What attracts China to .am domain zone?

By June 20, China took the second place by the number of registrations at .am domain zone. By June 24, 27.27% (8805 domains) were registered from China. The third place is occupied by USA with half as large index - 11.28% (3642 domains).

Itel.am tried to find out what conditions the increase of interest to Armenian domain zone from foreign countries, particularly China. 

President of Internet Society of Armenia NGO Igor Mkrtumyan noticed that China is the only Asian country to show interest towards Armenian .am TLD.

“The Chinese mainly register digital domains. It is probably conditioned by the fact that numbers have a special meaning in their culture. People from other countries usually register domains related to brands or names that make sense, for instance, AM radio stations or names ending with “am”, such as Instagr.am,” he said.



Marieta Danielyan, Manager at Reg.am dealing with domain sale, said in her turn that foreigners are attracted to .am TLD because of its availability.

“For instance, it’s a good alternative for our Chinese partners. Being a large nation, they don’t have that many domain zones left, and .am is a perfect solution in this regard. It’s short, practical, and what matters the most, it’s affordable. For example, some people register solely digital domains, others need a domain name consisting of no more than 2-3 letters,” Reg.am Manager observed.

Nevertheless, Igor Mkrtumyan doesn’t believe that .am receives notable interest from foreign countries.

“Just 30 000 domains were registered on .am in 20 years. Comparison with countries of the size of ours is not in our favour. Lithuania has 118 000 registered domains, Latvia has 178 000, Estonia has 119, 5 000. As for today, 600 top level domains (TLD) are available on the Internet, and you can use them to register a free new domain. The choices are so many that registers are competing for potential registrations, and not limiting them,” he noticed and stressed that there is no need to set limitations for foreign domain buyers in Armenia.

Marieta Danielyan believes that foreign buyers’ interest for Armenian TLD will only have a positive impact.

“Of course, it would be great if registrations on .am multiplied on the account of Armenian market, but the situation at hand is useful for our country as well. We present our services and products at the global market, which increases our ties with other countries and their interest towards Armenia, thus opening new perspectives of cooperation. Such circumstances entail economic growth and financial flow to Armenia,” she concluded.

Narine Daneghyan