Summary: As India officially moves towards multilingual web domains, new challenges emerge for businesses and other stakeholders. How must we prepare for this multilingual revolution?
The future is multilingual. The future is inclusive. But is your brand prepared for it?
India is embarking on a historic digital shift as government websites begin adopting Hindi URLs and potentially, even email addresses. This critical step aims to make the internet more accessible for millions who are more comfortable with Hindi than English. This may also be the starting point for other languages being similarly used. However, with new opportunities come new challenges. Could this push for Hindi web addresses also open the floodgates for domain squatting?
Internet Language
When the internet was first created, it was designed to recognize only the basic Roman characters used in the English language (A-Z), and Arabic numerals (0-9). Non-English scripts such as Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Chinese, and Arabic, were not supported. Over time, however, technology evolved, and through initiatives like Universal Acceptance (UA), a global effort to promote internet accessibility across all languages, web addresses and email addresses were eventually made capable of supporting non-English characters.
Despite this technological readiness, adoption was slow. Actual usage of non-English web addresses has remained limited. But now, with the Indian government’s push to adopt Hindi URLs, we may see a major shift.
A Historic Shift: Government Websites in Hindi
The Indian government has slowly begun experimenting with Universal Acceptance, and has begun using Hindi URLs. Notable amongst these, which recent news reports have pointed to, is गृहमंत्रालय.सरकार.भारत (for the Ministry of Home Affairs). This website was previously available only through English domains like mha.gov.in.
Concerns of language politics remain, but theoretically, at least, with multilingual domain addresses, a larger segment of India’s population will likely have easier access to government services. If scaled up thoughtfully, with due attention to India’s linguistic diversity, this change could significantly increase internet usage among non-English speakers, especially in rural areas, small towns, and among older generations. It is a step toward making the internet truly inclusive, where every Indian feels that the digital world is for them too.
Domain Squatting on a Multilingual Internet
While multilingual domain names promise greater accessibility, they also extend old, familiar risks to these new corners of the Internet, such as domain squatting. Domain squatting is when opportunists purchase domain names, especially those that seem official or important, with the intention of reselling them at inflated prices or misusing them to deceive users.
In the immediate future, for example, as Hindi domain names become more available, there may be a rush to grab valuable Hindi terms like सरकार (government), बैंक (bank), पुलिस (police), and अस्पताल (hospital), opening the door for squatters.
This is a particularly serious risk in India because the average user may be inclined to trust such domains at face value, believing them to be authentic. Scammers could create fake websites with official-sounding Hindi names to steal personal information. Although Indian laws and ICANN (the global internet authority) offer protections for famous brands and government names, extending and enforcing these protections in Hindi and other languages can be exponentially complex. Variations in spelling, the use of hyphens, different scripts, and general user unfamiliarity create gaps that scammers can easily exploit.
Real-Life Impact: What’s at Stake?
Government bodies and businesses must act quickly to protect their Hindi domain names. If they do not do so, they risk losing important web addresses to squatters and could face expensive legal battles or high costs to recover stolen domains. This isn’t just a “tech problem”, for it also impacts brand reputation, legal protections, and user safety.
The Trademark Angle
Businesses also need to reassess their trademark strategies. Protecting a brand only in one language (English) may no longer be enough. Having trademark protection in Hindi (and other Indian languages) ensures that the brand has legal rights over associated domain names as well. It also helps strengthen the brand identity across India’s diverse linguistic landscape.
Here, it begs noting that under Indian trademark law, trademarks may be registered in any language, including foreign languages. The requirement under Indian trademark law (Rule 28, Indian Trademark Rules, 2017) is that a “precise translation and transliteration of each word” be provided in either Hindi or English. The challenge that inevitably follows is that translated words may pass through the trademark search filter, and lead to the eventual grant of such marks.
How to Prepare for the New Era
To stay ahead, businesses must register multilingual domain names early to secure important addresses. Businesses may also consider redirecting users visiting domains in other languages to the English-language website to establish trust. It is also important to extend trademark protection to multilingual versions of the brand names to strengthen the legal position. Equally, trademark authorities and registries will have to be doubly careful when granting protection, and ensure that brands are not unlawfully encroached upon.
Conclusion
The rise of multilingual domain names will make the internet more inclusive, and the move towards Hindi domain names in India is only the beginning. However, it will also make it harder for users to distinguish real websites from fake ones. Governments and businesses will need to secure multiple versions of their domain names not just one. This will certainly increase costs in the short term. But, at the same time, it will significantly reduce the risks of scams and legal challenges in the future. Businesses targeting multilingual audiences will need to assess how to construct their brand portfolio in this new avatar of the Internet.
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