Finnish Prime Minister and TLD Registry Chairman Announce Successful Contracting with ICANN for Dot Chinese Online & Dot Chinese Website TLDs

BEIJING, Sept. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Finnish entrepreneurs today announced the imminent worldwide availability of fully-Chinese internet domain names in the Chinese equivalents of “.online” and “.Chinese language website” in coming months. No restrictions for residence or incorporation in China exist.

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen received the news of TLD Registry’s groundbreaking contract in Beijing during his five-day official visit in China in support of Finnish industry.

“It is reasonable to expect that this innovation made real by entrepreneurs from Finland will bring tremendous, long-term benefits for China’s Internet users. Bridging the last gap in a fully Chinese web is a milestone achievement and it will be remembered. I am very proud it was my countrymen who came up with this solution that is so significant economically and culturally,” Prime Minister Katainen said.

The contract, signed by TLD Registry’s chairman Taneli Tikka formally approves the company’s Chinese top level domains by the relevant global governing body, ICANN. “The fully-Chinese domain names enabled by Dot Chinese Online and Dot Chinese Website will bring tremendous, long term benefits to China’s 650 million internet users”, Mr Tikka said. “Today, the web became much friendlier for Chinese people, as well as strengthening Chinese consumer protections against internet scams.”

“We anticipate our fully-Chinese domain names to become available in December this year,” said Tikka. “For us, today marks the successful end of a complicated five-year journey to create culturally relevant and linguistically correct domain names for Chinese people everywhere. These fully-Chinese domain names are welcomed by China’s companies and government, as well as by international enterprises which provide goods, services and information to Chinese consumers.”

TLD Registry’s CEO, Arto Isokoski said, “The Chinese domain names enabled by today’s contract signing will be nothing short of revolutionary for China’s use of the web. For the first time since China joined the internet in 1994, Chinese netizens will type or handwrite URLs in all simplified or traditional Chinese characters using the natural terms they employ for their web searches: ‘online’ and ‘Chinese language website’. For websites, the search engine optimization benefits will be excellent.”

TLD Registry Ltd is an ICANN-approved internet domain name registry with facilities in Finland, Ireland, China and the USA. It is backed by Finland’s Visionplus fund, which invests in digital products such as applications, games and services in all digital platforms.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Dot Chinese Online and Dot Chinese Website, please visit TLD Registry on the web: www.internetregistry.info