marketing strategies.
Jasjit Sawhney, CEO of Net 4, says: "We are seeing a growth rate of 30 per cent in '.in' domain name registrations in the last one year. We are also seeing an increased demand from corporations and small and medium-sized businesses."