Back after a hiatus, question about .cn

[MsSpider]

Hi everyone...I'm back after a long hiatus from the domain game...I forgot I even owned domains I'd ignored them for so long...then I got up yesterday and had an offer on one at Sedo! Which got me excited about the biz all over again!

What does everyone think of .cn (China) extension? Worth buying? It is more expensive than my normal .coms but I heard/read that the .cn market is increasing in popularity. Any thoughts?

Also, I am a US citizen, can I buy international extensions?

Thanks!

Angela

 

[edwinfelix]

If I remembered correctly .cn needs to be regged by a Chinese Company, I don't know whether proxy regging is allowed. Otherwise it's a great extension IMO.

One of the shortcomings of .cn is that if you want to develop it, you gotta:
1. Know Chinese.
2. Have a Chinese ICP license.

.in domains don't have those problems.

 

[floatingworld]

If I remembered correctly .cn needs to be regged by a Chinese Company, I don't know whether proxy regging is allowed. Otherwise it's a great extension IMO.

One of the shortcomings of .cn is that if you want to develop it, you gotta:
1. Know Chinese.
2. Have a Chinese ICP license.

.in domains don't have those problems.

not sure about that. you would only need to know Chinese for an IDN name and I don't think you need a license.
You can reg a .cn name here: http://www.cnnames.net/

 

[edwinfelix]

One of the shortcomings of .cn is that if you want to develop it, you gotta:
1. Know Chinese.
2. Have a Chinese ICP license.

Correction from my previous post:
Local presence rule was lifted since CNNIC's partnership with neulevel. So anyone can register a .cn domain.

 

[thefabfive]

I think .cn will only grow in usage in the future. With the huge number of potential Chinese users .cn will be huge. However, there will be a clear difference between IDN.cn and ASCII.cn. I believe native Chinese will most likely use IDN.cn since this is the most natural. But I don't think ASCII.cn will be worthless. There are alot of Chinese companies doing business around the world. An ASCII.cn domain would be a good way for potential customers to get to a Chinese company website in English (or another language).

In short, big future for .cn whether it be in ASCII or IDN.

 

[floatingworld]

One of the shortcomings of .cn is that if you want to develop it, you gotta:
1. Know Chinese.
2. Have a Chinese ICP license.

Correction from my previous post:
Local presence rule was lifted since CNNIC's partnership with neulevel. So anyone can register a .cn domain.

again not so.
you can host the name anywhere and build the website in English

 

[edwinfelix]

Unless the rules changed, unlicensed .cn websites will be shut down. You may host it outside of China, but they can still shut down the domain name.

http://www.miibeian.gov.cn/ - It's in Chinese though, if you don't understand Chinese, maybe it's time to learn.

 

[Grrilla]

I have one .cn domain registered- reference.cn.

My plan was to develop it into a Chinese reference site, (several mos. before the 1988 Olympics), specifically, for an English speaking audience. Based upon my research and the feedback I have received from others, this is doable, although, SEO and attracting English speaking visitors to a .cn website could take a bit more work than it would w/ a gtld or a more populsr cctld, ie .de, .tv, .us. I don't know if the .cn will help support the Chinese themed content or not. Time will tell.

Also, I am a US citizen, can I buy international extensions?

Yes and no- you will have to go to the nic, (network information center), for the individual cctld (country code top level domain), to find out what restrictions, if any, may apply. Some countries allow open registrations of their cctld- some, even, proactively market them to a worldwide audience. (ie .tv .ws .cc). Others are semi-restrictive, and allow non-nationals to register them if they meet certain requirements, (usually doing business in, having an office in and/or bein incorporated in the their country. ( ie .ca,), some countries totally restrict the registration of their ext to national's. I'm not totally up on this- but, if the nic's haven't changed, I believe that Australia is totally restrictive. I know that Sweden was, but think they have loosened up a bit, as has Belgium, which used to be highly restrictive- maybe, some of our members who specialize in cctld's can fill in and add to this.

