VietNamNet Bridge – Experts believe that Bkav’s deal would start a new tendency
of Vietnamese enterprises spending big money to get back “.com” domain names. A
lot of multi-billion dong affairs are expected to be inked in 2012.
BKAV: 2.3billion dong for Bkav.com domain name inexpensive
Nguyen Tu Quang, General Director BKAV, admitted on Buu dien that he felt
ashamed when finding out that the domain name “bkav.com” was registered by a US
company 3-4 years ago.
Quang said that he began using Internet very soon, in 1997, before Internet
“entered” Vietnam. However, at that time, Quang thought that domain name “.com”
was “nonsense”, because the domain name was sold at just several dollars and the
transaction could be carried out through Internet. Meanwhile, he believed that
the “.vn” domain name is more “proper”, because users have to register with the
Vietnam Internet Network Information Center VNNIC.
“This was really a blunder,” Quang admitted. This seemed to be the same thoughts
of many other Vietnamese information technology groups, which explains why many
of them have lost the international domain names.
Quang also said that 10 years ago, Bkav still did not think that it would expand
its business in the world one day. Therefore, the company thought that it did
not need to buy an international domain name, and it only bought a domestic
domain name “bkav.com.vn.”
“Vietnam only began having the Internet connected in 1997, while the national
economy did not develop at that time. Therefore, we did not think of a global
development,” he explained.
Bkav has learned a lesson from this case. Nowadays, before Bkav develops any
products, the first thing it needs to do is to register the domain names for the
products. “If we find it unable to buy suitable domain names for the products,
we will change the names of the products,” Quang said.
It’s necessary to buy domain names soon
According to Quang, Vietnamese enterprises should be aware of the importance of
the international domain names, so that they do not have to pay heavy prices for
the domain names later, when their prestige go beyond the Vietnamese territory.
Bkav had to pay much for the international domain name, but it believes that
this is a necessary thing for its development worldwide.
Sources say that Viettel and VinaPhone now also want to buy back the
international domain names. Meanwhile, foreign individuals and companies which
are holding the “.com” domain names relating to Vietnamese big technology
groups, have been trying to force the companies to buy the domain names by
linking the domain names to “sensitive contents”.
Even foreign companies, including Ebay and HSBC, also lost their “.com.vn” and
“.vn” domain names relating to their brands, when doing business Vietnam. Both
of them have got back the Vietnamese domain names. However, sources said that
they have to pay “relatively high” for the domain names.
According to VTC, Apple has just has to buy back icloud.com at 4.5 million
dollars, or 94.5 billion dong.
It is expected that a lot of negotiations on buying back domain names and a lot
of deals would be wrapped up in 2012 which are worth multi billion dong.
Vu The Binh, General Director of Netnam, said that in 2000, the domain name
“netnam.com” was offered to sell at 2000 dollars. On December 24, the price
raised to 22,000 dollars. However, Netnam has refused the deal, because it
believes that it is the only company which has this name. Besides, Netnam does
not have 22,000 dollars to pay for the deal.
However, Binh said that if the seller lowers the price, it is likely that Netnam
would buy back the domain name.
Nguyen Trong Khoa, a Vietnamese person, who is possessing 700 international
domain names relating to Vietnamese brands, has said that some real estate
groups have contacted him to discuss about the buying back of the “.com” domain
names.
Source: Buu dien, VTC
