The world wide web is becoming truly global.

Businesses and consumers can look forward to using Chinese characters in their website address to better reach their customers or friends who prefer Chinese web addresses. The Singapore Network Information Centre (SGNIC), the national registry for domain names, will be accepting initial registrations for Chinese Domain Names from 23 November 2009.

The announcement by SGNIC comes as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved a process that would fast track the introduction of Internet addresses containing non-Latin characters from start to finish (see box story).

The move opens up new options for domain names, as anyone can soon register for web addresses such as 开心.sg so that their target market or audience can better identify with them. SGNIC will offer these Chinese domain names at both 2nd and 3rd levels in all categories (namely, .sg, com.sg, gov.sg, org.sg, edu.sg, net.sg, and per.sg). For instance, a 2nd level domain name would be 开心.sg, while a 3rd level domain name would read 开心.com.sg.

SGNIC General Manager Mr Lim Choon Sai said, “SGNIC hopes to give users greater choices and also add to the range of domain names available here. We believe this is timely given the growing interest, especially among businesses here, to reach the Chinese markets, which may feel more comfortable using their own language.”

The launch of Chinese domain names follows a slew of new domain name choices offered here in the past two years, including the release of single-character and pure numeric domain names. Other countries, especially where English is not the primary language such as China, Japan and South Korea, have started using domain names in their primary languages. SGNIC will continue to monitor market demand and developments and consider offering domain names in other languages.

The registration of Chinese domain names will take place in phases.

Phase 1: Government agencies (23 November 2009 – 31 December 2009)

Phase 2: For trademark holders (7 January 2010 – 18 February 2010)

• Multiple applications will be subject to bidding.
• Trademark holders need to be registered with the Intellectual Property of Singapore (IPOS). Service marks will not be eligible.

Phase 3: For all entities, subject to a priority fee (25 March 2010 – 6 May 2010)

• Multiple applications will be subject to bidding.

General launch (10 June 2010 onwards)

• All entities may apply.

Single-character Chinese domain names such as 开.sg and numeric Chinese domain names such as 一二三.sg available at a premium during the first three phases of registration: Please refer to www.sgnic.sg for more details.