The FINANCIAL -- About 8,000 active domains are registered in Georgia, according to Caucasus Online , company controlling .GE domain index. According to statistics, in the year 2006 7,000 domains were registered in Georgia, in 3 years the number of domain names increased by a rate of 12.5%.
“In Georgia we do not have cases of selling domain names from private individuals,” says Ia Peradze, administrator of .GE domain.
“According to the rules re-selling of domain names is prohibited. When one person cancels a domain name only after that can the domain name be taken by another,” she adds.
The domain name cannot be resold without Caucasus Online registration. The individual who wants to cancel the domain name should write an announcement and only after that can the domain have another owner.
Despite this restrictions, in Georgian cyber space there are cases when individuals post their domain names in forums, promoting an existing domain name and offering high stakes for their web page.
According to Caucasus Online there are no cases of domain names registered as investment.
“The restrictions on targeting domain names were set because there were enough resources for the Georgian population to get the desired domain name,” says Peradze.
Jeremiah Johnson, the Chief Operating Officer at Sedo.com says that the right investment in the virtual property will yield in solid return on investment (ROI) as the online property typically increases in value over time.
“In Georgia the domain name does not increase in value and the price is not added to domain name,” says Peradze.
In the world there are several ways of targeting domain names such as via auctions, bidding, private sales and negotiation with domain brokers.
Sedo.com on its web page lists 12 to 15 million domain names for sale. Moreover, the company offers checking for availability of domain names with different indexes.
If you would like to check the availability of Georgian domain names you can find them at www.nic.net.ge.
The price of a domain name depends on the type and quantity of domain names. However the price is still 30 GEL,” says Ia Peradze.
Domain names are classified in two types: First level domain names with the index .GE. Second level domain names (with more than 3 letters) are: com.ge , org.ge, gov.ge, net.ge, pvt.ge, edu.ge.
Moreover, there are second level domain names that have 2 symbols in the domain costing 900 GEL per year.
The domain maintenance price depends on the number and classification of domains owned by the individual.
For first level domain names: one domain is quite free, from 2-5 domains - 10 GEL, from 6-10 domains - 30 GEL, from 11-15 domains - 60 GEL, 16-20 domains - 100 GEL, 21-25 domains - 150 GEL.
For second level domain names the maintenance cost is: 1-5 domains - 30 GEL, 6-10 domains - 60 GEL, 10-15 domains - 110 GEL, 16-20 domains - 180 GEL, 21-25 domains - 270 GEL.
If the payment is not made in a month and a half, the domain name is cancelled.
Last year the buying and selling of web site domains amounted to 77 million USD, says Sedo.com, an international company and global domain marketplace.
According to Businessweek.com there are almost 174 million domain names worldwide and an annual growth rate of 30% over the last five years.
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