Chinese domain names

How to register?

[edit_g]

What's the process of registering a .cn domain name. Not the buying (that seems to be no problem...) but which characters to use? Can only normal (i.e. ASCII characters) be used or do you need to use Chinese characters? Both?

[bill]

International or local language domain names are not yet viable. Thus registering a .cn is just like registering any other domain. Generally the same rules apply as they would for a .com domain.

[redstorm]

To your question, please visit www.cnnic.cn. Just like the mention above, It has no much differnce with the registration of com domain.

[Woz]

Native language domains have been touted for some time by the Chinese Authorities, but have never emerged. There are several threads in this forum following the developement.

However, today a XinHua report [news.xinhuanet.com] suggests a new push to "promote the use of domain names in Chinese characters in order to make the website names easier to remember."

"The China Internet Network Information Center has set up a registry service system and has chosen fifteen cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, to promote the use of Chinese domain names, China Radio International reported on Monday."

I cannot find any information in English on the CNNIC site to support this though. We shall see.

Onya
Woz

[shatan]

In chinese ,English domains is registered by most people,and few Chinese characters domains which is liked by few company

[redstorm]

It does not matter whether you use Chinese character or English character under the domain of cn. Till now, most dot cn name is in English, Chinese character as a domain name is used in a limited scope and people are familiar with English Character domain names. For example, the web site of China Internet Network Information Center is www.ccnic.cn
Redstorm 13:26 November 3,2004 Beijing time

[edit_g]

Thanks guys, good stuff. So am I right in saying that Chinese character domain names are available, but not widely used and that the most common way of registering a domain name is just to use the english characters?

[Woz]

Correct. Consider also that as far as we know from reports, the Native Language Chinese Domains require a browser plugin to work and so limits their visibility to those with the plugin installed. Were this plugin to become standard then the playing field would change, but as it is now, you would have an audience in the minority.

Onya
Woz

[redstorm]

I agree with Woz

[Woz]

Hehe, Xie Xie redstorm, and a belated Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

Onya
Woz

[bill]

Keep in mind that most search engines will not be able to index local language domain names. There may be SEs in China that can work with this naming scheme, but I don't think the big international players like Google, MSN and Yahoo can.