Flash Forward
In November 2000, less than nine months after launching .WS to the global Internet community, GDI announced it had sold over 100,000 .WS registrations to customers such as Yahoo!, Intel, Cisco, Dell Computers, and other companies and individuals in more than 180 countries.
And the Samoans?
"They originally wanted to wait to see just how well we performed," Mike said. "They proposed that, as a test, our Company had to produce 15,000 registrations in just three years. We did that in the first month," Alan proudly stated. "The Nation of Samoa now receives a percentage of all .WS domain sales that GDI generates, and is delighted with our success. Our company is proud of our exclusive agreement to distribute .WS worldwide."
As proud and exciting as the beginning of .WS was for Mike and Alan, the future is what excites them most. Just before .WS recorded its first registration, Mike and Alan knew the time had arrived to begin building their business to reflect its quickly changing personality – from a forty-person shop to that of a multi-national corporate conglomerate. To accomplish this, Mike and Alan focused on surrounding themselves with intelligent people who were filled with enthusiasm, and had the capacity to help launch their business on an international scale. In addition, the .WS founders beefed up their marketing outreach with ad placements in Fortune Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Additional ads appeared in Major League Baseball's 2000 World Series program, and thousands of radio spots aired in large urban markets. Mike and Alan also invested heavily in the company's infrastructure, ensuring that the anticipated volume of registrations would be handled with relative ease and no downtime.
And now, what do Mike and Alan have to say about their "idea," a little more than a year after their harried plane-trip across the Pacific? Mike said, "It's all about taking a risk and believing in a concept enough to drop everything and make it a reality." Alan concurs. "We are extremely excited about what the next few years have in store for everyone who joins us as we make .WS the global standard for Internet addresses."