Thread: Indian brands and their domain names

Listed below are the top 5 Indian brands to look out for in 2010. How many of these companies either owns or uses Indian domains? See below:

Amul - Owns both Amul.in and Amul.co.in (.in redirects to Amul.com, while .co.in doesn't resolve)

Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) - Uses Bel.co.in. Doesn't own Bel.in.

Mahindra Group - Owns Mahindra.in and Mahindra.co.in but neither website resolves. Uses Mahindra.com.

Bharti Airtel - Uses Airtel.in. (.co.in redirects to .in)

Dabur - Owns both Dabur.in and Dabur.co.in but neither resolves. Uses Dabur.com.

I always wonder what the reason is behind owning ccTLD domains that don't resolve. If you don't setup a website on a local domain, making it redirect to the main one (not necessarily the .com) should be obvious IMHO.

Originally Posted by the_poet

I always wonder what the reason is behind owning ccTLD domains that don't resolve. If you don't setup a website on a local domain, making it redirect to the main one (not necessarily the .com) should be obvious IMHO.

I agree with you, the_poet. At the very least, the related ccTLD domain should be redirected (rather than it not resolving). Perhaps some companies are more concerned about preventing others from registering the domains than about the benefits of owning such related ccTLD domain.

What usually happens when a company changes its name and the domain is already registered?

Originally Posted by dnk

What usually happens when a company changes its name and the domain is already registered?

Here are a few alternatives that I can think of:

- if possible, the company can try buying the already registered domain;

- it can use a domain that promotes a brand or tagline rather than the company name - eg snapcracklepop.com and gotmilk.com

- it can use an acronym that stands for the company name instead of using full company name - eg "LG Electronics" uses LGE.com (or vice versa but then company will likely lose traffic to LGE.com if it doesn't own it)

- it can can use a domain that promotes the company's products/services rather than the company name - eg gadgets.in and hosting.co.in

Can anyone else think of some other alternatives?