.Asia sites are now live on the web and UK businesses are being encouraged to register domains if they trade with the region.

Hostway, a web services provider, today announced the start of live registration for the .Asia domain name following the end of the 'sunrise' and 'landrush' name reservation periods. Companies and individuals can now register for the names of their choice, which will immediately be accessible on the web. Companies trading with the pan-Asian market may risk losing credibility as a supplier if they do not have a relevant local domain name for their company.

The company stated that, according to DotAsia, the administrative body for the .Asia domain, over half a million registrations have been received for the .Asia domain name to date, 24% of which came from Europe. Following the landrush period, DotAsia held an auction for domain names which were contested between two or more companies and individuals. For example, the domains ace.asia and mediaworld.asia were sold for $20,000 and $10,000 respectively, demonstrating the high levels of demand for these names.

"Most people these days would go straight to Amazon.co.uk rather than Amazon.com to do their shopping and dealing with the Asian region is no different," said Thomas Herbert, product manager, Hostway. "Users expect companies doing business with the area to have local domain names, and businesses which do not wish to buy individual country-specific domain names should look towards the .Asia domain. Even if companies already have country-specific domain names, they should consider registering a .Asia domain to protect their brand. With 60% of the world population living in the Asia-Pacific area, companies risk losing substantial revenues if they do not show that they are serious about dealing with the region."

"With such high demand for these names, companies should sit up and take notice of the potential influence of the new domain," continued Herbert. "UK businesses dealing with the pan-Asian region would be short-sighted not to realise the benefits of having a .Asia domain name."

The company declared that it is offering one-year registrations for the .asia domain name at £9.95 with a one-off administration fee of £54.95, as well as a £2.95 yearly proxy service fee for companies based outside of the Asia-Pacific region.