Coming soon (hopefully): your very own .kiwi domain
By Siobhan Leathley,
New Zealanders all over the world may soon have a new way to promote their Kiwiness online with a .kiwi domain name.
Tim Johnson, DKL chief executive
Dot Kiwi Limited, registered in New Zealand and formed by a group of expats based in Vancouver, has applied for the .kiwi domain. If successfully secured, the new domain is expected to be available for individuals and organisations to purchase in early 2013.
The application is under ICANN's (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) programme.
Last week ICANN began taking bids for new suffixes beyond the traditional ones such as .co.nz or .net.
They don't come cheaply, however, however, with application costs in the six figures.
DKL will be donating a percentage of revenue and pre-tax profit made from the sale of .kiwi to the Christchurch rebuild via a trust to be chaired by Sir John Hansen, a former High Court judge.
DKL chief executive Tim Johnson says this will be a way for Kiwi businesses to show their roots regardless of where they are in the world.
"We believe .kiwi provides a sustainable solution to the need for on-going fundraising for the Christchurch rebuild. It also provides a solution to the notable lack of choice for names in the somewhat isolated New Zealand domain name market."
DKL director Peter Dengate Thrush said .kiwi offered a new option to customers wishing to be associated with New Zealand online, or via their email address.
"The domain will offer New Zealand organisations and individuals greater choice, branding creativity and the opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitors, providing them an exciting way of proclaiming their identity online."
Comments
nb
.kiwi sounds cheap and amature, not to mention overseas people will look at it and not know what it means, much like the .biz domains.
I can't imagine an organisation like Air NZ or The National Bank using it - and it's not something a business who has global aspirations would use either.
macka
Great initiative. Good on them. Nice to tie it in to Chch too. I'll be signing up for a .kiwi domain for my personal email and also for my business.
kevin ocall
Please advise when we can be the first to apply for URLs, thanks.
Jannis Gundermann
What a pointless initiative, as if anyone is actually using .geek.nz or .maori.nz or .biz as mentioned by nb.
This will be another one of those TLDs with no global use at all. Even within NZ I cannot see this getting any traction if the equal domain is not also available as a generic .com for instance.
I also agree with nb's comment about it sounding cheap and immature, why would you sell your brand or service under a domain that is basically a figure of speech describing the nationality of a country and what most others will perceive as the name of a fruit?
I can see some domain hoggers getting busy securing campaign style domains for local market ad campaigns but short of that there is no real world use here.
Also, what has this domain extension to do with Chch? Nothing, so to me it feel like a cheap ploy to grab some of that national pride and repurpose it for your own idea to donate a cut of the profits; not saying that it's bad to donate but as a marketing tactic it's a cheap shot.
Simon
Jannis Gundermann?? Good kiwi name that one! Not sure what your beef is?? Every kiwi I have ever known has been proud of the name, and we tend to find even more pride in the 'figure of speech' after having lived overseas for a few years.
Of course there will always be a few people who will see it as cheap or gimicky, but I suspect that will only be a few. As for pointless? Well if you are looking for a TLD and you have the choice between .nz or .kiwi for, I assume the same price, it is fair to think a lot of kiwis would want to go with the .kiwi option. Perhaps I will be proven wrong and that is fine, but I suspect not.
As for the CHCH thing? Were you aware CHCH is in NZ? And that any Kiwi, in NZ or overseas feels the pain of what is going on there and wants to help in any way they can. If this gets some good cash to rebuild my home city I will merely applaud it. Be cynical if you like, I hope it takes off and helps contribute to CHCH being rebuilt even better than ever!
NB
@ Simon -
Simon? Great Kiwi name that, oh wait it's English, like Jannis Gundermann is probably European?
Get real mate, everyone in this country comes from immigrant stock, just because most seem to come from the same place doesn't make them “more kiwi” than others…
Simon
@NB,
fair point mate, and yes it was a cheap shot, so sorry Jannis! I guess it was really the tone and attitude that got my back up…that he would assume this is being done as a marketing ploy and isnt willing to assume that a group of expat kiwis (as apparently they all are) dont actually care about their homeland!
I think my other points still stand as well
Oh, and yes, Simon is English…alas there is some English blood in me somewhere
NB
@ Simon
We're all entitlted to our opinions - and yours regarding this topic are valid.
I still stand by mine - outside of the “traditional” expat locations - UK, Aussie and the US and maybe Canada, I'm so sure if the word “kiwi” means anything to anyone (non-kiwi) other than a brown fuzzy fruit.
My sentiments really stemmed around a perception of our fine country I picked up upon while I lived in the UK for 4 years recently.
My personal opinion is the .kiwi is about as appropriate as a white fern on a black flag as our national flag.
Sure they are both great iconic symbols/words that invoke pride and nationalism amongst us; they may have value in places like the UK, but I'm willing to bet in new markets - the Middle East, India, Eastern Europe for example they hold little or no meaning (to non kiwis)
I agree, If I was to start up a business that say, sold NZ gifts or food for expats; or a personal website where I baked cakes and took photos of them .kiwi would be great.
If I manufactured components for computers that were able to be exported globally i think i would stick to .co.nz. It looks more professional *at this stage*.
Who knows, in 5 years maybe .kiwi will be the dominant domain in NZ and i'll be the first to write in and admit I got it wrong!
Question would it be www.myname.kiwi or www.myname.co.kiwi?
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