Indonesian Web Domain Considered Less Favorable For E-Commerce Business Owners

The use of certain domain names evidently has an effect to a number of Indonesian businesses across different fields. Lately Indonesia's .id domain has been discussed among circles in negative light as business owners feel that companies with .id domain names are less favorable than those with .com domains.

A number of e-commerce players have been expressing their dissatisfaction over the fact that not only is the domain less commercial, the registration process is more difficult than for .com addresses. This gives business owners reason to favor .com for their companies.

IdEA, the organization which represents e-commerce businesses, through its president Daniel Tumiwa, stated, "we as business owners are still waiting for the regulation to come from the government but we would like to have it expedited", during the IdEA conference on Tuesday.

According to IdEA the use of .com is far more attractive to develop and expand businesses regionally and globally compared to using the .id domain. Additionally, e-commerce business owners still require the confirmation of the roll out of the government regulation (PP) number 82 of 2012 regarding the organizing of electronic systems and transactions, before they can make certain business decisions.

IdEA hopes that as a collective that serves to connect e-commerce businesses owners with the government it can provide the list of well intentioned companies and business owners. This is necessary considering the growth potential of domestic trade which according to Tumiwa will grow four to six times in a year.

What IdEA demands hasn't seemed to have received a meaningful response from the Ministry of Communications and Informatics (Kemkominfo) as the government body which oversees the implementation of PP82/2012. The issue lies with the fact that the Ministry has yet to deliver the technical parameters upon which the government regulation will be conducted, including perhaps the incentives that IdEA expects.

According to the ministry's director general applications and informatics Ashwin Sasongko, "at the moment the proposed ministerial regulation is still at the discussion stage between Kemkominfo and related organizations such as IdEA".