Chinese Domain Names to be Applied

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN recently finalized the plan of accepting domain names in Chinese, Korean and several other languages that don't use Latin script.

ICANN is responsible for managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses. Zhang Jian is a Chinese official with the organization.

"We have 1.3 billion people here in China and 360 million of these are internet users. So 99% of the content they read on the internet is in Chinese. Once Chinese is introduced to the domain name registration, I believe the internet usage in China can be significantly increased."

China has seen a huge boom in the domain name registration business over the last few years. Experts believe the launch of Chinese domain names is going to give a new lift to its development. Qi Lin is assistant director at the China Internet Network Information Center.

"Usually multi-national companies have to translate their names into Chinese Pinyin when they enter China. That's because many Chinese internet users forget the English names and therefore fail to find their official websites. But once Chinese characters can be used, this will make things much easier."

Yet, despite the proposed benefits concerns have been raised that the new names may trigger more legal disputes and a deluge of registrations. A recent report issued by the World Copyright Summit says the number of domain name registration disputes reached a record high of 2,329 last year. As a result, China's internet managing body is gearing up to deal with the change. Qi Lin, again:

"Now if you register an English domain through us, we'll assign you a corresponding Chinese domain at the same time. If your proposed domain name touches upon the public interests, we will give it a strict check and assessment. As for domains concerning commericial rights, the respective organizations are responsible for taking active measures to protect themselves."

According to ICANN, of the world's current 1.6 billion internet users, more than half use languages that are not Latin-based. ICANN president Rod Beckstrom says this change is necessary not only for half the world's internet users today but more than half of the internet's users in the future.

For China Drive, I'm Zhao Kun.