Tag Archives: CNNIC

ICANN and Governance

ICANN: EBERO Providers Selected: Continued Protections for Registrants

ICANN today [26 Aug] announced that it has selected China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), and Nominet as its Emergency Back-end Registry Operator (EBERO) providers.

An EBERO provider is temporarily activated if a generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) operator is at risk of failing to sustain critical registry functions. Ensuring the availability of these functions protects registrants, also known as domain name holders, and provides an additional layer of protection to the Domain Name System (DNS), and industry ecosystem.

“CNNIC, CIRA, and Nominet all have the experience, staff, and systems required to execute an efficient transition should an EBERO event occur,” said Cyrus Namazi, Senior Vice President of ICANN‘s Global Domains Division. “Their geographic diversity is also a benefit, enabling nearly continuous coverage across multiple time zones, and the ability to provide services in multiple regions in case of local disasters.”

“We are honoured to be among this select group of trusted registry operators. In a short time period, the CIRA Registry Platform and DNS have been recognized as among the most advanced and robust platforms for managing a top-level domain,” said Dave Chiswell, vice president, product development, CIRA. “When we transitioned .CA to our new platform we incurred only eight hours of downtime. Our technology and know-how enable us to migrate a registry quickly and will be essential should our services ever be required in an emergency.”

EBEROs have demonstrated years of experience in operating domain name services, registration data directory services and extensible provisioning protocol services. Additional requirements for the EBERO service are noted in the Request for Proposal published here.

Click here for more information about the EBERO Program.

About ICANN

ICANN‘s mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from: https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2019-08-26-en. It also includes an additional quote from CIRA’s Dave Chiswell.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

.CN Becomes Most “Used” ccTLD

CNNIC logoChina’s ccTLD has become the second largest by registration numbers and “most used” according to a report by the Chinese newsagency Xinhua.

There are now 16.36 million .cn domain names registered compared to 16.02 million .de (Germany) domains. The largest, .tk (Tokelau) has around 27.46 million domains registered, but these are by and large given away for free and there is very low usage. Has anyone seen a .tk domain out in the wild? It is also one of the five TLDs with the most phishing domains according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group [pdf].

The .cn ccTLD has been growing rapidly in recent years following a tightening up of registration rules. Registrations reached 16.82 million at the end of 2009, dropped to under 8 million in 2011 and since then have steadily increased.

In June 2015, according to CNNIC statistics [pdf], there were 22.31 million domain names registered in China, 12.25 million of these being .cn domains. The vast majority of the non-.cn domains were .com domains – 8.42 million. Of the .cn domains, three quarters (76.0% or 9.31m) were registered at the second level and 1.72 million (14.0%) were registered under .com.cn.

Domain Name Aftermarket

Chinese Domain Name Sales Taking Off

CNNIC logoAccording to a posting on the NiceNic blog, the hottest topic at a recent Chinese domain name fair was the public auction of tens of thousands of domains for .cn and the IDN for .china (in Chinese). The names had previously been reserved by the Chinese registry CNNIC.

The top 20 domain sales were, with prices in Chinese Yuan (CNY – CNY100,000 approximately equals US$16,550):

  1. game.cn    CNY3,098,000
  2. gw.cn    CNY2,004,000
  3. Lb.cn    CNY1,100,000
  4. 1234.cn    CNY704,000
  5. xx.cn    CNY664,000
  6. ys.cn    CNY608,000
  7. xin.cn    CNY558,000
  8. che.cn    CNY522,000
  9. jia.cn    CNY508,000
  10. bao.cn    CNY504,000
  11. pt.cn    CNY470,000
  12. qc.cn    CNY400,000
  13. dai.cn    CNY380,000
  14. ny.cn    CNY372,000
  15. guo.cn    CNY312,000
  16. yu.cn    CNY306,000
  17. xie.cn    CNY304,000
  18. zh.cn    CNY254,000
  19. fm.cn    CNY242,000
  20. px.cn    CNY238,000.

For a much longer list of the domains sold, see:
nicenic.net/news/messview.php?ID=12784

ICANN and Governance

ICANN: CNNIC and CORE Association Officially Join the EBERO Program

ICANN logoICANN is pleased to announce that China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) and CORE Association recently signed agreements to act as Emergency Back-End Registry Operators (EBERO) for new gTLDs.

EBERO service providers offer an additional layer of protection to the Domain Name System (DNS). Should anything happen to a gTLD Registry, EBERO providers will step in and administer operations, ensuring that Internet users do not experience a disruption of service. Though new gTLD Registries are vetted for operational capacity, the EBERO program will help maintain a stable, secure and resilient DNS in the unlikely chance of Registry failure.

CNNIC and CORE Association were among the 14 candidates that responded to ICANN’s original Request For Information. The selection process was stringent and candidates had to meet a variety of technical requirements, as well as demonstrate experience in operating domain name and registration data directory services. CNNIC and CORE Association have extensive experience related to Registries and Registrars, and scalable systems and services. Additionally, they are geographically diverse and highly resilient.

