A few years ago, .com.cn was restricted to companies and .cn to personal sites such as blogs. This is evident through big corporates such as MacDonalds and Coca Cola grabbing these domains. This is not to say that they didn’t also grab the .cn too, but the reverse is not always true. ie a blogger buying a .cn would probably not buy the .com.cn version as well.

However, in recent years this trend is reversing and .cn is becoming more and more popular. Doing an availability search now in places such as Domain Names in China will reveal that in most cases there is a higher chance of the .com.cn being available over the .cn

There has also been a slight relaxing of the registration rules in that many registrars will in fact “sponsor” the person registering the domain name. This is true in both cases.

Many feel that .com.cn is somewhat substandard to .com and .cn provides a “true” Chinese domain name.

One disadvantage of there being 2 versions is that it forces those weary of domain name blackmailing to cover their tracks and pay more money to buy both .com.cn and .cn. Domain name blackmailing was popular back in the days when for example, an individual would buy www.cocacola.cn and then ask for a ridiculously large sum of money from Coca Cola, to get it back.

Since Microsoft announced last year that its new Internet Explorer 7 browser and Vista individual operating system could support Chinese domain names, it has paved the way for Chinese domain name registrar to up the stakes in the domain name business.

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has therefore had a boost in support in its efforts to break the language barrier on the English-dominated Internet.

“Chinese domain names are a must for domestic Internet development and are also an urgent need of Chinese Net users,” said Mao Wei, the head of CNNIC. He predicted that within two years most Chinese will surf the Internet in Chinese language. (Taken from China Daily)

Hosting from within China has several advantages. Speed is a big factor which is an obvious reason. Sites also seem to be indexed by search engines slightly quicker and emails tend to get through spam filters a little easier.

The main disadvantage is the quality and stability and lack of communication as to why a site may be experiencing down time. The price is on par with hosting in the US although on the cheaper end of the scale, some hosts are super cheap. Price shouldn’t be the only factor to base a decision on though as there is some truth in “you get what you pay for”.

Many clients are worried that their sites will be blocked by China even if they host within China. We provide peace of mind and guarantee that if the content is not deemed illegal by Chinese standards, we can make it seen in China, and even overseas for that matter.

If reliability is critical, mirroring a website, that is hosting your website both within China and (popularly) in the US is also an option well worth considering. Having a splash page that detects their IP and then diverting them to the closest mirrored server is a popular strategy.

In the end, paying a few dollars extra to being able to sleep easy at night is well worth it as we have been in the hosting business for a long time and have the experience and professionalism to buffer our clients from all the potential problems that can arise with hosting.

We have heard a lot of stories about Paypal. Good or bad, paypal cannot be ignored. Paypal has been in the Chinese market for about a year and a half. Initially they gave new registratrants 10rmb cash in order to build its customer base. This promotion has sinced finished but they claim now that they still give this free credit on a “random” basis.

Paypal China is cut off from the outside world. Since China regulates its currency, the Renmenbi or the Yuan, it is of no surprise that you cannot transfer funds from Paypal China to another Paypal account outside China. And it really doesn’t look like you will be able to do this any time soon.

Paypal is quite easy to set up in China. It doesn’t use a credit card as such but uses bank cards/EFTPOS cards. ie you load money into paypal via your bank card. Transactions are relatively easy and quick but as with the English system, don’t expect to find a number for customer service. They may have updated the site now with a phone number though.

So the question still remains, “What is so good about Baidu?” There are a few reasons why.

Firstly, Baidu knows China. Their team of programmers know how Chinese people think, their surfing characteristics and typical internet behavioural patterns. Google is probably not too far in this department if not better but that is debatable. They arguably have better search algorithms when indexing Chinese websites because of the complexities of the Chinese language system.

Secondly, Chinese people are very patriotic. This is perhaps a given all around the world but no one in China really wants to see the Google Giant come in a take over China. It is already starting to take over the world already! Chinese people back Baidu and have supported it and will continue to support it. For how long is another question.

Thirdly, Google is the foreigner, the immigrant, the “minority” so to speak and it is human nature to be afraid new things, things we don’t initially understand. Google once was the king in China, and at that time, the guys in the corridors of power had a sudden fear of this “thing” that was coming into China. Google has to play by the “rules” in China. Enough said there.

Finally, sometimes people just want to talk to someone. Google’s system is pretty swish. Automatic, customizable, pretty reliable. But you never get to talk to anyone. With Baidu, they really are just a phone call away. Their service is getting better all the time and they are improving all the time.

It will be a forever ending debate regarding Baidu and Google. Having experienced both systems in a variet of manner, it is really about using the right tool for the right job.