Qatar opens up the .QA Domain Namespace – But there is a catch!

The country of Qatar opened up the .QA ccTLD to the public yesterday.

The unrestricted availability of the .QA domain will be a huge benefit for Qatar businesses, as well as for one of the most active online populations in the Middle East: despite its population of 1.4 million, there are 930,000 Internet users!

The Qatar Domain Registry operates a beautifully designed web site. You can visit the English version here.

.QA domain names are attractive in the new “Web 2.0” sense as they can stand for “Question/Answer” for a variety of subjects.

You can register .QA domains through a number of domain registrars, at prices that range from $39 /year and up. We recommend Florida-based Marcaria.com at the lowest price.

Before you go all out registering a bunch of .QA domains in order to resell them, keep in mind that the Qatar Domain Registry does not permit that.

Specifically, the .QA transfer policy states:

” The intent of this policy is that Domain Names subject to Eligibility Requirements should not be Registered to be sold to another party for commercial gain. “

There are instances when a transfer is allowed, e.g. when the holding business is sold alongside its assets, in bankruptcy or other court orders including trademark disputes.

The .QA ccTLD is therefore attractive to developers and content providers that want to capitalize on the expected popularity of a domain extension and the availability of many generic keywords.

 

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