About CNNIC:

CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center Center), was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1997. It is responsible for operating and administrating the “.CN” country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) now, and for the last 14 years, and is dedicated to serving the regional and global Internet community. CNNIC demonstrates the essential characteristics of security, stability and high quality services across the Asia-Pacific region.

About CORE:

CORE Association (CORE Internet Council of Registrars) is a Swiss not-for-profit membership association of Internet domain name registrars spanning the globe.

The Association was created in 1997 following a rigorous process of global consensus. CORE develops, operates and promotes resources for domain names, for the use of registrars, registries and domain name holders.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-10sep13-en

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Sunrise For Chinese IDN Starts 16 September

CNNIC logoThe sunrise registration period, or as the Chinese registry the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), describes it the “privileged registration and privileged upgrade” period, for the Chinese internationalised domain name commences on Sunday 16 September.

The sunrise, or privileged registration, period for .中国 is for trademarks consisting of Chinese characters, which are approved by the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, or by the trademark authorities of other countries or regions.

CNNIC advises that trademarks that consist of Chinese characters only, English letters only or numbers only are qualified to apply for privileged registration. Trademarks that bear pictures, combination of words and pictures or other non-word elements are excluded from privileged registration.

Potential registrants that are not from mainland China are required to provide the screenshot of the pertinent trademark information from the trademark authorities of the corresponding countries or regions along with trademark certification documents.

The sunrise period ends on 14 October 2012 and more information is available from www1.cnnic.cn/html/Dir/2012/08/29/6057.htm.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Brief History of .CN, What Registrars Want And Euro Updates: Centr Monthly Roundup

A brief history of .CN domain name registrations is the feature of the latest Centr report, from its rapid growth from 2007 to 2009 when .CN registrations peaked at almost 14 million, and then the rapid decline that ended in late 2010.And there were 63,383,670 domain names registered with Centr members as of August, a growth rate of 0.37 percent. The largest contribution to this growth in absolute value was .RU and in percentage terms the highest growth over the month was the Serbian IDN .CРБ largely due to the landrush opening.The brief .CN history is written by Hongbin Zhu, Senior International Strategist at CNNIC. In the article, Hongbin notes the rapid increase came about due to the lower pricing but it was found that “domain name abuse had also increased considerably along with the domain name registration, especially in terms of illegal content, Spam and inaccurate WHOIS records. In order to keep the consumer trust, the Registry suspended the ‘1 RMB Experience’ program in 2009. The registrations subsequently fell.”And now registrations have been gradually rising since 2011 due to “the improved brand image as a secure and reliable TLD.”Other features of the report are changes registrars would like to see made concerning pricing and billing, with questions posed including lower prices, volume discounts, growth discounts, more payment methods/options and more flexibility in registration periods.And there is a member news highlights too.To download the full Centr Monthly Roundup for August 2012, go to:
centr.org/news/monthly_roundup_august-2012

Domain Name Disputes, Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, ICANN and Governance, New gTLDs

Daily Wrap: gTLD Roadmap, .GREEN, .ECO, Verisign Registrar Agreement, .CN and Google in Russia

A new roadmap for new generic Top Level Domains will be released by 6 August the board of directors’ New gTLD Program Committee said in a report, Domain Incite reported.

The report also provides some more information on how the 1930 gTLD applications will be processed “they’re being grouped by applicant and/or by back-end registry provider, in an attempt to create efficiencies” the Domain Incite report says with evaluators eventually being able to process 300 applications per month.

Meanwhile someone is out to get Donuts with a number of complaints about applications by the applicant for over 300 gTLDs. The comments relate to one of the company’s original directors who Domain Incite reports “seems to own several domain names containing Disney and Olympics trademarks.”

It’s not going to be easy for some of the smaller organisations who are part of a tussle for a gTLD. One is .GREEN with four applications, and one of the applicants, the DotGreen Community, have written to the GAC, and according to another Domain Incite report, “DotGreen does everything but ask outright for the GAC to object to its three competitors’ .GREEN applications.”

Meanwhile in an opinion piece, The Guardian asks if .ECO could be “force for environmental change” and then whether “will .ECO improve corporate sustainability performance or become the digital version of corporate greenwash?”

The article by an expert in CSR says “of the four applicants to run .ECO, one commercial applicant has applied to run a total of 306 domain names and another 91. I think it is safe to say they are in it for the money.” But the author singles out one application as being different – that one is a community bid convened by Vancouver-based Big Room. “The doteco.org community bid has been put together after an exhaustive five-year process of consultation and policy development with stakeholders from the environmental and sustainability community including over 50 international groups such as Greenpeace International and WBCSD.”

There are a number of changes being introduced as part of Verisign’s registry-registrar agreement for .COM which coincide with the new registry agreement Verisign recently signed with ICANN. One of the changes that has raised some concerns among its registrar channel is the requirement for “24/7 support for customers whose .com domains have been hijacked,” Domain Incite reports. The change is of concern to some of the smaller registrars who may not be able to provide such support.

