.CN Domain Names Are Unlocking the .中国 ccTLD
When the story broke that the new Chinese ccTLDs
.中国 and .中國 (each meaning .China) — were approved by ICANN and were managed by the Chinese registry CNNIC, the first question that came to mind was how are these new ccTLDs going to be used?
The smart money was betting that .cn would be aliased to .中国, but I was unable to get anyone from CNNIC to get on the record until today. CNNIC has now confirmed that .中国 would not be used as a separately registered competing ccTLD, but rather it would strengthen the .cn ccTLD which would be coupled with .中国. The statement from the CNNIC service desk was: “Right now, when customers register[] chinese domain name[s] with [the] .cn suffix, a chinese domain name with [the] .中国 suffix will be given to the customer for free. ”
Ultimately, this may strengthen the value of .cn, which has been in decline. I would caution to be wary of registering .cn domains as ever-changing ownership restrictions lead owners to risk losing their investments. Recently, business licenses and photo IDs were needed in order to register or renew. In some cases, domain owners who didn’t respond to an email within 15 days to verify their .cn names had their domains deleted.
In sum, while China’s progress on .中国 is promising … caveat emptor.
.cn terms of service say no porn, gambling, anti government slander, etc. As long as you are running a legitimate site or more importantly one not breaking their Tos then you will have no problems. Risk is small, upside huge.
I think you actually get 3 domains with each .cn. idn.cn – idn.idn(simplified) – idn.idn(traditional).
idn.cn, + idn.中国 and idn.中國
all my .cn are fine and have been renewing fine without any extra id. I think they are just trying to clean up the crap. Selling domains for .15 was the start of the problem I think.
Great site!!!
This is not exactly News.
Great post and thanks for taking the time to contact CNNIC to get an answer on this. I think it is a good approach they have taken and helps to keep the value of .cn investments.
That being said I completely agree that China is a VERY risky domain market to invest in – I think markets like Russia have much more potential in the near-term.
morgan how about some more IDN coverage on your blog
@idninvest – agreed .cn’s offer a lot of value and some owners had no issues with renewals, the risk is that the ToS keep shifting and might eventually lead to the deletion of your names.
@morgan – thanks
Also as reported on IDNForums, the new IDN ccTLDs are now live: http://北京大学.中国/
Aaron do you have any idn .cn?
How about some info about your own portfolio
I have very few IDN.cn domains right now, each was purchased for a relatively modest amount so that I have some diversity with .cn but I won’t be hurt too badly if I lose them.
@Aaron – I think if you avoid porn, anti-government, etc. you should be ok. I have picked up the idn.com whenever available to backup the idn.cn, just in case.
Cheers.
post your .com portfolio