Chinese Domain Registration &
China Website Hosting Services

Recent legislation has made it exceptionally difficult for non-resident companies to register a .cn domain. These .cn domains are essential for successful marketing in China. A useful recent article on this subject can be found at:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/internet-business-in-china/25598/

Although many companies claim to register .cn domains, in actual fact, if they do anything, it will be merely to pre-register. In order to officially register and have a website, the following procedures need to be followed:

Normally – there is a requirement to have legal entity in China – and then to apply to register the domain name with a Government Security Office by giving the Name of Company, Company ID number in China, foreign Executive Director’s passport number, contact person in China, person’s Chinese ID details and mobile phone number (to be available 24/7). Only then can approval be given for the domain to be registered.

A .cn domain may then be approved but a company needs to do considerably more than establish a website.

A .cn website CANNOT be hosted outside of China. If discovered to be hosted outside the China, DNS will be removed. This happened to Ogilvy at the beginning of the year for example.

To set up a website. all the above information needs to be sent to an authorized .cn registrar.

The client then needs to appoint a hosting company for their website and send this proposed Chinese web hosting service all of the above information plus a recent ID photo of a contact person for approval by the Government security office which is the local office for the hosting company. All documents must be original and be stamped by the company seal.

The alternative is to use a Chinese company which is a .cn domain registrar, who will take legal responsibility in China for the registration and hosting of the website. This responsibility covers all eventualities including legal action by the Chinese Government to remove or amend content they disapprove of. Broadway is such a company. This organization will undertake legally to the client that the domain and website belong to the client exclusively. While in China, Broadway are the responsible authority (authorized Trustees) for the Chinese website and take care of all issues related to website hosting services in China..

To register and complete set up will take approximately 3 months (security office approval takes around 20 working days – for example).

List price on this service is $2K per year.

It should be noted that ANY domain (regardless of if they are a .cn domain or not) for a website hosted in China needs to follow the same procedures.

Translation, marketing and localization services can also be provided to our Broadway clients through our partners; Webcertain China Ltd – part of the Webcertain Group (www.webcertain.com).

For more information, on this or any aspect of our services, contact us today with your details or email now.