What are the rules today, and how do you go about securing your favourite .cn domain name?

Insofar as I am aware it's a free-for-all just like com/net/org.

I have had a couple of dozen trade widget .cn domains for the past 3 years with no problems. I even host them in the UK however I am going to move them to my new Asian server alongside my .in and .asia sites.

engine that's quite an old thread. Things certainly have changed since then.

In 2003, CNNIC opened 2nd level .CN domain names for registration [webmasterworld.com]. At that time most of the restrictions listed in Woz's post you referenced were removed/revised.

The current state of Chinese domains is much more open. The CNNIC site now contains an extensive FAQ in English [cnnic.net.cn] along with other info in English [cnnic.net.cn] as well. Essentially anyone can register a .CN name regardless of your citizenship/nationality/country of residence, as long as you adhere to the guidelines stipulated on the CNNIC site.

Now .cn registration is open to everybody (not including .gov.cn of course). You can either register from the ICAAN (international registrars, but more expensive), or from a local Chinese one (much cheaper but usually less flexibility in terms of control)

You can either register from the ICAAN (international registrars, but more expensive),or from a local Chinese one (much cheaper but usually less flexibility in terms of control)

What do you call cheaper?

I register through my regular company and at the moment buy for 1 year at USD $3.00 with renewals at USD $28.00 less my reseller discount which brings them in at about USD 19.00 and I have total control ovr what I can do with them.

In China, you can purchase dot cn domains from a CNNIC registrar starting at RMB1 yuan (USD0.14)...

And renewal is about USD7 (pending price changes from the CNNIC for 2009, might be much cheaper)

Could you clarify this? You're saying that someone can get

example.cn

for US 14¢ (14 cents) from some registrars? Are there special qualifications to get these prices? For example do you have to have an address in China? Are you talking about bulk reseller accounts?

Yes, if that domain is not registered yet. Basically the wholesale price for CNNIC for 2008 (and 2007 as well) is one yuan. This is a campaign by the CNNIC to promote the .cn tld (now with 10 million registrations and fourth globally).

Some (more established) registrars will add a small mark up (10yuans to 50 yuans usually), some keep the same price as the .com/.net/.org, but many smaller companies will still offer the domains at 1 yuan as this is a way for them to attract new clients and hopefully sell them additional services (such as web hosting, which is usually much higher in China than overseas).

For details please check the news release from the CNNIC [cnnic.net.cn...]

From another point, if most of Chinese spammers are using .cn websites, it's because it is almost free for them and they can register new ones as soon as the first one get banned/blacklisted etc.

Thanks for the info seo4china. I'll leave my names where they are right now however I've sent my office in China your link:-)

I hadn't realised so many .cn names had been registered now, that's been some growth this past year or two!

Another thing that is good to know is that transfer of domain from a CNNIC registrar to an ICANN one, and vice versa, are virtually impossible at this point. So if a .cn is bought for investment it doesn't make sense to register with a CNNIC registrar.