UNIQUE FREE DOMAIN NAMES AVAILABLE FOR THE THAI MARKET

Dot TK, a US startup company with offices in the United States and the Netherlands announced today the release of its Thai Registry of .TK domain names. Dot TK is an established ccTLD Registry since 2001, but since today people from Thailand can start registering .TK domain names, while supported by a website fully translated into Thai language.

The Dot TK registry enables individuals and small businesses to register .TK domain names in two different service profiles, both free and paid. By registering a free Dot TK domain name, through its easy and fast sign up process, the registrant obtains the user rights of their own chosen domain name as long as it is used. With a paid domain name, the registrant licenses the domain name for a certain period of time, where no usage restrictions apply during the registration period.

By giving away Dot TK domain names for free, Tokelau wants to put itself on the world map. Tokelau lies 500 miles from Western Samoa, in the middle of the South Pacific. One hour from the date line, with no airstrip and no harbor, Tokelau consists of three small atolls and obtained the letters TK from the International Standard Organization many years ago. Dot TK is a joint venture between the government of Tokelau, its governmental telecommunications company Teletok, and the privately held company Taloha, Inc. from San Francisco.

People in Tokelau live their lives differently from anyone else in the world. That's not surprising, considering the next nearby populated island is a 42 hours boat ride away. The spirit of the island is to divide all the goods equally amongst its 1500 inhabitants. Every day the fishermen of the island bring back the fish to the market, where the tuna is not sold, but equally divided. If your family consists of seven members, you will get enough food to feed all of them. This system is called 'Inati', and is what forms the basis of Dot TK's business plan. "We wished already back in 1999 to start an Internet Registry for our extension, where everybody in the world could register domain names" claims Tino Vitale, General Manager of Teletok in Tokelau. "Taloha came along and after an extensive discussion about our need to show the rest of the world that there is a peaceful and joyful place on this planet, where fair trade and humanity are very high standards, we came together to a workable business model. We are glad that now not only English speaking people can register domain names, but we also welcome people from Thailand greatly".

A part of this business model is TRADEMARK.TK, where Dot TK pre-registered 55,000 trademark names from all Fortune 500 companies. These large corporations can claim their Dot TK trademark domain names only by sponsoring projects on the island. The first project is to establish a high bandwidth (512 kbps) Internet connection to one of the atolls, improving the educational system and health care for the entire group of Tokelau.

The goal of Dot TK is to create a user base of individuals and small businesses interested in Tokelau, its customs, its culture, its beauty and the way business is done. Dot TK makes registrations more interesting with free tools such as the Dot TK Traffic-Check, where hits on your own Dot TK website can be measured without the need for a counter, or an email forwarding service for addresses within your Dot TK domain name.

Revenue is derived from registrants seeking more in the use of their domain name: registering the name in their own Domain Name Server. Starting at USD 6.95 (THB 285) per year, Dot TK gives these registrants the full license rights of the domain name, where this name can also be sold to another party, if the name becomes valuable.

How does it work?
It's simple. All registrants are invited to claim their Dot TK domain at the website http://www.dot.tk

More information
Fact sheets are available on request (E.g. Tokelau, fact sheet and Taloha, Inc., fact sheet)

Photo packages are also available in full colour on CD-ROM, with 20 large print photos of the island, its nature, people, environment and life. Please contact Joost Zuurbier at joost.zuurbier@dot.tk for more information.

Issued by Spark Communications, Thailand's leading public relation company.