Another top-level domain enters China! ZDNS helps .HELP obtain MIIT approval

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT for short) officially approved Wuhan Yunwaiheng Information Technology Co., Ltd. as the domain name registry for the top-level domain .HELP in China. The National Engineering Research Center for Internet Domain Name System (ZDNS) provides full-lifecycle services for the landing of .HELP in China, including policy consultation, technical services, and operation management.

"HELP" translates to "bangzhu" (help) in Chinese. Its meaning is highly associated with concepts such as assistance, support, and service in both Chinese and English contexts, which deeply aligns with users' core needs for information acquisition and problem-solving in the Internet era. It has clear semantic directivity and a broad cognitive foundation. With its intuitive meaning expression, the .HELP domain can effectively reduce user recognition costs and quickly establish connections with target audiences. This domain has a wide range of applications, meeting the needs of corporate help centers, professional consulting agencies, medical and health service platforms, psychological counseling institutions, customer support systems, educational guidance platforms, charitable and public welfare organizations, and other fields, thus building precise digital identity identifiers for various service providers.

Wuhan Yunwaiheng Information Technology Co., Ltd.'s choice to cooperate with ZDNS is a high recognition of its technical strength and service capabilities. As a national engineering research center approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, ZDNS is Asia's leading technical service provider for new top-level domains. According to data from the third-party statistical agency Ntldstats, in November 2016, the number of second-level domains hosted on ZDNS's new top-level domain hosting service platform exceeded 6.4 million, making it the new top-level domain hosting service platform with the largest number of second-level domains in Asia. It has maintained its leading position as No. 1 in Asia for seven consecutive years since then. Up to now, the platform has served 27 registries and 61 top-level domains worldwide, among which the number of hosted brand top-level domains ranks first in China.

ZDNS has deeply participated in the first round of new generic top-level domain applications of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It has joined 6 major policy-making groups and 4 technical communities of ICANN, and has focused on participating in the formulation of 7 important domain name policies. As the only institution in China with "full licenses and full qualifications" in the domain name industry, ZDNS provides users with "point-to-point and end-to-end" full-lifecycle services covering four links: "consultation - application - cloud services - overall operation".

It is worth noting that the new round of top-level domain application window of ICANN will open from April to August 2026, which is a crucial industry opportunity 14 years after the first round of applications in 2012. As a core infrastructure and key basic resource of the Internet, top-level domains are important digital assets for enterprises. Their safe, efficient, and stable operation is of great significance to the development of the digital economy. At present, overseas enterprises such as UnstoppableDomains, Freename, and Nova have announced that they will apply for hundreds of top-level domains, and whether these domains include Chinese enterprise brand identifiers has attracted much attention from the industry. In this context, seizing this opportunity of top-level domain opening is of great strategic significance for Chinese enterprises to build an independent and controllable digital identity system and enhance their international brand influence.

In the field of top-level domain application and compliant operation, ZDNS has rich experience, having successfully helped 23 top-level domains worldwide complete applications and achieve compliant operation. In terms of technical platform operation, the compliant operation of top-level domains in China requires dual qualification reviews by ICANN and MIIT, with data hosted on domestic top-level domain service platforms recognized by MIIT. In the first round of top-level domain opening in 2012, ZDNS became one of the four units in China that obtained dual compliance from ICANN and MIIT, laying a leading position with "full licenses and full qualifications" in the domain name industry. In June 2018, through cooperation with ZDNS, the .CO domain was approved by China's MIIT, becoming the first overseas country/region top-level domain to enter China, providing an important reference for the subsequent compliant operation of international top-level domains in China.

ZDNS operates Asia's largest new top-level domain hosting service platform. During the first round of top-level domain opening, its technical parameters already fully met ICANN's high standards for authoritative DNS, Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), etc. Only over 40 service providers worldwide have reached such standards. At the same time, ZDNS has also actively contributed to top-level domain technical standards, participating in the formulation of 8 industry standards such as Technical Requirements for Domain Name Registration Agreements Supporting DNSSEC in Internet New Generic Top-Level Domain Services and Technical Requirements for the Initial Period of Domain Name Registration Agreements in Internet New Generic Top-Level Domain Services, providing important support for promoting the standardized development of the domain name industry.

In the future, ZDNS will continue to leverage its comprehensive advantages in policy interpretation, technological research and development, and operation management to help more top-level domains land in China in a compliant manner, contributing to China's efforts in seizing the opportunity of top-level domain opening and building a safe and stable Internet domain name ecosystem.