Michael Reed and Alan Ezeir, the CEO and President respectively of Global Domains International, Inc

Oct. 25, 2009 - PRLog -- Before you can start up a business - any business - customers need to be able to find you. On the Internet, your address is your domain name; the part of an Internet address that comes after the www. With the unparalleled growth of the Internet, dot com domain names continue to sell like hotcakes. Currently, there are more than 20 million dot com domains, and over 34 million total domains registered worldwide. Industry experts forecast that more than 500 million domains will be registered in the next ten years. In fact, reliable sources from companies like Intel are predicting that every personal computer in the future will have its own domain name.

In 1998, the dot com craze was beginning to ramp up to unbelievable proportions. So many Internet companies sprouted up in Silicon Valley, and elsewhere, that companies not swept up in the hysteria were thought to be missing out. But, while most people were focused on things like Content, Banner Ads and Bandwidth, Michael Reed and Alan Ezeir, the CEO and President respectively of Global Domains International, Inc. (GDI), recognized another opportunity that was largely ignored; they wondered, "Besides dot com, are there other extensions that businesses could use as a domain name?"

Mike and Alan were aware that in the mid 1990's, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) assigned each nation a country code. These codes were designed to give each country an address to use for their own Internet needs. For instance, the United States was assigned .us, Australia .au, Ireland .ie. "We knew that a good, easy-to-remember country code could be marketable globally as a viable alternative to .com," said Alan. "And so," Mike added, "we ordered some pizza, locked ourselves in a room, and went through the entire list of countries to pinpoint the best possible code."

They ultimately focused on the domain extension .WS -- which belongs to the tiny island nation of Samoa, deep in the South Pacific. "We thought that the abbreviation .WS could be successfully marketed worldwide as the 'WebSite' top-level domain," said Mike. "There were a small handful of other viable options, but through resolve and perseverance, we found that some countries were already using their domain locally, and not interested in becoming an 'open' or 'global' registry. With a population of less than 200,000 people, Samoa had yet to utilize their domain on a massive scale. And, none of the other countries' domains compared to the potential branding power of .WS to signify 'WebSite'. After all," Mike happily exclaimed, "everyone in the free world knows what a web site is!"

Audio: 23 Minute Interview with the Founders

 
The island nation of Samoa is part of a group of islands and islets in the south-central Pacific Ocean about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) northeast of New Zealand. It is completely separate and independent of its U.S. cousin, American Samoa. Its form of government consists of a Prime Minister, Parliament and, as head-of-state, a King. The country's primary exports range from coconut cream and beer, to automotive wiring-harnesses and cigarettes.

All business professionals know that having an idea is one thing, but executing the idea is quite another. Mike and Alan knew that the idea of marketing an alternative to dot com had tremendous promise.

Yet, they both recognized that they'd need more perseverance and a little luck to pull it off. "Remember, we were paddling against the current," Mike said. "Back then, most people were still branding businesses with dot com. Quite frankly, nearly everyone thought we were wasting our time."

After a series of overseas phone calls and e-mails to Samoan officials, a date was set for Mike and Alan to meet with the leading figures of Samoa, including the King and his Prime Minister. In less than a week, Mike and Alan put together a presentation detailing their plans for their appropriation of the technical and marketing operations of Samoa's top-level domain extension, ".WS."

So as not to take any chances, Mike and Alan devoured reams of information about the nation of Samoa, familiarizing themselves with as many of its customs and traditions as possible. While Alan busily acquainted himself with appropriate etiquette when meeting with Samoan government officials, Mike worked on ensuring that the proposal they would present to the Samoans was as interesting and worthwhile as possible. "I had to make certain the Samoans understood that we looked at the opportunity as a joint relationship that would ultimately benefit their entire nation," said Mike.

One major risk gnawed at Alan and Mike: they really didn't have anything significant to immediately offer the country, except for their business ingenuity and know-how. Although Mike and Alan were successful marketing experts in the U.S., convincing an entire nation to trust them on what appeared to be a hunch would be difficult, at best.

"There was mounting pressure by some of our consultants to offer the Samoan government cash up-front. Otherwise, they felt we'd lose the deal and someone else could come in and take over," Alan said. "However, we knew the culture of Samoa was much different than here in the States, and that 'buying off' anyone is not the way we do business! As a result," Alan continued, "we came up with an alternative proposal we thought better accommodated the cultural demands of the country."

 
The day finally arrived to travel directly to Samoa . . . well, almost directly! To get to Samoa via the U.S., one has to first fly from the mainland to Honolulu. Easy enough. "We hopped on the flight to Honolulu, still pinching ourselves to make sure this was really happening," Mike said. "It all happened so fast; one moment we were selling long distance air time, the next minute our idea of 'air-time' was how long it would take to fly to Samoa."

The plane landed in Honolulu without any problems. They boarded their connecting flight to Samoa, finally beginning to relax. Three hours into the flight the pilot announced the plane had encountered some mechanical problems. The plane's landing lights were inoperable, and there were no repair facilities open in Samoa. As a result, the pilot turned the flight around and headed back to Hawaii. "We were completely dejected," Mike said. "All of our preparation came to a screeching halt . . . all because some light bulbs weren't working!" After the plane landed safely in Honolulu, the glum business partners entered a deserted Hawaiian terminal.

But, as had happened all along, luck was once more on their side. An Air New Zealand flight that travels to Samoa only once a week "just so happened" to be at the terminal, scheduled to leave in less than 45 minutes. "We were shocked and thrilled. I've never run so fast in my life!" Alan said. They both hopped onto the flight hoping this plane's landing lights worked!

After landing in Samoa with a whopping two hours to spare, "Mike was looking a bit ragged but I looked good," Alan laughed. "We went over our presentation one last time, trying to get into the mind-set as to how a true Samoan would give the presentation."

The meeting started with all the appropriate government members present. Mike and Alan pitched the Prime Minister on the fact that the domain extension they presently owned, .WS, would be perfectly suited to market worldwide. With the correct marketing idea behind it, there was no reason why the .WS extension could not be recognized as the major alternative to dot com.
For more on this Press Release http://freedom.ws/index.dhtml?sponsor=mike1624

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On the Internet, your address is your domain name; the part of an Internet address that comes after the www. With the unparalleled growth.Currently, there are more than 20 million dot com domains, and over 34 million total domains registered worldwide.