Domain Name Service

Domain Name Registrar

Close and streamlined online communications with minor COVID-19 impact

Even if the working model has changed during COVID-19, stakeholders have acknowledged TWNIC's excellent response and service deployment. Communications and interactions are not affected by COVID-19 and the services are in operation as usual. Apart from that, stakeholders also wish to have more online events instead of physical ones.

COVID-19 has no impact on how we work with TWNIC since everyone's working from home. We can say TWNIC has been well-prepared way ahead of time because they've long been accustomed to working from home and communicating remotely. Whenever an emergency came up, the handling process and speed of response were not affected.

The system's operational process can be optimized, and the status inquiry platform is to be built

There's not much of a problem with the basic features of system alignment, but I hope the operational process can be optimized, such as perfecting the current user interface. We are also concerned about the continuous impact of aging systems. Service efficiency and the status inquiry process can be enhanced, so we suggest building a status inquiry platform to reduce manual efforts. We also hope there's an official announcement specifying the number of working days of each process, so we can show our clients.

With respect to the operation, everyone's thinking about how to optimize the system/operational process. There's no problem with the alignment right now, but there might be more to work on and it would require more allocated resources.

I think the issue lies in the registrar's user interface, which needs to be more comprehensive. Now the UI is made available for general users or guests. One cannot address the issue immediately if s/he is not a tech person.

Push forward domain name education with stronger marketing strategies and create brand value

Stakeholders wish TWNIC to continue the market education of domain names, so as to increase the importance and quality of ".tw/.台灣" Moreover, promotion and marketing should be done more effectively. Stakeholders mentioned that although the current image ad gives a comprehensive brand presentation, the click through rate is relatively low. Therefore, it's important to focus on marketing strategies on top of proactive training.

Domain names are the early-stage product, which is rather simple. In terms of its demand and supply, TWNIC should be able to play the role as a promoter and decide whether to expand its market or raise issues for discussion, and how it should reach potential clients.

No matter how .tw is presented, it will be intuitively perceived as a regional domain name and therefore a lot of clients ask whether .tw is of effective use or not. That's why we suggest TWNIC to have a holistic description on .tw.

Continue to hold events to maintain interactions among entities in the industry, and to improve the result of online tech training

Stakeholders have highly recognized the knowledge-sharing event/seminar series because they can learn about the latest news and exchange information with others in the industry. They also look forward to info-sharing events about international trends and experiences.

I participate in APNIC events regularly. ICANN itself requires actual exchange of information like this. I think it is quite useful because it allows enterprises/industries to learn more about how domain name works.

As to shifting from physical to virtual events during COVID-19, stakeholders believe the limitation of successful tech training results is to be overcome and it's necessary to rethink and design future tech training courses. Moreover, the nature of online events works well with making arrangements for fragmented time. With the event agenda/content split into a one-hour or two-hour session, participants are allowed to join freely as they wish. This model is also likely to attract more participants who are only interested in one single session or a particular topic.

We need to think how to leverage tech and organize effective events. And the best solution is to use virtual conference room and have Q&A sessions online.

When we split the online meetings into 1 or 2 hours per day, clients are less stressed with shortened sessions. This is becoming the trend and we are organizing our future events as a series of short sessions.

Review social media strategies, determine target audience and segmentation

Since TWNIC hasn't attracted enough attention on social media, domain name registrars suggest revisiting its social media strategies and determine the right target audience and segmentation, so that information can be presented and delivered in a proper and yet interesting way to increase exposure.

Honestly I don't check their Facebook page. I am not that interested so I don't follow them closely. What you have said is about how the outside world look at them. Unless the comments are for registrars, which is me, then I will check them.

Have an adaptive business model and follow the trends, flexibly adjust the domain name policy

Additionally, one of the stakeholders expects flexibility in the policy for available domain names. For now, company and organization domain name registrants are only allowed to pick either .com.tw or .tw. In case one's preferred wording has been chosen, it would be useful to have more domain name options such as .net.tw and .org.tw.

International stakeholders mentioned the best duration for a marketing promotion is 3 to 9 months. Considering the time the marketing team needs to invest in the campaign and material preparation, if the duration is too short, there won't be much time left for the actual campaign after the preparation is done.

TWNIC has set out rules for choosing .net.tw and .org.tw, but business owners wish such limitation can be removed because it's of little significance.

If registry comes to us and tells us, we are going to get a promotion for two weeks, it doesn't matter because I first need to go to our marketing team, so that they need to prepare everything then we need to make announcement, until we are done the promotion is gone. So, we are interested on only in long term promotion so if we see that promotion is only a month or something, we would in most of the cases will not take part, because we take the time to put it into your schedule.

Domain Name Registrant

Summary of Implementation

A total of 82.6% of registrants in this survey were "company and organization domain name registrants", 23.8% were "individual domain name registrants", and 3.1% were "registered but not used", indicating that the use by companies and organizations remain the majority.

In addition, for respondents within the "company and organization domain name registrants" category, follow-up inquiries revealed that 33.7% of the respondents were "directors, general managers, CEOs and other management-level executives", while "technical, IT" and "general management" made up more than 20% each, indicating that the survey was completed by management or technical personnel, which can effectively reflect the opinions related to the use of the service.

