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China Drops In Domain Registrations From #2 To #4

Posted by Soulskill on from the displaced-spammers dept.

darthcamaro writes "A year ago, it looked like the .cn country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) for China was growing so fast that it would displace .com. In 2010 that's no longer the case, as .cn has dropped from being the number two global domain by registrations to number four. And yes, .com is still number one. According to VeriSign, the top 10 list of TLDs in the first quarter was: .com, .de, .net, .cn, .uk, .org, .info, .nl, .eu and .ru. So why did .cn decline? Spammers. 'Many of these are low-priced promotional names that have now come up for renewal at a higher price,' said Pat Kane, vice president of naming services at VeriSign. 'The .cn registration decline was also based on the CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) registry's implementation of the real names directive from the Chinese government primarily around verifiable "whois" data.'"

38 comments

  1. .nl? by KDR_11k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What's .nl doing there? I doubt it has to do with a high number of internet users in the Netherlands so why areall these registrations happening?

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    1. Re:.nl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      extreme porn

    2. Re:.nl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, it does, our little country has one of the highest rates of internet usage. That is, not only connections, but active usage of it's facilities.

    3. Re:.nl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oi! That wasn't meant as a funny... it's actually true. It is about the high number of internet users in the Netherlands and the way people use it. Porn is probably a part of it too, but it's not just porn.

    4. Re:.nl? by TranceThrust · · Score: 1

      Actually, The Netherlands really do have one of the highest percentage of population who use internet on a daily basis.

    5. Re:.nl? by skyride · · Score: 0

      The netherlands has some of the best peering arrangements in europe, so you tend to find that anyone providing latency-sensitive services in europe will base their servers there.

    6. Re:.nl? by Nick+Fel · · Score: 1

      10 years ago when I was using chat rooms a lot I recall there being a disproportionate number of Dutch users about.They all had DSL connections too, at a time when ISDN was still considered a bit posh in the UK. Still, big LOLs for whoever tagged that as funny.

    7. Re:.nl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This makes no sense. Even if the servers are located in the Netherlands, people outside of .nl will user other top-level domains. For example my servers are located in Germany, but all hosted sites have either .com or .at domains.

    8. Re:.nl? by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      Judging by all the DVD rips with Dutch subtitles, Dutch is basically the official language of the internet.

    9. Re:.nl? by MrMr · · Score: 1

      Probably partly because it's the oldest ccTLD. It also has a good standing for (local) business use, as it has been around and used in radio ads since the 80's.

    10. Re:.nl? by xaxa · · Score: 1

      Wikipedia claims it's the oldest [citation needed] with a date in 1986, but says that .uk was around in 1985.

      (Per capita .uk is presumably less popular than .nl, since .com is very often used in the UK.)

    11. Re:.nl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Judging by all the DVD rips with Dutch subtitles, Dutch is basically the official language of the internet.

      Offtopic: I wonder if the Dutch produce lots of their own movies too? (Especially pornographic movies?)

    12. Re:.nl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought .uk wasn't used, in those days it was ja.net or something. And .gb?

    13. Re:.nl? by xaxa · · Score: 2, Informative

      GB is the ISO country code for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but UK was used instead (probably because Great Britain -- by itself -- doesn't include Northern Ireland, so we say UK when we mean the whole UK, and GB if we just mean the 'mainland').

      There was meant to be a transition to .gb, but it never happened.

    14. Re:.nl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You clearly have no idea what he is talking about.

  2. related: China drops out of 'Dirty Dozen' chart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.zdnetasia.com/china-drops-out-of-dirty-dozen-chart-62062956.htm

  3. That doesn't mean anything by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The claim of

    China Drops In Domain Registrations

    Is not supported by the data in the summary. While the .cn domain is for China, there is no restriction against people from any country registering in .com.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:That doesn't mean anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Is not supported by the data in the summary. While the .cn domain is for China, there is no restriction against people from any country registering in .com.

      Right... but the China domains are the ones ending in .cn. The .com ones aren't tied to any particular country. So there is a drop in China domain registrations. Understand?

      I suppose if the story said there was a drop in Ameircan tax revenues you'd object that not only Americans pay US taxes and that US taxes aren't the only ones paid by Americans?

    2. Re:That doesn't mean anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right... but the China domains are the ones ending in .cn.

      "China domain" isn't a formally defined term. It could just as easily mean "domains registered in China, regardless of the suffix".

  4. .com central role in the future? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The article has this quote:
    ".com has been a platform for Internet innovation over the past 25 years, and we expect .com will continue to play a central role for the innovators, entrepreneurs and companies who will shape the Internet over the next 25 years"

    Interesting comment, since it has become virtually impossible to register any catchy names these days. Try imagining a name for a company or service. Make up somethng random. Chances are, it will not be available.
    Sure .com will continue to play an important role, but with the level of cybersquatting I think that innovators and entrepreneurs will soon be using other TLD's.

