Internationalized Domain Name - The Road Ahead

Call it cultural hegemony, call it digital monopoly. Why can there only be 26 roman characters variant in a domain name?

Well, not anymore. It’s now possible for every language in this world to have domain names of their own language, thanks to Internationalized Domain Name (IDN). Mobinode probably can have one called 动点博客.com (Mobinode in Chinese, obviously)

Yes, it’s doable technologically, but is it feasible economically? Traditionally, Chinese domains have resorted to numbers, pinyin or real simple-sounding English words as their domain name of choice. This is simply because it’s too risky to get the names wrong. Not that anyone will spell “Google” as “Gogle” or “Googe”, but having 谷歌.com definitely helps.

Of course, there is the issue of compatibility. Not all browsers supports IDN, not yet at least. And there is also no support by the email servers. If someone wants to email a Chinese domain, he or she probably needs to send the mail to someone@动点博客.com. Not to mention that using solely Chinese will alienate not Chinese-speakers, however small that group might be.

Chinese domain will see it’s gold rush. Strategic Chinese names have already been bought up by domainers. If www.sex.com can fetch a rumoured hefty sum of USD14 million, why can’t www.性.com(sex.com) or www.性.cn(sex.cn) get RMB 14 million? Of course to predict such a wide adoption is daring. However,a nation that hasn’t been the best at using English might see it as a long-awaited gift. However, since the introduction of IDN of about two years ago, there hasn’t been a wide usage of IDN among commercial sites. It is interesting to note that all valuable Chinese domain names are long snapped up by domainers.

When will we see Chinese IDN take it’s well-deserved place? Hopefully soon.

August 31, 2007 · Filed Under Web 2.0

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Breaking: Novoking - The New Chinese 3D Virtual World Unveiled

After nearly 23 month intensive development, another large scale 3D virtual world - Novoking is finally unveiled. We are not sure yet how this new virtual world will stand out in this hottest market, but we do believe the release of Novoking will further drive the popularity of 3D virtual world raised by Second Life, There and HiPiHi.

Founded by a very experienced entrepreneur Mr. Patrick Zha in Oct 2005, Novoking is designed and operated by Novoking (Beijing) technology Limited Co. You believe or not, its 50 people-team has been working day in and day out quietly in a small office in ZhongGuanCun Technology Park, the incubator of many China IT companies, for nearly 2 years.

The Novoking’s target user group is 16-35 years old Internet generation, especially female group (It might remind you of another girl’s virtual world, Frenzoo). Seeking for a enjoyable life is the key theme for this group of people, and we were told that Novoking would provide an on-line virtual social platform to the youngsters to express, entertain themselves, and make new friends just like in the real life. Unlike SecondLife and HiPiHi, Novoking will ‘prepare’ the discotheque, bar, night-club, fashion show, furniture show, pets shop and games, to let the beginners feel ‘busy’ with trying different new things since the first day they live in, experience the new virtual live and form the resident sociality quickly.

According to the reliable source, Novoking will launch its private beta test in this September, and it is expected to be open to public in 6 months after the beta test.

We are really impressed by the screenshots from Novoking’s world. The full collection of these screenshots can be browsed on Flickr.

A comprehensive interview with Novoking will be presented here shortly. Stay tuned!