Chinese domain change in 2009: ICANN

[261275]

Source: CCTV.com
06-28-2008 16:23

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization that manages the world's most important web address extensions- in other words, what goes after the dot in a URL, has decided that the internationalised domain names those that do not use Latin characters including Chinese will be put into use next year. The decision will turn the current .cn into .China in Chinese.

ICANN says the limit to registration of the internet domain names will be lifted from the first quarter of next year, and then 1.3 billion internet users will be able to set up their own personalised domain names. The 25-year monopoly of .com will be broken by thousands of new names.

Liu Zhijiang, Deputy Director China Internet Network Information Center, said, "ICANN will put .China in Chinese into its root servers in the first half of next year."

Often a rush to register happens when new domain names appear due to their exclusiveness.

Liu Zhijiang said, "Investment on domain names is a market activity, so there are risks. And vicious pre-registration of the words with civil rights is not allowed."

Liu says China has carried out the Measures on the Administration of China Internet Domain Names, and the code protects the registration rights of the names of the government organizations and geography.

Meanwhile, to the other group of the general civil-right words, the registration adopts the first-come-first-get rule.

If the registration is suspect of infringment of business interests, the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Committee is responsible for the arbitration.

CCTV International

[Ryu]

Does it mean all .cn domain names suddenly become .中国? Or can registrants choose which one they use?

If it were JDN, I wouldn't want all my .jp names to become .日本. That sucks.

[GS]

I'd agree with you. Aliasing is a red herring imo.

What we need is full browser support. When that comes, SEs won't be shy unleasing IDN into the SERPs.

[rhys]

Originally Posted by GS

I'd agree with you. Aliasing is a red herring imo.

What we need is full browser support. When that comes, SEs won't be shy unleasing IDN into the SERPs.

Not sure that I follow this GS. Why is aliasing a red herring. And I would love .JP to become aliased to .日本 - don't see why this is unattractive.

[Rubber Duck]

Well, if it is aliased which it will be, it makes not a blind bit of difference.

I think these localised extension are most important due to the publicity it will bring to IDN.

I am not convinced that the local forms will be greatly used, but even if I am wrong, I don't think it matters.

The rate at which FF is being adopted and the rate at which our Japanese traffic is now increases makes me very optimistic things will take off in the short-term.

[GS]

Originally Posted by rhys

Not sure that I follow this GS. Why is aliasing a red herring. And I would love .JP to become aliased to .日本 - don't see why this is unattractive.

Instead of planning aliasing at the 1st level, it would've been nice for ICANN to have been publicizing IDN at the 2nd level and encouraging widespread adoption of unicode capable browsers. I used to think IE7 adoption was a foregone conclusion, but it's been 1.5 years already, and market share in countries I monitor has been abysmal. In comparison, IE5 (or 5.5) to IE6 migration increased at an absolute rate of 8-10% a month for the first half year, or thereabouts. My nightmare is that full browser support won't come until IE8.

.JP without aliasing is a huge winner already because the dot and extension can be typed without changing modes. And if I were an advertiser, I would rather advertise as IDN.JP rather than IDN.日本 because it's familiar for the eye to pick up .JP and identify it as a domain name, especially in print and in quick spots on the air.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see the option of having your domain advertised and accessed as either .jp or .日本, but until we see the full demographic being able to access IDN.JP, it's hard to say which will be more popular.

[Rubber Duck]

This is one of the reasons that extensionless domains are such a Red Herring. How the hell do you tell whether they are domains in the first place. If you have to put the www. in to flag them up, why are they such a big deal?

[touchring]

Originally Posted by Ryu

Does it mean all .cn domain names suddenly become .中国? Or can registrants choose which one they use?

If it were JDN, I wouldn't want all my .jp names to become .日本. That sucks.

.cn and .中国 are interop, but from what i've seen, most people just use .cn. .中国 needs more typing.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by Ryu

Does it mean all .cn domain names suddenly become .中国? Or can registrants choose which one they use?

If it were JDN, I wouldn't want all my .jp names to become .日本. That sucks.

Registrants get both. Forwarding can be used until Aliasing kicks in.

Anyone that thinks that CNNIC won't alias with or without ICANN's assistance is living in a time warp!

[JamesZ]

Originally Posted by touchring

.cn and .中国 are interop, but from what i've seen, most people just use .cn. .中国 needs more typing.

When companies advertise their websites, I think they will prefer using .中国 because the word 中国 is in everyone's heart. It carries more meanings than just an extension. The "." before it clearly indicates it is a website name.
In terms of "brand", 中国 is the strongest "brand" in China, since everyone knows it no matter they know internet or not.