A good place to go to check availabilities of cctld's and where you can learn more about restrictions:
http://www.domaindiscount24.com/

Unless the rules changed, unlicensed .cn websites will be shut down. You may host it outside of China, but they can still shut down the domain name.

Thanks for the info, Edwin. I can see that that I need to do some more research- at present am a little confused as I'm getting conflicting info. One area of confusion might be over what they *can* do and what they *will* do- not dissimilar from the gap beween what the .us nic says and what is, actually, being executed, in practice, by NeuStar. Of course, the prudent man will cover the bases by following the regs, particularly, if there is a projected payoff that would justify the expense.

Have to find out how much ICP licensing costs.
It also appears that I will need to find a better Chinese->English page translator.

 

[cache]

what do you mean by 1988 Olympics?

I have one .cn domain registered- reference.cn.

My plan was to develop it into a Chinese reference site, (several mos. before the 1988 Olympics), specifically, for an English speaking audience. Based upon my research and the feedback I have received from others, this is doable, although, SEO and attracting English speaking visitors to a .cn website could take a bit more work than it would w/ a gtld or a more populsr cctld, ie .de, .tv, .us. I don't know if the .cn will help support the Chinese themed content or not. Time will tell.

Yes and no- you will have to go to the nic, (network information center), for the individual cctld (country code top level domain), to find out what restrictions, if any, may apply. Some countries allow open registrations of their cctld- some, even, proactively market them to a worldwide audience. (ie .tv .ws .cc). Others are semi-restrictive, and allow non-nationals to register them if they meet certain requirements, (usually doing business in, having an office in and/or bein incorporated in the their country. ( ie .ca,), some countries totally restrict the registration of their ext to national's. I'm not totally up on this- but, if the nic's haven't changed, I believe that Australia is totally restrictive. I know that Sweden was, but think they have loosened up a bit, as has Belgium, which used to be highly restrictive- maybe, some of our members who specialize in cctld's can fill in and add to this.

A good place to go to check availabilities of cctld's and where you can learn more about restrictions:
http://www.domaindiscount24.com/

Thanks for the info, Edwin. I can see that that I need to do some more research- at present am a little confused as I'm getting conflicting info. One area of confusion might be over what they *can* do and what they *will* do- not dissimilar from the gap beween what the .us nic says and what is, actually, being executed, in practice, by NeuStar. Of course, the prudent man will cover the bases by following the regs, particularly, if there is a projected payoff that would justify the expense.

Have to find out how much ICP licensing costs.
It also appears that I will need to find a better Chinese->English page translator.

 

[Grrilla]

what do you mean by 1988 Olympics?

Hmm... Did I misplace close to 20 years somewhere? Must be the result of enjoying myselff too much over the past couple of decades- that, along w/ a constant exposure to domain names and w/ a wee bit of future shock sprinkled in, for flavor. :hehe: Make that, "2008". (1988 was a humdinger, though!)
PS You cached me.

 

[Broker]

From what I read here, it sounds like .cn is open to anyone no?

http://www.dnjournal.com/columns/china.htm

 

[edwinfelix]

Since there are tons of sites, if you site is not Chinese and you are not a scam artist / radical activist, I don't think they care that much.

For sites that don't sell things I think ICP license doesn't cost anything, but you gotta have a local contact.(i.e. if your site turns out to be fraudulent or promote radical activism, that contact is ultimately responsible)

I could be wrong though, it's best to check with a person in China who actually know these things.

 

[floatingworld]

From what I read here, it sounds like .cn is open to anyone no?

http://www.dnjournal.com/columns/china.htm

you can ask further faq questions from cnnames http://www.cnnames.net/ but the answer is yes '.cn is open to anyone'. The only caveat is re transfer of the name. If the name is regged with a China-based registrar then you cannot transfer the name to an external registrar. Chinese law is opaque.