Smooth Communications and Interactions, Provided Complete Support
Stakeholders all agreed that from their communication and interaction with the Center, not only was support provided, full support was also given for problems and needs that they had. Interactive discussion processes were also retained before new policies were released and they listened to the opinions of registrars fully.
Our current interactions were quite good; they fully help with any problems that we have whether or not it was technical. We can continue working with them right now.
High Service Usage Rate, Passionate Participation in Events
In terms of service usage, stakeholders had high usage rate of educational training and publications provided by the Center and they praised the service contents. Not only did they have high attendance in events, they also thought highly of the trend descriptions and communication experiences provided in the events. They also recommended that Taiwan domain name user research reports should be continuously provided in the future to help registrars promote their businesses.
The publications and community services based on their Center are all pretty great; they continuously provide new knowledge and information because they have information from different companies. They can perform analysis on domain users.
Working on marketing and educating to activate business and increase market share
All stakeholders mentioned changes in market demand for domain names; due to the flourishing of social media, SMEs now have lower demands for websites and this also reduced their need to apply for domain names. Therefore, TWNIC needs to do more to make market demands more active, including using preferential marketing to increase registration rate such as discount activity promotions for newly established companies, etc. However, stakeholders also unanimously mentioned that low-price promotions should not be the only consideration; the business mode of registrars should also be considered. For example, registrars can be introduced to companies with newly registered domain names to provide follow-up maintenance or management services or use cross-industry integration to increase business opportunities, etc. Some registrars mentioned service to obtain information security certifications; in the past, the application of domain name and the certification had to be applied from two units, but they both needed similar documents to be submitted. In the future if TWNIC and provide one-stop service, it can reduce the operating procedures for registrants and there are opportunities to increase the business income of the Center.
Assume that my client wants to apply for a domain name and it can be bound with the access certification, this way I wouldn’t have to apply with two different units and this will become an extended service where my product business can be bound with domain names.
In addition, the stakeholders also mentioned that besides using preferences to increase registration rates. They also expect TWNIC could work on educating the market on the need for domain names and trying to learn more about the users’ needs and considerations, solving the problem of the continuously decreasing demand for domain names.
First, push the concept of Taiwan domain names to corporate users, decision-makers and business owners in Taiwan; perform more promotions and education. Marketing should be more open and don’t tell us what you think we can do.
Complete Service Adjustment and Planning, Smooth Conversion Connects with International Trends
TWNIC made some modifications to the policies and systems (hereinafter referred to as new system) to the ".tw/.台灣" domain name at the beginning of 2020; the survey asked stakeholders about how they felt about the pushing of the new system and how they were affected by the changes in interface technology. Generally speaking, the stakeholders thought that the pushing process of the new system was quite smooth, the releasing of information was complete and unobstructed discussions were provided to allow registrars to have sufficient time to prepare for the integration, and successfully integrated the new system technologies.
System conversion did not start this year; every detail was previously discussed and thoughtful discussions were previously held until we finally decided on the direction and policy. We then began and asked the technical department for support and the entire process was quite OK.
Their responses on the impact of the system interface technology changing from API to EPP for the new system were also quite positive. Stakeholders think that the new system is the global standard and the modification this time can help Taiwan connect to international standards; it also helps eliminate the loopholes generated from the coexistence of the two interfaces API and EPP in the past.
Out of the past 20 years, Taiwan used API for 15 years and this was not the international standard. When the new CEO Kenny came to TWNIC, he said that we had to keep up with international standards and that made us slightly relieved. Otherwise in the last 15 years there were two interfaces for our technology, and there were many technical bugs because of the coexistence of two interfaces.
Expect More Active Development, Solicit Opinions and Make Corrections
Suggestions that domain name registrars have for TWNIC include two directions; one is that their marketing strategies must be clear and they must actively target the overseas markets and the second is that they should solicit different opinions and make corrections and establish smooth report channels.
First of all, their marketing strategies must be clear. They cannot allow local registrars in Taiwan be affected in this environment. Their overseas strategies must be clear and they need to resolve the problem of double standards; they will not do well in overseas markets if they don’t solve this problem. Screen reader support enabled.
Finally, they also expressed their support for surveying stakeholders. They think this is a great channel to share experience and communicate with customers or partners and they wish that strategies can be corrected properly based on the feedbacks, including providing smooth communication channels and also providing complaint and feedback channels.
I think suggestions to NIC is quite precious, they put in a lot of effort working on this. We give them feedback on follow-up processes and we hope that they don’t just use it to finish reports; I wish that NIC can also actually give us feedback on how they plan to make corrections.