google is still entering the thai market and recruiting more advertisers... expect this market to pick up in due time.
I think Raider wants to know the facts. The fact is that unless you got top tier IDNs, there is little direct traffic.
IDN is not like ASCII where there are lots of traffic generated by typos, similar websites, expired traffic from names with links all over the web, getting PR from those links, and etc, etc. You guys will know better than me!
Generally, you can't expect traffic if:
1. 90% of browsers in Asia can't access IDNs.
2. There are almost no websites that use IDNs (discounting minisites).
3. 99% of people don't know IDNs exist.
The truth is that IDN is a waiting game and will be a waiting game for years to come. And most people on DNF don't like to wait, everyone wants immediate income. Buy domains with expired traffic and earn the next 12 months, never mind if the traffic keeps reducing and disappears finally. Or pump up the landrush for a new TLD like .mobi and then sell to newbies that haven't got a clue -quick money in 6 months - these guys are now swearing away, many quietly since no one wants to advertise his folly. :veryangry:
There is a long wait ahead - IE7 has negligible marketshare in Asia, and Firefox is a minor player.
But for those who are willing to wait, especially those that waited since 2001 or 2005, even early 2006, the results will be very rewarding once the momentum picks up in year 201x.
IDN prices has gradually gone up as steadily as times go by. When i purchased a major chinese city (tier one) idn for 2 grand back in Jan 2006, it was like a crazy price and i got a feeling it was the record price for chinese idn then. Now, i doubt anyone will sell a tier one chinese city .COM for less than 5 figures.
For those who think that the chance to buy IDNs will come when there is a dot mobi like crash, it will probably never happen. Why?
1). The thing about IDN is that traffic is increasing steadily over months since most IDNs are .COMs.
2). Domain renewal cost is low (most people only register premium names and don't waste money like many of those compound word dot mobis - because they know they have to renew at least a few times).
The market is drying up as we speak when "investors" secretly suck out the prime names and put them into cold storage - some intend to save them for their kids!
3). People that really spend money to buy IDNs generally believe it is a long term investment. If you invest $1000, renewing for 10 years for $70 isn't that difficult thing to do.
4). The dollar is weakening and your purchase power would have diminished so much 10 years from now, you will need to spend more dollars to buy IDNs in the future. Over the medium term, this will offset any possible market induced depreciation in IDN prices even if there will be a recession.
5). Prime names once bought over by deep pocket investors will be gone from the market for good. A lot of them are already gone, if not the majority.
6). Without influence and market manipulation from big boys or domain syndicates (you know who they are) and registrars, IDN is the closest thing we have to a gradually appreciating real investment, at least for the domaining world.
Ok, enough of beating around the bush, i'll be more direct:
If you live on a current account only, IDN is not for you!
:lol::lol::lol:
