Network Solutions plans Indian foray

BANGALORE: Network Solutions Inc (NSI), a Web registration services company,

plans to enter India later this year either through a joint venture or through

an outright acquisition of an Indian company in the area of its business, a

senior company official said.

NSI vice president sales and marketing Gary Hayward said, "The company

has already shortlisted two firms for acquisition in the region," but he

refused to divulge whether any of them were from India. India is ranked eight in

terms of number of registrations of domain names (.com, .org, .edu, .net)

worldwide, ahead of Japan and the only other country which is ahead of India in

the Asia-pacific region is China. The number of registrations in India at 89,000

in 1999 grew by over 267 per cent over the previous year's figure of 23,000.

NSI has also announced an addition of five new 'premier' category partners in

India, which include Satyam Infoway, Cyberweb Global Services, Dotcom Services,

India Web Promoters and Web Werks. Existing premier partners are Delhinet,

Indialinks, Innovative Creations, Planet India and WebIndia Internet services.

A 'premier' category partner has to bring at least 50 domain name

registrations per month. Companies who bring over 500 registration will fall

under the 'gold' category. However, firms that can register less than 50 can

participate in the affiliate programme. Mr Howard also said, NSI is planning to

increase the number of its premier partners in India. The US company has 240

partner companies globally, of which 60 are in Asia.

NSI charges $70 for registering a domain name through its partners. However,

if you decide to register directly through the Network Solution Web site you

have to pay $119 that would include a two-year Web-hosting fee. NSI, which had a

monopoly in domain name registrations till mid 1999 has registered over 8.1

million domain names. Now there are over 30 companies working as registrars for

domain names. NSI commanded a 90 per cent marketshare in domain name

registrations globally. The company has registered over 1.5 million names in

1999 compared to 5.32 lakh in 1998.