Afilias Partners with HiChina

Alliance designed to help Chinese companies apply for 'dot.BRAND' Top Level Domains.

Afilias, a provider of internet infrastructure services, today announced that it has entered into a formal agreement with HiChina, an internet service provider, to help Chinese brands take advantage of ICANN's forthcoming New TLD Program.

The company says that the agreement recognizes HiChina's leadership and customer service excellence, and names HiChina as its preferred new TLD partner in China. Chinese brands who intend to establish a dot.BRAND presence online will benefit from the combined resources of the company and HiChina.

It mentions that brands interested in pursuing a dot.BRAND approach will need to act quickly to develop strong, compelling proposals to ICANN for their desired new TLD string, one of many areas where the company is able to assist TLD applicants. Other TLD Registry services offered by the company include a 'thick' EPP Registry, a globally diverse and redundant Anycast DNS network, and 24x7 call center and technical support. The company adds that it offers other premium solutions to augment its Registry offering, including technology to enable mobile phone compatibility for websites and a unique IDN-capable email solution. All its services are DNSSEC and IPv6 ready, and reflect 10 years of experience in supporting gTLDs operating under ICANN contracts.

"With the world's largest internet population, China also represents one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Brands based in China need unique marketing approaches to reach this large, diverse pool of consumers. One approach is a 'dot.BRAND' name, meaning the use of a brand name instead of a .COM or .NET," said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President of Afilias. "A dot.BRAND TLD lets major companies control how customers experience their brand online and helps break through the noise and clutter online." LaPlante added, "With the tremendous rise of Chinese language on the Internet, our partnership will enable Chinese brands to present their domains in Chinese script rather than in English alone."

"Chinese consumers want domain names and websites in their own language. The combined experience of Afilias and HiChina will provide a great user experience for the Chinese market," said Bridge Song, Vice President of HiChina. "With HiChina's reach and influence in the Chinese enterprise market, and Afilias' successful history of supporting more TLDs than any other company, this partnership helps ensure that Chinese brands are on equal footing with Western brands applying for dot.BRAND TLDs," added Bridge Song.