Both Technologies Await Standardization
Under the management of China's Science Institute, CNNIC is a half statutory non-profit organization that has launched its Chinese domain name services in January this year. With such strong backing, CNNIC has great influence over the development and standardization of a Chinese domain name system and has currently monopolized the Chinese domain name registration industry in China. This August saw the new but high-profiled C-DN Registration Company pledging support to CNNIC, a move that added to the high tension in the latter's competition with i-DNS.net.
i-DNS.net, on the other hand, is a private Internet technology and solutions provider from Singapore that is currently researching on multilingual domain name technology and standards. i-DNS.net beat CNNIC by first launching its Chinese domain name registration last year, and has been growing influential overseas with allied registrars like 3gNIC and HKNet. Last month, i-DNS.net announced a strategic alliance with NSI that would allow the former's registrars to offer multilingual domain name support. This move not only raised i-DNS.net's repute, it also helped make CNNIC compromise.
i-DNS.net Makes Technology Exoteric In the Face of its Enemy
In answer to the Case of the "Double Standards" in the Chinese domain name industry, CNNIC, TWNIC, MONIC and HKNIC have formed the Chinese Domain Name Consortium (CDNC) on 19 May with the aim to improve communications between the four Chinese areas and clear up confusions in the standardization of the Chinese domain name system.
According to the Business Development Manager of i-DNS.net Mr Edwin Tan, his company has always maintained a close working relationship with CNNIC and negotiations on the issue of the two existing incompatible Chinese domain name systems have been underway though still without resolution. In reply to the question of whether CNNIC is planning on a force-out of i-DNS technology, Mr Tan said that the functionality of Chinese domain names should not be limited to China, and a more internationalized usage should be encouraged. i-DNS.net intends to make its technology exoteric to develop a standard compatible with CNNIC's system, but such details are pending negotiations.
On the other hand, the CEO of i-DNS.net Mr Michael Ng has, risking the wrath of CNNIC, arranged multiple meetings with China's registrars to promote the company's multilingual i-DNS technology, forge strategic alliances, make plans for joint investments and to set-up branch offices. Those in the industry believe that one of i-DNS.net's aims is to expand its influence and consolidate its client base; and to increase chances of winning in the war of the Chinese domain name systems.
Numeric Domain Names Poses No Threat, Voice-Recognition Technology Still Better
While the battle of the Chinese domain name systems rage on, CultureCom's partnership with its filiale ViaGold launched the Numeric Internet Search technology, which replaces words with numbers to locate websites. To promote its business, ViaGold reserved a series of numbers corresponding to the reference numbers of the thousands of companies that has gotten listed in the stocks market. For example, should the user wish to access HSBC's (stocks reference: 0005) website at www.hsbc.hk, he or she would only have to key in +852.0005.
Initially, Mr Tan felt that the Numeric Internet Search technology is taking the Internet a step backwards as a short and simple domain name like www.tom.com would be much easier to remember than a string of unrelated numbers. However, he realizes its potential in the arena of mobile communications where users can simply key in numbers from 0 to 9 to conduct stocks transactions. However, he pointed out that with the advent of Voice Recognition Technology users would not even need to key in any numbers to access the Net: they might only need to voice out their commands over their mobile phones.