The number of objectors to new gTLD applications have now surpassed applications, Domain Incite notes, with a rundown on who some of the objectors are and why they are objecting. Highlighted are objections by Save the Children (who is objecting to all four .HEALTH applications), International Olympics Committee (objecting to .SPORT applications it does not support) and Lego Juris (who has lodged complaints over about 80 applications).

And in the last Domain Incite report in today’s Daily Wrap, “ICANN director Judith Vasquez applied for a new gTLD but then withdrew the bid at the last minute.”

There were 8.73 million domain names registered in China at the end of June with 3.98 million of these being .CN domains, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said on Monday according to a report in the Global Times.

The report noted that the number of websites using .CN was up 460,000 in the first half of 2012, making this the fastest biannual growth since 2008 according to the CNNIC.

And in Russia Google is disputing the registration of a couple of domain names. “The Moscow Commercial Court has turned down Google Inc’s motion to speed up the review of its complaint against Weblink Ltd regarding its use of Googl.Ru and Gugl.Ru domain names as the expert appraisal currently underway makes this impossible, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency,” according to a report by the Russian Legal Information Agency.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Individuals Able To Register .CN Domains

CNNIC logoChina began accepting applications from individuals for .cn and .中国”, the Chinese internationalised domain name, on Tuesday the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said.

Any individual or organisation that can carry independent civil liabilities has the right to apply for the domain registration under the implementing rules,” said CNNIC.

CNNIC, the registry for .CN, stopped individuals applying for .CN domain names in December 2009 due to what they said was because a large number of domains were being used to distribute illegal material such as pornography and gambling sites. To combat this, the Ministry of Public Security launched a series of public campaigns targeting cybercrimes.

The new act will help the development of individual micro-application platforms and e-commerce as well. Individual online shops can possess their own .cn domains which will help their brand operation, Qi Lin, vice-director of CNNIC, told Xinhua News.

“Individuals will become the major drive for the development of websites in China,” said Qi. “Reopening the domain name registration right to individuals is expected to boost the openness and uniqueness of the Internet.”

There were around 2.3 million .CN domain names at the end of 2011, up 20 per cent year-on-year, according to CNNIC’s most recent statistics. The ccTLD is also the seventh largest in the world, behind .DE (Germany) with 15.1 million registrations, the world’s largest, .UK (United Kingdom – 10.1m), .TK (Tokelau), .NL (Netherlands – 4.95m), .RU (Russia – 3.85m), and .EU (European Union – 3.6m).

Europe Registry logoTo register your domain name, check out Europe Registry here.

Cybersecurity

Chinese Website Numbers Drop Dramatically in 2010

The number of Chinese websites dropped by 401 per cent in 2010 to 1.91 million websites according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The dramatic drop was attributed to stronger regulation.”Although the Internet is posing some problems for new media, our regulation is becoming stronger, we have taken a very big step in this area,” CASS media expert Liu Ruisheng was quoted as saying on the organisation’s website reports AFP.But while the number of websites dropped, Liu said Chinese webpages increased in 2010 by 60 billion, an increase of 78.6 percent over 2009 the AFP report continued.”This means our content is getting stronger, while our supervision is getting more strict and more regulated,” he said.The drop in the number of websites corresponds from the decline in .CN domain name registrations. Registrations of .CN domain names plummeted to 3,379,441 active domain names as of 28 February, a decline of over ten million registrations in 14 months, according to statistics published by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) now not available from their website.The total number of registered domain names declined from a peak of 13,459,133 as of 31 December 2009 when .CN was the number one ccTLD (CNNIC previously published registration statistics dated the end of each month).The decline has meant .CN, which was easily the number one ccTLD at its peak is now at best fifth and probably sixth in terms of total registrations.The dramatic reductions are the result of the end of promotions that lasted for much of 2008 and 2009 where domain names could be registered for a few cents and the introduction of restrictions on registrants.The restrictions on registrants were monitored by 600 temporary workers that were hired in February 2011 to check all .CN domain names for pornographic content and inaccurate records according to an IDG report at the time.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Domain Name Update for .HK and .CN

Developments over the last 12 months in the Chinese and Hong Kong ccTLDs are outlined in this article by lawyers from the Hong Kong-based law firm Mayer Brown JSM. The article also gives a quick overview of the new measures and policies adopted by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) and Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC).

The article covers internationalised domain names, the measures introduced in China to strengthen the regulatory framework such as dealing with obscene and illegal content complaints and verification of registrant identities, security and dispute resolution policis.

To read the article in full by Kenny Wong and Alan C.W. Chiu from the law firm Mayer Brown JSM, see www.mayerbrown.com/publications/article.asp?id=10228.

Asia Registry logoTo register your .CN or .HK domain name, check out Asia Registry here.