  5. VeriSign misunderstands... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The newly implement CNNIC policy no longer allows individuals to register .cn domains. To qualify, you must show your business license, business seal, and personal ID to the registrar. All existing domains can be audited retroactively. Some additional background can be found at http://lastwatchdog.com/china-noteworthy-steps-improve-cybersecurity/

  6. USA USA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We have to be #1 at everything dont we?

    1. Re:USA USA! by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      We have to be #1 at everything dont we?

      I didn't see .us in the top ten list.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  7. Capt. Obvious reporting for duty by paiute · · Score: 3, Funny

    'Many of these are low-priced promotional names that have now come up for renewal at a higher price,' said Pat Kane, vice president of naming services at VeriSign.

    (Adam Savage voice on)
    Well, there's your problem right there.
    (Adam Savage voice off)

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
  8. One thing China is doing right by tomhudson · · Score: 0

    The .cn registration decline was also based on the CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) registry's implementation of the real names directive from the Chinese government primarily around verifiable "whois" data

    That should be a requirement for every domain. I've been arguing that it would reduce spamming, and new we have proof.

    Close down the anonymous domain registration services and make it harder for spammers to hide.

    1. Re:One thing China is doing right by DaMattster · · Score: 5, Informative

      I like my ability to be anonymous when I want. If spam is your problem, cutting down on it is pretty darned easy to the point where it is almost made redundant. I simply use OpenBSD's spamd solution which, within one week, rid me of nearly 100% of my spam without resource intensive filtering. I simply use the data gathered from UAlberta's trap list and run in a purely blacklisting environment. It took me all of half an hour to setup and saved me boat loads of aggravation. Plus spamd is an offensive solution rather the defensive. Any email coming from an IP that matches an entry in the traplist gets allowed to transmit at only 1 byte per second choking and potentially crashing the machine trying to do the sending with absolutely no effect on the recieving end. If the transmitter is brazen enough, it can wait the full 5 minutes just to transmit the first header. Some of the spam spewers tried multiple times, all meeting with the same fate. Within a week and half, I began to see less and less attempts at sending from the same IP address which could mean that my domain is being removed from databases. Even if you require truthful domain registration, it is very hard to fight a spammer through legel means! It is much easier and cheaper to use spamd and get some matter of satisfaction by parsing your logs and seeing how much of the spammer's time you have wasted. I still have my spamd box running after four years, I seldom get attemps so I get excited to see a new idiot.

    2. Re:One thing China is doing right by djluo · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The majority reason why Chinese gov. doing this is just want to make sure those websites won't contain any bad things.

      If you do have bad things on your website........then gov. gotcha

    3. Re:One thing China is doing right by sjwest · · Score: 1

      China telecom and shell companies still loves hosting spammers websites, instead of .cn its currently .ru

      Don't mistake 'progress' for actual progress.

    4. Re:One thing China is doing right by slick7 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      The majority reason why Chinese gov. doing this is just want to make sure those websites won't contain any bad things.

      If you do have bad things on your website........then gov. gotcha

      Define...bad things. Bad for whom? If corruption is bad, then exposing corruption is worse or better?

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
    5. Re:One thing China is doing right by Stan92057 · · Score: 0

      Just because its hard no one should legally go after spammers? Come on whats with the defeatist attitude? And Spamd is not an option for normal users,not even close.

      --
      Jack of all trades,master of none
  9. .net? by michaelmalak · · Score: 1

    Why is .net so popular? It was originally intended only for ISPs, and the ISP industry has since consolidated. Then it became an alternative to .com when the desired .com name was taken. I would have thought .org would have been more popular than .net.

    1. Re:.net? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone had myname.com, and I am not a .org. I am an Internet professional software developer, so it seemed to make more sense to get .net than anything else.

    2. Re:.net? by KarlIsNotMyName · · Score: 1

      Well, if it's not a commercial site, and you're not an organization, what's left?

      --
      We are all God's parents.
    3. Re:.net? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, if it's not a commercial site, and you're not an organization, what's left?

      • .us (or another country domain, if you are from another country)
      • .name (if you want to use your real name)
      • .info (you certainly plan to put some information there, right?)
      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    4. Re:.net? by nullchar · · Score: 1

      You have to think about Joe Sixpack (or the equivalent of a recent Internet user) first typing in _____.com, then .net, then .org (or perhaps even .org over .net). Unfortunately for domain owners, the other top level domains will not be tried; instead the user will attempt a search.

    5. Re:.net? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those only became available semi-recently compared to .com .net and .org.