Friday, October 24, 2008
A Welsh on-line presence
I have been sent a paper arguing that the Welsh Assembly Government needs to take urgent action if they are to secure .cym as a top level domain for Wales.
The paper points out the most recent figures, which show that UK on-line shoppers spent £42 billion in 2007, the Welsh share was £1.5 billion. The majority of this is spent with organisations outside of Wales. They say that the economic outflow from Wales is worrying, with many Welsh shoppers using out of Wales internet sites and far fewer buyers from outside Wales purchasing from Welsh firms.
A YouGov survey found that 62% of Internet users believe that a country code TLD shows a local company and .com/.org/.net shows one that is likely to be international. Internet users are six times more likely to choose their country code than a .com/.org/.net address when looking at search engine results. An internet TLD for Wales will funnel Welsh buyers towards Welsh service and product providers. It is not unrealistic to estimate that Welsh internal ecommerce by 2015 could reach a £1Bn per annum if the Welsh internet infrastructure is in place.
Tourism is one important element of the Welsh economy. Under the current Internet arrangements, when visitors find on the Internet that their chosen hotel or B&B is fully booked, they are unlikely to discover that the premises next door has vacancies. Welsh tourist web sites are scattered across many top level domains. If Welsh hotel and B&B web sites are clustered on a Welsh TLD, search engines will gather similar establishments to the same results page. Clustering increases positive hits and with it Welsh business.
I have supported this campaign from the outset. I believe that it is important that Welsh firms and Welsh civic society, including the National Assembly for Wales, are able to register a Welsh presence on the internet.
We are rapidly approaching the time when key decisions need to be taken if we are to secure the .cym domain, otherwise we will have to wait six more years before we get another opportunity. The Welsh Assembly Government need to be more pro-active in this regard and demonstrate that they are on top of this application. A subject for questions after the half-term recess I believe.
The paper points out the most recent figures, which show that UK on-line shoppers spent £42 billion in 2007, the Welsh share was £1.5 billion. The majority of this is spent with organisations outside of Wales. They say that the economic outflow from Wales is worrying, with many Welsh shoppers using out of Wales internet sites and far fewer buyers from outside Wales purchasing from Welsh firms.
A YouGov survey found that 62% of Internet users believe that a country code TLD shows a local company and .com/.org/.net shows one that is likely to be international. Internet users are six times more likely to choose their country code than a .com/.org/.net address when looking at search engine results. An internet TLD for Wales will funnel Welsh buyers towards Welsh service and product providers. It is not unrealistic to estimate that Welsh internal ecommerce by 2015 could reach a £1Bn per annum if the Welsh internet infrastructure is in place.
Tourism is one important element of the Welsh economy. Under the current Internet arrangements, when visitors find on the Internet that their chosen hotel or B&B is fully booked, they are unlikely to discover that the premises next door has vacancies. Welsh tourist web sites are scattered across many top level domains. If Welsh hotel and B&B web sites are clustered on a Welsh TLD, search engines will gather similar establishments to the same results page. Clustering increases positive hits and with it Welsh business.
I have supported this campaign from the outset. I believe that it is important that Welsh firms and Welsh civic society, including the National Assembly for Wales, are able to register a Welsh presence on the internet.
We are rapidly approaching the time when key decisions need to be taken if we are to secure the .cym domain, otherwise we will have to wait six more years before we get another opportunity. The Welsh Assembly Government need to be more pro-active in this regard and demonstrate that they are on top of this application. A subject for questions after the half-term recess I believe.
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Peter
I'd be interested to see the paper? Any chance of an upload or a link? Whom published it?
Lots of issues cutting both ways here - in some ways like a smaller version of the dilemma between .com and .co.uk over the last few years for UK companies seeking international business (or vice versa).
A couple of comments on the quote:
>* Internet users are six times more likely to choose their country code than a .com/.org/.net address when looking at search engine results.
Yes, but the search engine results presented are selected according to an algorithm.
What % of customers are likely to choose .cym for their searches? In practice I think it is determined as much by the browser default settings as by the location. Will PC and browser producers be setting the default that way for customers in Wales?
>An internet TLD for Wales will funnel Welsh buyers towards Welsh service and product providers.
Maybe. On the other hand it may well also depress .cym websites in other TLDs such as .uk. Maybe English users will simply not see .cym websites in the results so high any more.
Will it be an overall positive, and by how much? Or will all Welsh business simply maintain several websites. What % of customers come from outside Wales? And what is the benefit compared to that overhead?
>Tourism is one important element of the Welsh economy. Under the current Internet arrangements, when visitors find on the Internet that their chosen hotel or B&B is fully booked, they are unlikely to discover that the premises next door has vacancies. Welsh tourist web sites are scattered across many top level domains. If Welsh hotel and B&B web sites are clustered on a Welsh TLD, search engines will gather similar establishments to the same results page. Clustering increases positive hits and with it Welsh business.
As highlighted above, search engines have hundreds of factors involved in the results they present - and the algorithms can change.
I'll be interested to see some more detail.
(One reason I have been pushing for Poliblogs to be on .uk rather than .com domains since I started).
I'd be interested to see the paper? Any chance of an upload or a link? Whom published it?
Lots of issues cutting both ways here - in some ways like a smaller version of the dilemma between .com and .co.uk over the last few years for UK companies seeking international business (or vice versa).
A couple of comments on the quote:
>* Internet users are six times more likely to choose their country code than a .com/.org/.net address when looking at search engine results.
Yes, but the search engine results presented are selected according to an algorithm.
What % of customers are likely to choose .cym for their searches? In practice I think it is determined as much by the browser default settings as by the location. Will PC and browser producers be setting the default that way for customers in Wales?
>An internet TLD for Wales will funnel Welsh buyers towards Welsh service and product providers.
Maybe. On the other hand it may well also depress .cym websites in other TLDs such as .uk. Maybe English users will simply not see .cym websites in the results so high any more.
Will it be an overall positive, and by how much? Or will all Welsh business simply maintain several websites. What % of customers come from outside Wales? And what is the benefit compared to that overhead?
>Tourism is one important element of the Welsh economy. Under the current Internet arrangements, when visitors find on the Internet that their chosen hotel or B&B is fully booked, they are unlikely to discover that the premises next door has vacancies. Welsh tourist web sites are scattered across many top level domains. If Welsh hotel and B&B web sites are clustered on a Welsh TLD, search engines will gather similar establishments to the same results page. Clustering increases positive hits and with it Welsh business.
As highlighted above, search engines have hundreds of factors involved in the results they present - and the algorithms can change.
I'll be interested to see some more detail.
(One reason I have been pushing for Poliblogs to be on .uk rather than .com domains since I started).
# posted by 
: 8:32 AM
: 8:32 AM
Peter
Is there ever a sense of urgency with WAG? it's a hive of inactivity. When are we going to see fuel poverty figures by ward?
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Is there ever a sense of urgency with WAG? it's a hive of inactivity. When are we going to see fuel poverty figures by ward?
# posted by : 11:37 AM
: 11:37 AM<< Home
