NetSol offers domain names in Indian languages

NEW DELHI: Network Solutions will now offer domain name registration in nine

Indian languages, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi,

Tamil and Telugu. This is a significant initiative since the number of

non-English speaking Internet users is expected to outgrow the English-speaking

population by 2005.

The non-English speaking population on the Net, which currently stands at 45

per cent, is set to grow to 57 per cent by 2005 as against the current number of

English speaking population which stand at 57 per cent.

This is expected to play a role in bridging the digital divide in the

country. India is of significant strategic importance to the company, as the

country ranks third in the domain name registration in the Asia-Pacific region

excluding Japan after China and Korea. Incidentally, Network Solutions had

already launched domain name registration in Chinese, Korean and Japanese during

November of last year.

The registration can be done either through Network Solution's partners that

stand at more than 80 in the Asia-Pacific region or register directly at the

company's site at www.networksolutions.com. The company is yet to work out the

registration fees in alliance with Nasscom.

On the launch of registration in Indian languages, vice president

(International Sales and Marketing) Gary Howard, says "It would facilitate

Internet as a global platform, enable Internet users to use their most preferred

language, minimize the digital divide and allow companies to build brand

consistently online and offline." The target users of the multilingual Web

identity include Indian-based corporations who would want to build an online and

offline brand and MNCs in the Indian markets.

Network Solutions, which was founded in March 1979, is the exclusive

wholesaler of .com, .net, and .org registrations. By the end of 2000, the

company has already registered 28 million registrations out of which 24 million

registrations have been with a .com resulting in dot.com itself being a brand

name. The company has 43 registrars worldwide registering one name every 2-3

seconds today.