China issues one-yuan "CN" domain name to attract registrants

For less than the cost of a bus ticket, people can register a website name under China's national domain name ".cn".

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the country's domain name administrator, says the first-year registration fee for domain names ending in ".cn" will be one yuan(one U.S. dollar equals 7.74 yuan).

CNNIC is hoping the move will attract registrations from enterprises and netizens. Previously is cost between 80 and 100 yuan to register a domain name in China.

People who register a domain name before May 31 will be charged only one yuan for the first year, while subsequent years will still cost 80 to 100 yuan a year, according to the CNNIC.

At the end of 2006, China had 1.8 million websites that ended in ".cn", up 64.4 percent year on year. The "CN" suffix is Asia's largest and the world's fourth largest, statistics from the CNNIC show.

In all there are 4.2 million registered domain names in China with most using the suffix .com or .net.

Observers said with 137 million netizens and more than 40 million enterprises huge potential remains for the development of domain names ending with ".cn".