Chinese top-level domain name opened for the first time in recent days

Abstract: According to foreign media reports, the Chinese top-level domain name in the first open application in recent days, ICANN president and CEO pointed out that the Chinese top-level domain name will be put into operation in the second half of 2013. Over the years, China's Internet news portals, social media and games

According to foreign media reports, the Chinese top-level domain name opened for the first time in recent days, ICANN's president and CEO pointed out that the Chinese top-level domain name will be put into operation in the second half of 2013.

Over the years, China's Internet news portals, social media and gaming sites have flourished, and by the end of this year the Chinese Internet will probably become the Internet in all Chinese, and a real Chinese internet world is about to be born.

This Wednesday, the Internet name and digital address assignment agency (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, agency for managing domain names and IP address assignments, ICANN), President and CEO Fati Chehad (Fady Chehadé said in an interview that the Chinese top-level domain name will be put into operation in the second half of 2013.

The top-level domain name (top-level domain) is the highest level in the Internet DNS hierarchy and is the last part of the domain name, the last post of the domain name, such as ". com", ". Net" and ". edu". Previously, ICANN approved only a small number of top-level domain names ending in Roman letters, but the agency is currently preparing to introduce a range of new top-level domain names, including English, Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Russian and Japanese.

Although the main part of a web address can contain Chinese characters, web sites in China tend to persist in using Roman character URLs. Mr. Chehad says many companies and organizations have been waiting for the Chinese top-level domain to open up applications before they will be able to deliver the full text address.

"In China, the number of new URLs will be staggering once we allow the top-level domain names to apply for Chinese characters," he said. ”

However, in addition to the convenience of language use, there are other disputes over open applications for top-level domain names. For years, ICANN and the United States have resisted calls from China, Russia and other countries to loosen control over Internet addresses. At the behest of the U.S. Department of Commerce, ICANN was established in 1998 and is headquartered in Los Angeles to take over the domain Name system that manages the Internet. Prior to this, the Internet's domain Name System was controlled by the U.S. government. ICANN's opponents argue that each country should have the right to manage its own Internet domain names within its territory.

Last December, the controversy over the control of the domain Name System reached a white-hot level in the International Telecommunications World Congress (Conference on Analysys Telecommunications). China, Russia and Saudi Arabia have jointly submitted an Internet reform proposal to the International Telecommunication Union (Analysys Telecommunication Union, the ITU) to seek greater autonomy. In response, the US and other allies refused to sign a draft that would give the ITU greater regulatory authority to ensure ICANN's status as a domain arbiter is not shaken.

It has been commented that granting more power to international organizations such as the ITU could lead to cross-border data transmission as a paid service and more Internet censorship.

The addition of top-level domain names in other languages is one of ICANN's moves to placate global opponents. ICANN will slowly dilute America's influence and become a global organization. This week, ICANN also announced the establishment of a collaborating centre in Beijing (Indicators Center) to collaborate with the Chinese government on various internet issues, such as the protection of URL trademarks.

"Perhaps the cooperation between ICANN and China was experimental, but I think we are now in a very high level of cooperation," Mr. Chehad said. What we have done and what we have not been well known to the world. ”

The application form on the ICANN website shows that Chinese characters such as "mobile" and "Company" are the first choice for many Chinese top-level domain names. These organizations and companies will have to pay 185,000 of dollars in application fees to gain the chance to control a top-level domain in Chinese.

Tencent and Sina also applied for the ". Weibo" and ". Weibo" two top-level domain names. (ICANN encourages those who compete for the same suffix to negotiate and share.) )

Although Chinese top-level domain names are open to applications, many High-tech companies in China are vying for new and open English top-level domain names. For example, Alibaba for its Taobao and Alipay application for ". Taobao" and ". Alipay", Qihoo 360 has applied ". Shouji", ". Anquan" and ". Yun" (respectively, mobile phone, security and cloud).

Although Chinese domain names may be popular among advertisers, they want their URLs to be more easily recognized by consumers. But Chinese schools have long used the Hanyu Pinyin system, which means most Chinese have been accustomed to typing English characters ' URLs. In the past ten years, many Chinese have adapted to the English web site.

In any case, says Mr Chehad, the advent of non-Roman addresses will make the Internet more popular. "As people who use Latin characters, we should be able to feel the effects of this change," he said. In Beijing and the Middle East, you see all kinds of advertisements in the local language, but the URLs are in English. This constantly reminds us that the English domain Name System is not universal. ”