Source: Online Survey (2021)

The highest satisfaction rate was "participation in TWNIC seminars" (93.1%). Although the usage rate was not high, most participants were satisfied with the seminars. This is followed by the satisfaction rate of "value-added services" at 80.0%, although the usage rate is not high as well. The satisfaction rate of "browsing the TWNIC’s website and blog" was 79.4%, with the highest percentage of 60% saying they were satisfied with this service. The satisfaction rate for "telephone, e-mail, and online customer service" was 78.8%. The satisfaction rate of "reading TWNIC’s Annual Report, e-newsletter " was 78.0%. The "Domain Name Registration System" was the most used service, with a satisfaction rate of 77.2%, with 50% of the respondents satisfied with the service. The second most used service, "DNS resolution service/Whois", received a satisfaction rate of 76.5%.

Source: Online Survey (2021)

Evaluation of the Overall Satisfaction and Value Perceptions

In terms of domain name registrants' overall satisfaction with TWNIC, more than half of the registrants rated "quality of service" and "technical support" positively, including 71.4% who were satisfied with the "quality of services" provided by TWNIC and 66.2% who were satisfied with the "technical support" provided.

In addition to overall satisfaction, the evaluation indexes of trustworthiness and service value were also added. "I trust TWNIC" was confirmed by 78.0% of respondents, and 75.8% agreed that "the services provided by TWNIC are valuable to my business".

Service Quality

Technical Support

Trust to TWNIC

Value of TWNIC Service

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Source: Online Survey (2021)

Influence from Activities

Most of the respondents do not think that TWNIC's various domain name-related activities impact companies/organizations. The highest percentage of positive impact is "free registration of new company domain name" (61.1%), followed by "free registration of . tw/.台灣 domain name offers internationalized domain name IDN registration service" with 56.5% indicating a positive impact. Individual domain name registrants believed the activities had a higher positive impact, while "at.tw Domain Name Experimental Program Service" and "Domain Name Reserved Text Auction" had a positive impact of about 30%, respectively.

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Source: Online Survey (2021)

Participation in Events and Expectations and Preferences

In terms of future expectations for the event, "providing online video playback" (57.5%) topped the list, followed by "downloadable forum or course content presentations" (54.7%). 40% of registrants expect "more Chinese language lecturers or instant translation services", with a higher percentage of company and organization domain name registrants requesting the services than individual domain registrants.

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Source: Online Survey (2021)

Information Service

The level of registrants' attention to the Internet issues released by TWNIC was relatively low, with 47.2% responding they were "occasionally concerned" and 25.8% "rarely concerned". As for the issues they were looking forward to in the future, 76.5% want to know more about "information security/network security" related issues, and 50% want to know about "network development trends" and "innovative technology issues" (such as 5G, Internet of Things, AI, etc.). This indicates that domain name registrants are more interested in information and new trends in information security this year.

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Source: Online Survey (2021)

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Source: Online Survey (2021)

The highest percentage of respondents obtained domain name related information through "search engines" with 57.8%. The next highest percentage was "official website" with 40%. "News websites", "social networking sites", "e-newspapers" and "forums" have 20% each. The respondents were asked about the preferred source of information of TWNIC: "official website" with nearly 50%, "e-newsletter" with 34.3%, and "Facebook fan group" with 10%.

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Source: Online Survey (2021)

Impact of COVID-19

In the past three months, only 2.8% of respondents' companies/organizations have been affected in their use of domain name related services. The impacts mostly involve network issues resulting from DDoS, URL transfer, and DNS hosting. Some respondents also reported a decrease in traffic and customer demand.

About 40% of domain name registrants indicated that they had not used the service or interacted with TWNIC in the past three months, and 50% of them thought that the service provided by TWNIC had not changed in the past three months, indicating that TWNIC services were in place during the Epidemic Alert Level 3.

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Source: Online Survey (2021)

Expectations and Recommendations

More than half of the registrants believe that the priority of improvements for .tw/.台灣 ccTLD is "market awareness" (53.2%), followed by "integration services" (25.6%).

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Source: Online Survey (2021)

Market Awareness

More than 40% of respondents who chose to prioritize improving market awareness indicated "increase exposure/not enough awareness/marketing", and .tw/.台灣ccTLD is less well known and needs more exposure, marketing, and advertising to make more people aware of the advantages of .tw/.台灣. In addition, 16.3% of the respondents believed that the .tw top-level domain name should be "internationally recognized", and that .tw is not well-known enough on the international stage, and that the international community should know that .tw represents Taiwan, with many recommending that it should be open for application by foreign companies.

Integration Services

For respondents who indicated “integration services” were a priority for adjustment, 20% of them said that "more comprehensive service/integration services" is the first priority. They responded that the domain name related data and information are fragmented. They hoped TWNIC could help integrate the related data or provide the service together with the relevant partners to provide more comprehensive support. As for respondents who chose "one-stop website/easy interface/more intuitive operation", 13.0% of the respondents suggested that it can be completed in one-stop so that more time can be saved for setting without looking for other resources.

Registration Policies

The highest percentage of respondents who chose “domain name registration policy needs to be adjusted” hoped for "registration process optimization". They indicated that the convenience and transparency of registration are very important. The process should be more convenient and clear for the service to be more efficient. Next, 13.3% of the respondents who chose "domain name squatting/domain name dispute" indicated that to avoid the appearance of similar domain names and confuse the general consumer's awareness, they hoped for more protective measures for fair use. There is also mention of the controversy of whether nationals or companies can only apply for .tw to avoid illegal use; and that companies should be given priority in registering domain names so that others do not rush to register first, resulting in the need to acquire the domain name at a high price.

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