Speaking at a conference on protecting Viet Namese brands with .vn domains on Wednesday, Tran Minh Tan, deputy director of VNNIC said that local enterprises have registered around 200,000 domain names, including Vietnam's domain ".vn" as well as international domain names.

There are more than 500,000 enterprises currently operating in Viet Nam and every firm can register more than one domain name. It's estimated that the rate of firms that possess a domain name or have a website is only just over 20 per cent, he said.

Domain name .vn helps Vietnamese enterprises to protect their brands. Photo quantrimang.com.vn

The delegates believed that businesses that do not have a website and do not use email accounts with their domain names, make it harder for their brands to penetrate new markets. The main reason is that some firms do not realise the importance of domain names and brands as well as other related areas.

Several companies also do not register their domain names and subsequently lose them. Tan used the domain name nguoilaodong.vn from the Nguoi Lao Dong (Labourer) newspaper as an example. The newspaper lost its domain because they did not extend it in time.

He added that domain names such as ibm.com.vn, toyota.vn, camry.vn, agribank.vn and bitis.vn have also been claimed back by the enterprises that own them.

"During the integration period, using the domain .vn will help Vietnamese enterprises to generate more interest from the general public as well as potential customers," Tan concluded. — VNS