HKIRC Announces Third Top Ten .hk Website Competition Results
Winning websites show creativity and “Web Care”
Significant Decline in .hk/.香港 Domain Name Phishing and Spamvertising Cases for 2011

Winning websites show creativity and “Web Care”
Significant Decline in .hk/.香港 Domain Name Phishing and Spamvertising Cases for 2011

HONG KONG, 18 January, 2012 – Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) today announced the results of the third Top Ten .hk Website Competition. Websites www.weather.gov.hk of Hong Kong Observatory and www.darizi.com.hk of Darizi Limited struck gold in the Corporate and SME Groups respectively. HKIRC also revealed the latest numbers for spamvertising and phishing cases using .hk/.香港domains, which have significantly decreased throughout 2011.

HKIRC received a record-high number of over 200 entries for this competition, which is more than a 30% increase from last year. The Competition has attracted contestants from a wide range of industries, including Chinese medicine information providers, weddings, lifestyle information, public services, tourism, energy, charities and more. To help bridge the digital divide in our society, a newly-added judging criterion this year is the “Web Care” element, which has been very well exhibited by many of the entries, ensuring that people with special needs can easily access the websites.

“HKIRC has organised the Top Ten .hk Website Competition three years in a row. We are very pleased to see that this year’s entries have come from different and more diversified industries. The websites are of high quality, creating some keen competition among the entrants. The improvement in the overall standard of the websites, the increase in the number of entries and the encouraging response from the public in voting altogether show that outstanding websites can make use of the Internet to strengthen their business advantages. We are also delighted to see an increase in netizens’ awareness of the competition over the previous year, indicating that they are more willing than ever to share, interact and participate,” said Mr. Jonathan Shea, CEO of HKIRC.

Mr. Daniel Lai , Government Chief Information Officer, attended as guest of honour at the event. Mr. Lai said, “I am glad to see HKIRC includes web accessibility element in this year’s Competition which drives the community to bridge the digital divide and encourage the corporations and organisations to leverage on the Internet and its diversified platforms to cater for the needs of different people in the society, contributing to the barrier free websites.”

The judging panel was comprised of Dr. Billy Mak, Associate Professor from the Department of Finance & Decision Sciences of Hong Kong Baptist University, Mr. Simon Yeung, Publisher of SMB World, Dr. John Fung, Business Director of Sector and Capacity Development of The Hong Kong Council of Social Service, Mr. Sunny Ho, Manager of Information Technology Operations of Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, and Mr. Jonathan Shea, CEO of HKIRC.

The Gold Prize winners of the Corporate and SME Groups each received HK$20,000 with a trophy and a certificate, plus logo exposure on promotional materials. The Silver, Bronze and Merit Prize winners were awarded HK$10,000, HK$5,000 and HK$1,000 respectively.

The Top Ten .hk Website Competition Winners
Corporate Group
Top 3:

Merit Prizes:

SME Group
Top 3:

Merit Prizes:

Public voting for favourite .hk/.香港 websites also enjoyed record participation by more than 4,000 voters. The lucky draw result was announced in Sing Tao Daily and The Standard on 21 December 2011. The results can also be found on the official website:http://www.top10award.hk/winnersList.html.

Continued nurturing of a safe Internet environment
At today’s event, HKIRC also released the latest figures for .hk/.香港 spamvertising and phishing cases in 2011. According to the .hk Domain Name Spamvertising & Phishing Report for 2011, a total of 25 .hk/.香港 phishing and spamvertising cases were recorded. The significant decrease in phishing and spamvertising cases reflected the effectiveness of the stringent measures implemented by HKIRC to identify and handle applications suspected to be made for fraudulent purposes, which in turns enables .hk/.香港 to maintain a high level of security and Internet integrity.

Members of the public are welcome to report any .hk/.香港 spamvertising and phishing websites to HKIRC via email <abuse@hkirc.hk>or hotline 2319 1313.

About the Top 10 .hk Website Competition
HKIRC invited both SMEs and not-for-profit organisations with less than 100 employees, and large corporations and not-for-profit organisations with 100 employees or more to take part in the Competition. Judges ranked the .hk/.香港entrants based on criteria such as industry innovation, look-and-feel and ease of navigation, “Web Care” element, interactivity, domain innovation and relevance, and contribution to society.
For more information, please visit http://www.top10award.hk.

Major Sponsors of the Competition

Diamond Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Bronze Sponsor

Online Media sponsor

Media Partner

Mobile App Sponsor

 

About HKIRC
Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) is a non-profit-distributing, non-statutory company limited by guarantee designated by the Government of the HKSAR to undertake the administration of Internet domain names under the .hk and .香港 country code top level domain. HKIRC provides registration services for English domain names ending with .com.hk, .org.hk, .net.hk, .edu.hk, .gov.hk, .idv.hk, .hk and Chinese domain names ending with .公司.香港, .組織.香港, .網絡.香港, .教育.香港, .政府.香港, .個人.香港, .香港, and other domains to be introduced from time to time in Hong Kong.

Media Contacts:

HKIRC
Dorothy Chow
Tel : + 852 2319 3883
Fax : + 852 2319 2626
Email : marketing@hkirc.hk

iPR Ogilvy
Joyce Wong / Sofia Yip / Vivien Wong
Tel : + 852 3920 7671 / 3920 7673 / 3920 7675
Fax : + 852 3170 6606
Email : joyce.wong@iprogilvy.com / sofia.yip@iprogilvy.com / vivien.wong@iprogilvy.com