Domain names in Chinese for the Hong Kong IDN .é¦æ¸¯ are now available the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) has announced. The registry says this means that all registrants can now register a pair of English .HK and Chinese .é¦æ¸¯domain names.
âTaking the positive response already received during the half-month soft launch period as an indication, public registration will bring substantial benefits in terms of registered trademark protection, online brand awareness and expansion to the Chinese-speaking market. This is truly a milestone for Hong Kongâs Internet development,â said Mr Jonathan Shea, CEO of HKIRC.
The introduction of .é¦æ¸¯ empowers the use of easy-to-remember and easy-to-understand Chinese words as the domain names for websites. Netizens can type Chinese .é¦æ¸¯ domain names in the Internet address bar directly for website browsing. Chinese-speaking Internet users can access the web much easier, hence opening up huge potential market opportunities. With support for both simplified and traditional Chinese characters, .é¦æ¸¯substantively popularises the use of the Internet.
For business users who have well-established Chinese brand names, such as ç½èæ°.é¦æ¸¯ (brandsworld.hk) andæ¢èè¨.å ¬å¸.é¦æ¸¯ (leungsokee.com.hk), it would be more convenient for users to search for their sites in Chinese than to remember the sometimes meaningless transliterated names based on Chinese pronunciation. Moreover, the Chinese language has a much larger pool of characters than English. Hence, more creative combinations are possible when you consider a domain name in Chinese rather than English. Duplication of names can be minimised at the same time.
The Chinese .é¦æ¸¯ domain name is now open for public registration on a first-come, first-served basis. In keeping with the bilingual culture of Hong, registrations for a Chinese .é¦æ¸¯ domain and an English .hk domain name of the same category will cost the price of one. This effectively halves the prices of .hk and .é¦æ¸¯ domain names.
To register your Hong Kong domain names, check out Asia Registry here.