Sedo’s Albert Schimmel tweeted a link to an interesting article from India’s Economic Times about the Indian government’s effort to give a boost to .IN domain names. As you probably know, .IN is the ccTLD for the country of India.
For Indian companies and entities, .IN domain names are already fairly popular, although .com is apparently even more popular there. The Indian government, which manages the .IN ccTLD, is planning an advertising campaign to encourage Indians to use .IN domain names.
Here is an excerpt from the Economic Times article that discusses this upcoming marketing effort:
“With an aim to promote the .in domain name, which is India’s official website extension – but continues to be in the shadows of the more popular .com domain name – the ministry of electronics and IT (MEIT) is planning a massive advertising campaign aimed at companies, individuals and startups.”
The aim of the advertising campaign is to increase the number of registered .IN domain names to 3 million+ registrations.
One thing the article did not seem to cover (or maybe I missed it) is why the government wants to increase the number of .IN domain names. I am not sure if the government looks at this as a revenue opportunity, a patriotic play, or a combination of both of these factors.
I see why the ccTLD would be appealing for companies that only operate in a specific market, but it can be a bit limiting for companies with a global reach to use a ccTLD domain name.
You already know I’m very committed to .com, but I have to say that within the Indian marketplace, .in certainly has merit. Germany is a country that has made their .de dominant, and India could gain leverage with their .in. I only have one .in, but it’s a beaut. The antacid market is a $253M annual value in India, (Rs. 1180 crore) and I could see a pharmaceutical company in the very competitive space recognizing the leverage the domain name Antacid.in could provide to gain dominance among consumers. I’m glad the Indian government is recognizing the value in their .in.