Johannesburg — The ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) today voiced it's concern over too many South Africans registering .COM domains as opposed to .CO.ZA domains.

Speaking to Business Day Online, ZADNA GM Vika Mpesani, says the registering of URL names on .com is doing the local domain and Internet industry a disservice.

'When you have a .COM, that money you pay is going directly to the American companies", he said.

Mpesani further states that ZADNA are not panicking about the current situation, but that it may become serious in the future.

'There is a reality that it is necessary to register as many domain as possible for a brand, but .CO.ZA is still very popular in the country", he said.

At the moment there are approximately 542 000 .CO.ZA domain registrations as opposed to approximately 95 000 .COM domain registrations amongst South African users.

Nevertheless, Mpesani believes that to grow the local market .CO.ZA needs to be used more often.