| .cn | |
| Introduced: | 28 November 1990[1] |
| Type: | Country code top-level domain |
| Status: | Active |
| Registry: | China Internet Network Information Center |
| Sponsor: | Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Registereddomains: | 20,125,764 |
| Dateregistereddomains: | 2023-12-31 |
| Refregistereddomains: | [2] |
| Actualuse: | Very popular in mainland China[3] |
| Intendeduse: | Entities connected with China |
| Structure: | Names may be registered directly at the second level or at the third level within generic second-level categories or Chinese province codes |
| Document: | China Internet Domain Name Regulations |
| Disputepolicy: | China ccTLD Dispute Resolution Policy and China ccTLD Dispute Resolution Policy Rules |
| Website: | CNNIC (General) |
.cn is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the People's Republic of China. Introduced on 28 November 1990, the domain is administered by China Internet Network Information Center, a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The domain is the largest ccTLD in the world.[4]
The Chinese script internationalized country codes are "Chinese: .中国" ("China" in Simplified Chinese) and "Chinese: .中國" ("China" in Traditional Chinese). Entities connected to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan typically use .hk, .mo, and .tw, respectively,[5] despite the availability of corresponding second-level domains under .cn for those regions.
According to the "China Internet Domain Name System" published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are 9 generic second-level domains, two of which are internationalized:[6]
The two-letter abbreviations correlate with ISO 3166-2 "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions—Part 2: Country subdivision code" (adapted locally as National Standard GB/T 2659.2[7]). According to the "China Internet Domain Name System"[8] published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are 34 administrative division second-level domains:
Internationalized domain names with Chinese characters may be registered at the second level under the .cn top-level domain.
On 25 June 2010, ICANN approved the use of the internationalized country code top-level domains ".Chinese: 中国" (China in simplified Chinese characters, DNS name xn--fiqs8s) and ".Chinese: 中國" (China in traditional Chinese characters, DNS name xn--fiqz9s) by CNNIC.[9] These two TLDs were added to the DNS in July 2010.
CNNIC proposed around this time Chinese domain names in ".Chinese: 公司" (".com" in Chinese) and ".Chinese: 网络" (".net" in Chinese). However, these have not been recognized by ICANN yet and are only available via domestic domain name registrars.
Around 15 other generic domain names with Chinese characters have later been registered. See List of Internet top-level domains#Chinese characters.