“China Internet Domain Name Regulations” brought about profound changes to the .CN domain name registration in China. Procedures for domain name registration have been greatly simplified. In addition to simple procedure and flexible mechanism on charges, The .CN domain name registration boasts of many advantages.

Concept: .CN domain name is the international top level domain under the administration of China .

In light of the current international Internet domain name system, there are two categories of TLDs, generic Top-Level Domain name (gTLD) and country code Top-Level Domain name (ccTLD). gTLDs end with “com”, “net”, “org”, “biz”, “info” and are unanimously under administration of foreign companies. Geographic TLDs end with country or regional codes, for instance “CN” stands for China, “UK” stands for the Great Britain. Geographic TLDs are generally administered by countries or regions they are subordinate to.

Advantages of .CN domain name: “Express the user’s value, and protect the user’s interest”.

From the perspective of the registrants, the registration of .CN domain name has the following advantages:

1. It endows enterprises with a distinctive symbol that reflects its value and orientation.
.CN domain name is a Chinese concept on Internet. Our international exchanges and communication have become more and more frequent since we joined WTO. To have a .CN domain name, Chinese enterprises can gain more international competitiveness while foreign companies can adapt to the environment of China easier. When a Chinese company owns a .CN domain name, it can attract more global users who are interested in Chinese culture and Chinese enterprises. When a foreign company is seeking Chinese partners, it is used to search .CN websites. With a .CN domain name, an international company is telling Chinese users that its service is oriented to the Chinese market and has realized the localization.

2. Chinese laws will be applicable and the interests of users can be protected comprehensively.
According to global practices, in the event of a dispute concerning domain name, local laws of the place where the registry is located shall be applicable. Warranted by Ministry of Information Industry, CNNIC is the registry of .CN domain name. Any dispute about .CN domain name will be solved by the competent institutions according to Chinese laws so as to shun the risk of international lawsuit confronted by registered foreign domain names. If one company registers a foreign domain name that is under the administration of a foreign organization, such company may face disputes concerning domain name or even lawsuits from all over the world. In recent years, many of China’s websites have received indictments from foreign courts. Due to ignorance of foreign laws and regulations, unwillingness to pay substantial litigation fees, and language barriers, some websites are forced to forsake their domain names that had operated for years and suffer undesirable losses including loss of users.

3. Service is in Chinese unanimously, and the users’ right to be informed is ensured.
For .CN domain names, policies and measures of the registry, registration agreements between registrants and registrars, and notices to registrants issued by registrars are all in Chinese with no exception so that the users are clearly informed of their rights and obligations. Although the registration of foreign domain names can be accomplished by engaging domestic agencies, all documents closely related to the registrants’ interests are written in English, including registration agreements, policies and regulations, renewal notice, dispute resolutions and etc. These documents are verbose, for instance, the foreign domain name registration agreement can be ten pages long. Many registrants accept the contents without even reading it, resulting in potential troubles for the future. For example, operators of some websites fail to pay renewal fees promptly because they can not understand the reminders sent from abroad or do not receive such reminders, which, unfortunately leads to the cancelation of their domain names.

4. .CN domain name has abundant resources and the applicants can obtain domain names to their satisfaction.
.CN is shorter than foreign domain names and boasts of abundant domain name resource. Take .COM which is a foreign domain name as an example, short domain name resources are almost depleted, and it is a challenge to find an identification matching one’s own image. By the end of 2008, there had been 13.57 million registered .CN domain names, with much room for further development and utilization. Registrants can choose the best domain name to their satisfaction.

5. Simple and convenient registration procedure
Registrants only need to go online and fill in the application form to apply for .CN domain names. In the transition period, domain name is enabled for operation within 5 workdays. Official written materials shall be submitted for application for registration of a government domain name with GOV.CN.

6. .CN domain name is more secure
In most cases, .CN domain names are resolved by domestic domain name servers, therefore, accessing websites with .CN domain names is faster and more stable. In the event of any fault occurring to the international communication channel of China’s Internet, for example Sino-American seabed cable breakdown in 2001, impact attributed to such fault can be avoided or mitigated. However, CNNIC has installed auxiliary servers in 5 regions, thus enhancing the stability of .CN domain name to a remarkable extent.

7. It is of key importance from the aspect of national security.
In the event of special incidents in the future, foreign domain name companies will no longer provide domain name resolution service for Chinese users and foreign domain names registered by our companies and individuals can not be accessed without resolution. However by resorting to certain measures, .CN domain names can still operate despite obstacles within the territory of China.