Many natural or legal persons have lately begun to register domain names on the Internet, hoping to post substantial gains during the following two-three years, by reselling them. Market sources state that there has been a recent attempt at registering the domain www.isarescu.ro
Gains derived from this type of business will come only several years later, when the Romanian market will be mature enough to understand how important it is to be present within the virtual network, say those who had the inspiration to be the first to register several promising domain names.
“I think that, several years from now, the Romanian market will be mature enough for the registered sites to be sold,” stated Ghidireac Bogdan, the one who registered domain names such as www.rapid.ro or www.steaua.ro.
“I have not registered these domains to the end of selling them later on, but to build up sites that should attract as many supporters as possible and therefore, advertising. But we are open to discussions with club representatives if they wish to present any offers,” he added.
The names of some resounding companies or persons are registered also due to the fact that they can attract more customers on the pages of the respective sites. In the case of many of these registrations, the key words have several meanings in Romanian or are abbreviations of various expressions pointing to the name of a product or service.
Sites built up with domain names such as www.ing.ro or www.cec.ro also attract to their pages customers searching on the Internet the address of ING-Barings bank or of the Romanian Savings Bank (CEC). At the same time, names such as cosmorom.com or hagi.ro are some of the sites that are not held by those who should normally manage them.
According to market sources, the domain name www.renault.ro was not initially registered by the representatives of the manufacturing company, having been acquired later, following such transactions. On the other hand, the person who registered the site www.ing.ro discussed with ING officials a possible sale of the site but the bank turned down the offer.
“We have never considered starting negotiations for acquiring this name for our web site. Moreover, ING already has its own web site and does not intend to change it,” ING Romania representatives say.
When Camenco Petrovici was still in office, CEC complained to the Prosecutor’s Office that the company owning the site www.cec.ro was using the name of this institution without its representatives’ approval. CEC officials did not specify if they submitted a buying offer for this site.
“At present, almost 70% of the virtual addresses representing company names, addresses that might be sold in the future, have already been registered,” said Florin Gruita, webmaster at Provision Software, the company that owns the site www.hagi.ro.
An offer already exists, but buyers would rather hide behind another name than buy. This situation is likely to change in the years to come, when the Internet is regarded as a business necessity, IT market analysts say.
It takes maximum five days to register a web address under the form www.name.ro, depending on how fast the clients pay the invoice that is worth 61 dollars.
The easiest way is to access the site www.rnc.ro, which includes an online form that has to be filled in and the invoice is to be sent to the applicant (natural or legal person) in the following days. In case of a domain name that raises questions concerning the right of ownership over a certain name, RNC (Romanian National Computer Network) potential clients have to prove that they are not planning to resell the address.
“A person that wants to register a domain under the form www.isarescu.ro has to prove either that his name is Isarescu or that the company he represents is called SC Isarescu SA,” RNC officials state. “In this case, when names of public persons or well-known companies are involved, we have to ask their representatives whether they agree the domain name to be registered by somebody else,” they added.