Five more new gTLDs, one in English, get the nod from China
Top Level Design’s .ink has become the sixth new gTLD in the Latin alphabet to be approved for sale in China.
It was one of four new gTLDs given regulatory approval to begin operating properly in the country late last week. The others were all in Chinese script.
From Finnish-founded TLD Registry, .ä¸æ–‡ç½‘ (“Chinese web site”) and .在线 (“Chinese online”) gained approval.
From local outfit Guangzhou Yuwei Information Technology Co, .集团 (“group”) and .æˆ‘çˆ±ä½ (“I love you”) were given the nod.
It’s the third batch of new gTLDs to get Chinese government approval since .vip, .club and .xyz in December. In January, .site and .shop joined their ranks.
Under China’s Draconian domain name regulations, only domains registered via local registries and registrars may be used.
Registries from outside the country have had to set up a local corporate presence and agree to China’s censorship policies in order to be compliant.
> Registries from outside the country
> have had to set up a local corporate
> presence and agree to China’s
> censorship policies in order to be
> compliant.
And nobody seems to complain about this situation.
Yes, it does not affect foreign customer yet. Yes, there’s money to make so registries are willing to accept any requirements from the chinese government.
And yes, this government will force every registrar/registries to comply with the rules… OUPS, this is not the case yet !
Seriously, are there some counter-power to such situation ?
You make a good point. I’ve long said (though possibly haven’t wrote on in depth yet) that China does not need to take over ICANN if it wants to start censoring outside of its borders. It merely needs to throw a billion or so dollars at its local domainers. Once market forces are on its side, it wouldn’t need ICANN.