This week, the Chinese government’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially approved .CLUB, .VIP and .XYZ. This means that these extensions can now apply for local licenses to be hosted within China.
Prior to the approval, only .COM and .NET operated by Verisign were officially approved by MIIT. According to reports, the three new gTLDs are among the top ten when it comes to registration numbers.
The approval is seen as a huge opportunity for the three new gTLDs as registrants were required to host these domain names outside the country prior to this approval. China accounts for about 40% and around half of all registrations for all new gTLDs. The Chinese government can however order domain names and hosted websites that it does not approve of, to be deleted.
Colin Campbell, CEO, .CLUB domains said :
The Chinese market is extremely important to us, and we’ve worked very hard at understanding how the regulatory system there works and how we can work with the government as it evolves.
We’re very proud to be among the first foreign domain name registries approved.
While we’ve already enjoyed some success in China, we now look forward to expanding the reach and popularity of .CLUB to the many businesses and entrepreneurs developing their online presence in China.