Over the past few months, we have been asked to source a variety of foreign domain names on behalf of various clients who are using their websites to boost international trade. On the face of it, this would seem quite a straight forward transactional undertaking, but increased legislation in certain countries demands that such purchases are thoroughly researched.
Despite the apparent cheap availability of foreign domains on numerous reseller sites, this does not tell the whole story. For example, both France and Germany insist that any companies licensing either the .de or .fr suffixes have a registered presence in each respective country. If a company does not have physical offices in either country, then an extensive documentation process has to be completed to establish the validity of the purchase. Impress have reseller relationships with various international domain registries which enables us to legally handle this purchases both afford-ably and efficiently.
Middle-eastern territories and Asia throw up similar problems and clients should not be seduced by the plethora of scam emails offering cheap domains in these areas. Many clients have been alarmed to receive official-looking letters suggesting that third parties are interested in buying domains that include their company names; the scam works on the basis that said clients are offered the opportunity to buy these domains first, thus blocking the potential (but non-existent) sale.
The reality is, if you are a company with a genuine need for international domain names, then go through a proven agency to make these registrations on your behalf. As the internet matures and even relatively small clients begin to adopt a global sales outlook, foreign domains are becoming an increasing element of our online management portfolio which also includes hosting, email services and search engine optimisation.
