TH-Nic, the sole registrar of .th domain names in Thailand, estimates there are currently about 250,000 .com websites in Thailand, 10 times more than the number of .th websites. However, managing director Parkpoom Tripatana hopes the gap will soon become narrower.

"We expect there will be 200,000 .th websites within the next five years," he said.

TH-Nic, a non-profit corporation, has become more aggressive in marketing and promoting .th domain names. The company recently appointed five resellers and is waiving an eight-year fee for news-media companies as a means of creating public awareness of .th domain names.

To promote the .th domain name further, another registrar of the names is to be appointed to compete with TH-Nic, and TH-Nic is also planning to appoint more resellers after a trial period with the first appointees finishes in December.

Parkpoom said there were many benefits to using .th domain names.

"Why not use .com, which is known more widely?" he asked. "First of all: credibility. I confirm this, 100 per cent, that even though there are some complications, because we require documentation, your clients will have greater confidence, because they can be sure the companies really exist."

TH-Nic maintains a policy of preventing buy-sell speculation with its domain names, helping

to prevent Internet "thieves" from stealing or hacking into a registered domain name, which Parkpoom claims is a widespread problem affecting many .com websites.

Importantly, unlike .com, which has 64 million registered names, it is a lot easier to find good names at .th.

At present, there are seven different .th domain names: .co.th, .in.th, .go.th, .or.th, .mi.th, .ac.th and .net.th. Sixty-seven per cent of all names opt for .co.th.

Parkpoom said country domain names were an indicator of a country's state of development.

"In South Korea, Japan and Norway, for instance, it's normal for people registering companies to register their .kr, .jp or .no websites immediately," he said.

Tarad Dot Com, a leading e-commerce website, has been chosen by TH-Nic as one of its first .th resellers. Its managing director, Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, said www.tarad.com has registered hundreds of .com websites each month for clients.

"I must use my credit card to pay the foreign .com domain-name sellers, and it is very difficult claiming VAT [value-added tax]. So I have decided to sell .th domain names," he said.

However, Pawoot said the .th registration process was too complicated and that the parties involved should discuss making it easier while maintaining the documentation necessary to ensure the credibility of .th domain names.

Thailand was among the first 30 countries in the world to have their own domain names, in 1988. However, 19 years later there are only 25,000 .th domain names registered.

Parkpoom said the growth of .th was about 22 per cent a year. On average, about 400-500 new websites are registered each month.

"I estimate there are 261,541 .com websites in Thailand at present, and there are 50,765 websites with other domain names. The number of Internet users in the country is 9 million this year, and the number of companies registered with the Commerce Ministry totals 520,000. There is a lot of room for .th domain names to grow," he said.

It costs Bt800 a year to register a .th domain name, about double the cost of a .com domain name. Parkpoom said TH-Nic had no plans to reduce the fee.

Pichaya Changsorn

The Nation