More than 100 Shenzhen companies registered Internet domain names in Chinese characters with the government-run China Internet Information Center (CNNIC) yesterday after a forum on the protection of Chinese domain names.

The forum, part of the CNNIC's national tour to promote Chinese domain names, attracted local electronics giant Huaqiang Holdings and private hospital Sun Hospital, among others. Both companies showed a great deal of interest in Chinese domain names, but have not yet decided on which names to use.

CNNIC started to register Chinese domain names in 2000, but it had been quite inconvenient to use the service, because people could not use the domain name unless they installed a plug-in from the CNNIC Web site.

In April this year, however, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 7.0 on a trial basis, which enables users to directly log on to the Web site of a company by typing its Chinese domain name. The service will be launched officially in November, said Huang Weikai, customer manager of Mainone Technology Company, CNNIC's Shenzhen partner. CNNIC charges 280 yuan (US$35) for each domain name annually, and a company has to pay for at least 10 years' use at a time.

Xiao Xiangyong, owner of a one-year-old freight transport company, registered a Chinese domain name for his company. "I am glad to have Chinese name for the company's Web site. It will be easier for my Chinese customers to remember," said Xiao.

Two local theme parks, Window of the World and Happy Valley, are trying hard to take back their Chinese names from inland theme parks that registered their Chinese domain names, said Li Dawei, manager of Mainone Technology Company.

Editor: Yan