Global fight rages for top domain names   

新頂級域名引發全球爭奪 40%中文頂級域名被申請

在8日的“中國新通用頂級域名高峰論壇”上，中國域名系統工程研究中心主任毛偉說，2011年6月，ICANN(互聯網名稱與數學地址分配機構)批準并啟動新通用頂級域名擴展計劃，在首輪申請中競爭非常激烈。

Beijing (CNS) – Foreign companies have applied for nearly half of the top Chinese domain names since an expansion program was approved and launched in June 2011 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), according to Mao Wei, director of the China Research Center for Domain Name Systems Engineering.

Wu Guowei, board director of ICANN, says that 1,930 new domain names have been applied for by 1,154 agencies globally. Google alone has applied for 98 new top domain names relevant to its brands and businesses, followed by 76 applications by Amazon.

Chinese companies have only applied for 94 new top level domain names, taking up a very small share of total applications. Among those names, 40 percent have also been applied for by foreign companies: Amazon has applied for ".家電 (household applications)" and ".食品(food)," among others. In addition, multinationals such as Nokia, L'oreal and Volkswagen have also applied for Chinese brand domain names.

The old system recognizes top-level domain names suffixed with .com and .gov, and those suffixed with a country or region's abbreviation like .cn (China) and .de (Germany). New domain names won't have to use Roman letters, however, making way for Chinese or other characters.

New universal top level domain names fall into categories such as brand, profession, trade, news, and science and technology. For example, .google falls into the category of brand. If that application is approved, website addresses ending with .google will be used in its business and services, which would be of great significance to the protection of the brand.

Qian Hualin, former board director of ICANN, said that the old domain system had already been sealed in the 1980s, and that large quantities of premium resources were snapped up before China became involved in global internet competition. As a result, Chinese internet companies have to pay high prices for domain names. The new policy is expected to bring fresh opportunities for Chinese internet companies.