ICANN validates dot asia on 18/10/06, which will be available within 6-9 months. This TLD aims at reflecting businesses and individuals located in Pacific Asia on the web, and reaching the larger community. According to DotAsia Organisation Ltd, .asia will first support Latin alphabet, then Asian languages (IDNs).
This corporation is made up of ICANN members that manage ccTLD registries in the Asian area. Registration of dot asia will be divided into 2 steps :
- first, the Sunrise Period for trademark owners then, the general opening for entities present in Asia Pacific.
Beyond the ".asia" opening, it is a matter of competition with the leading TLDs (particularly .com) and of Internet growth in the area. At this day, there is about 400 million internet users in Asia (see details in the table below).
Internet usage in the main Asian countries
| Country | Internet users |
| China | 123 000 000 |
| Japan | 86 300 000 |
| India | 60 000 000 |
| South Korea | 33 900 000 |
| Indonesia | 18 000 000 |
| Taïwan | 13 800 000 |
| Malaysia | 11 016 000 |
| Vietnam | 10 711 000 |
| Pakistan | 10 500 000 |
Source : Internet World Stats
(data updated on September 2006)