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Report suggests bright future for Chinese domain market

by — Uncategorized 2 Comments

Kassey Lee examines data from a recent CNNIC report.

If you invest in the Chinese domain market, you need to know CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) because it publishes a national survey report twice a year on China’s internet landscape. The latest report — the 40th — was published in July. You can download it in Chinese here.

According to the report, China has 751 million internet users. This represents only 54% of the Chinese population so there is a lot of room for growth. Compare this number with the 323 million population of the entire USA and you can appreciate the sheer size and potential of the Chinese market. This number, coupled with the continued increase in internet-related products and services, means there will be an ever expanding internet economy, which in turn will create more companies and therefore more demand for domain names.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Only 54% of China’s population is online. This means 700 million more potential growth.” quote=”Only 54% of China’s population is online. This means 700 million more potential growth.”]

There are now 5 million websites, growing mostly at double digits over the last 6 years. This number is dwarfed by the estimated 77 million companies in China. This large gap may be due to companies not being online or running their business from ecommerce sites such as JD.com, etc. Eventually, these companies will want to move to their own address (domain name) to gain complete control of their business. Therefore, high demand for domain names can be expected to continue.

The report shows that 96% of the internet users go online via their mobile phone. This has significance for domain investors. Whatever you do for the Chinese market, think mobile. Make sure, for example, that the landing page of your domain name for sale is mobile ready. Also, 92% of the internet users use a messaging app as their communication tool, with Wechat and QQ being mentioned as the top ones. If you want to communicate with Chinese buyers, a Chinese messaging app may be your best choice rather than email which is popular in western countries. Click here to continue reading…

Verisign signs deal with China’s CNNIC for real name verification

by — Policy & Law 4 Comments

Group that operates .CN will assist Verisign with identity verification of .com and .net registrants.

Verisign has signed an agreement with China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) for real name verification.

Back in December, I wrote about how the Chinese government was going to begin enforcing real name verification on registrants of .com and .net domain names.

This requires domain name registrars in China to obtain Real Name Verification and Domain Name Verification for each newly-registered or transferred .com/.net domain name. They also have to obtain this for existing domain names within 45 days after they auto renew.

According to a release by CNNIC:

CNNIC will provide domain name verification service to “.com” and other domain names that are registered through Verisign’s domestic registrars. Once the service is on board, in the circumstance that users register .cn and .com at the same time, there is no need for them to provide repeated information, which is simplified the registration process.

CNNIC, which falls under the control of the Chinese government, provides its verification services at no cost.

How nice of them.
　

Company objects to Chinese IDNs over contractual and patent rights

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

Group that partnered with Chinese government for IDNs claims that new TLDs will infringe contractual and intellectual property rights.

A legal rights objection is supposed to be filed based on trademarks, but a Singapore company has filed two objections based on alleged contractual terms and patent rights.

i-DNS.net says it has filed objections against Chinese Network Information Center (“CNNIC”) and China Organizational Name Administration Center (“CONAC”) over two of their new TLD applications.

But i-DNS.net isn’t claiming trademark rights. Instead, it says the technology CNNIC and CONAC would use to run the internationalized domain names belongs to it:

CNNIC and CONAC have been using this technology to offer fully IDN .gonsi and .wuyii domain names in China for many years beyond the scope of permission provided by various agreements between the companies and without compensation to i-DNS.net as required by the agreements. As a result, allowing CNNIC and CONAC to operate the .gonsi and .wuyii gTLDs would result in the violation of idns.net’s contractual and Chinese patent rights as set forth in i-DNS.net’s objections.

The company and the Chinese government announced a partnership for alternate root IDNs back in 2005.

i-DNS.net claims WIPO is currently reviewing the objections since they aren’t based on trademarks. i-DNS.net is making a round-about explanation as to how a legal rights objection could be valid for non-trademark issues. If WIPO will not hear its case, then the company says it will pursue other means to enforce its rights.

i-DNS.net hasn’t posted any news to its web site since 2008. I tried calling its international headquarters number but it went to a Magic Jack voicemail account.

China reopens .cn to individuals, but registrars may be slow to follow

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

Individuals can now register .cn domains, but domain registrars may still be cautious about offering the domains.

After clamping down on .cn domain registrations a few years ago, China is beginning to open up its country code top level domain again.

Yesterday China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the registry for .cn domain names, announced that registration would again be available to individuals instead of just businesses.

CNNIC announced restrictions on .cn domain registrations in December 2009. This included only allowing businesses to register domains. It then abruptly announced that non-Chinese domain registrars would no longer be allowed to register .cn domain names. It later considered reversing course, but required registrars to collect personal information about each registrant including a color headshot photo identification, business identification (including a Chinese business registration number), and physical signed registration forms from the registrant.

Go Daddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, decided not to reinstate .cn registration capabilities in light of these requirements. It said its reasons were less financial than concerns about handing over this personal information.

Mostly as a result of a crackdown on .cn registrants, .cn registrations fell from a peak of 14 million to just over 3 million.

Now that CNNIC has reopened registrations for individuals, will Go Daddy start offering .cn registrations again? I reached out to Go Daddy earlier today for comment.

Rich Merdinger, Vice President of Product Development – Domains, released the following statement:

We are monitoring recent developments with CNNIC involving domain name registrations. We will also be listening to our customers about their demand for .CN domain names.

My guess is registrars remain cautious about offering .cn.

China Puts Domain Registrars in Tough Spot, Again

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

CNNIC reverses role of registry and registrar, and communicates poorly to boot.

[Update 7/1: Go Daddy is sending out an email to its .cn customers today, which also links to CNNIC’s notice.] Imagine if VeriSign sent an email to the all .com registrants asking them to click a link to verify they have the correct email address.* If you didn’t respond within 15 days, your domain name was subject to deletion.

Sounds crazy, but this is the latest threat from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the registry for .cn. Its latest move to clean up the .cn domain space is also putting domain name registrars in a unique position, and reversing the usual roles of the registry-registrar relationship.

In the typical gTLD world, registries prefer not to communicate with registrants and depend on registrars to manage all communications. But CNNIC is communicating directly with registrants and, to a large degree, leaving registrars out of the loop.

I talked to Camille Ede, Director of Domain Services at GoDaddy, this afternoon. She confirmed that the registrar received a communication from CNNIC about the new verification campaign on Monday, but some of the company’s customers had already received the confirmation email from CNNIC.

“We didn’t necessarily see it coming but we were prepared for it,” said Ede. “We’re evaluating if we should send further notices to our customers. Our customer service representatives are fully equipped to answer any questions from our customers [about the notices].”

Go Daddy is going to try to track its customers’ response rate to CNNIC’s verification emails. But keep in mind that registrants are confirming with the registry, not the registrar. So it might be difficult for registrars to know how many of their customers are compliant.

When Go Daddy asked its .cn customers to provide new proof of identity earlier this year, only 20% responded. This does not bode well for a high percentage of customers responding to CNNIC’s emails — if they even find their way to their inboxes.

Will CNNIC actually delete domain registrations if the registrant doesn’t verify, or is this just a threat?

“We have to consider the worst case scenario, so we’re definitely looking out for our customers on this one.” Ede said.

Bluff or not, CNNIC’s handling of the entire situation doesn’t instill confidence. And to think, China is about to get two more country code top level domains.

*Yes, I realize VeriSign operates under a thin-whois model, and doesn’t actually retain registrant information. But you get the point.