According to a press release out this morning, .CLUB Domains, LLC, the company formed to own and operate the new ".CLUB" top level domain, and TLD Registry the company behind the new gTLD for the Chinese IDN for Online (.在线) as well as the registry for the new gTLD (.中文网) (Dot Chinese Website) have teamed up to market .Club to the China market.
The new gTLD for the Chinese IDN for Online (.在线) as well as the registry for the new gTLD (.中文网) (Dot Chinese Website) should have broad appeal both for companies in China and global brands wanting to easily represent Chinese language versions of their online properties, have agreed to collaborate on introducing some of the most popular new Internet extensions to the Chinese-speaking world.
With half of all Internet users being in Asia, and a quarter of those in China alone, .CLUB and TLD Registry are poised to make a big impact by sharing resources to promote their Chinese language domain names.
The word "club" is recognized and understood throughout the world and in nearly every spoken language, including in Mandarin Chinese.
"TLD Registry understands the Chinese marketplace better than anyone in the gTLD space, so we know we've chosen the best partner to collaborate with to help introduce .CLUB to registrars and to the millions of Chinese Internet users," said Colin Campbell, CEO of .CLUB. "As we travel throughout the country, we continue to see and hear the word ‘club' spoken, written and used in marketing, so we are confident it will be a popular web address as the Internet continues to expand."
China is the second largest economy in the world, and by 2015 it's estimated that China will have nearly twice the number of Internet users as the U.S. and Japan combined.
With that kind of growth in mind, .CLUB and TLD Registry will be exploring mutual efforts to maximize their respective exposure in China and other markets through co-marketing, sales, and joint promotion.
Both .CLUB Domains' .CLUB and TLD Registry's Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) have been in their Trademark Sunrise period.
The Sunrise for TLD Registry ended on March 17, 2014 and .CLUB's Sunrise ends March 29, 2014.
