Chinese government move could significantly restrict domain name registration levels

The Chinese government has announced that registries and registrars will have to meet a number of conditions and obtain the approval of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology before being allowed to engage in commercial and operational activities in China. With just 14 TLDs approved to date, it means that the race is on to ensure that offerings are not shut out of the Chinese market. Crucially, the rules also apply to existing TLDs such as ‘.com’, which has not yet been approved.