Thanks bro for the well written advice.
Actually back in '90s, when internet was just starting, we were offerred both the xx.com and xx.com.sg However, we were badly advised by the design's company to apply for the xx.com.sg
The following year we realised our mistake and tried to register the xx.com but it was already taken up by an individual. Following that we have registered another xx.com.xx, etc (about 10 types) but realised that it was not much of use and thus let about 4 to expire after 5 years .... now we still have about 5 types but still without the .com .....
Recently we have received this China company who is offering and advising us to register xx.com.cn and xx.com.hk because someone is registering them and they "felt" that we were the legal owners ....and so they are offering us first (?) and if we did not register these, we may have problems next time if we were to enter those markets ...:dunno:
But i think you are right .... probably the .com is the only necessary domain :think:
Ya....there are alot of "squatters" out there. They would also use bots to crawl about the net looking for domains that is expiring or about to expire and they would keep watch over them to see if any are not renewed. Some people over look this and this is where they will get you. They will pay for it...put up some lame site information to make it look llike they really want to use it for some commercial or whatever use..."but"...if you willing to pay..they might find it in their "heart" to sell it back to you.
This people deals in batch purchase. Since the domain name registration is not longer handle by network solution like a monopoly...there are now many company that will offer you for a fee to register your domain with them And some of them offer really cheap first time registration for the first year. Look at American there is this company called "GoDaddy.com" They are pretty innocative and they use a catchy name for a domain and company name as you can see. They offer something like USD$1.00 for each domain name. Imagine you scour the web to find some possible domain names you could "squat at"..check them out to see if anyone has taken it up or taken it up before..etc. You can also take a gamble and think up some possible names and then you just register them all and then set up the webpage on each of them to sell it to whoever wants it. I heard of people hold hundred of domain names and making money selling them off. That is the sad fact.
"**.com" is still the one to ALWAYS get. IT is universal, everyone remembers it, everyone will alway end up using this as their first line of search online. I am very sure in CHina and Hong Kong it would be the same. ( My company has offices and dealing in HK and China and all the spam I get from china especially all track us just from *.com heheh so who say you need the *.hk or *.cn?)
For example I know your company... and I want to find out more information about it.... So I take a gamble lah..I go online and use yahoo or google hoping you have advertise there or have put in search tag to track you down..etc. OR another way would be to type "www.yourcompanyname" then I end it with ".com" and if you DID register your company name with a domain...out pop your website.
To legally fight for your domain name is dicey and you might not always win. There is also the issue of taking your set of laws..etc and use it to apply on the guilthy party of another country...blah blah...heheh I don't want to get into it but I think you get the picture.
If you really can't use the name you wanted, my advice is let it go. Look for a fresh angle and get another name to establish your company in term of maybe a product name or a theme for example. Since your company is just kicking it in now and you see your growth is more in the coming years...well this is as good a time to learn from your mistake and now take steps to start fresh and protect your branding before you really be more well know.
Spend abit more time and maybe money to get your image and branding all sort out then draw up what you want to do...online that is. What is the purpose of your web presenses...etc. But at the same time don't go overboard too. If you are going to have a famous product or name..just "*.com" is enough. Everyone will know what you are and beat a path to your door...why confuse people with so many domain names. The more you do that...the more you give people the impression you have so many domain name then you are really opening yourself up to more people squatting on all variant of your brand or company name!!! heheh... Go check out all the big names you see out there locally and in the US..then you check to see if they DID buy up all the various domain prefix just to save themselves heheh...you will find very few. Many have drop that kiasu way. If people want to ride on your coat tail to sell a similar service or product..there are thousands of ways of doing so...not just online. Keep your online developement basic and simple and then build on it. Putting in too many variable or component to cover this and that just make matters more complicated, expensive and worst...useless.
Trust me I had that head to head banging with my boss years ago when he had this dream of grandeur about B2B and B2C...blah I talk him down and scale our entire web presense and development to a slower pace and cut off all the hoopla we heard around us. YOu recall even our govt was speaking all aglow about the future of the internet and how many company will be super rich and famous if we implement this, register that, deplay this...blah blah blah.
He thought I was stupid and have no idea with the web and thus I drag my feet. It did not take long for him to see if we have done what he wanted we would have lost a huge sum of money for years before calling it quits.
So ..heheh don't make boss' mistake. Now I am not sure what product or business you are in but remember this....not all business needs the internet to make money. Some company do really well by just keeping their site a information base. Some of course do well to use the internet to build their business. So you need to see where your company fit in. More of my two cents heheh
