.VIP domains get government approval in China

Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM:MMX) announced that it has today received official approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (“MIIT”) of the People’s Republic of China for MMX’s dot VIP top-level domain.

The announcement was made via the official website of the MIIT. Approval means that owners of dot VIP domain names within China can now apply for the relevant local license (“bei-an”) to allow their dot VIP domain names to be hosted in the country. MMX’s TLD dot VIP is one of only three generic new top-level domains (“new gTLDs”) to have received this approval via this MIIT announcement. The other 2 are .club and .xyz.

.VIP was launched in May 2016. You can read many articles related to .VIP here.

Toby Hall, CEO of MMX, commented:

“MIIT approval is a major milestone for MMX and the continued successful development of our dot VIP domain. We share the China domain industry’s opinion that regulatory approval will provide for another wave of top-level domain growth in the region. Influential Chinese registrars will now be able to market this select group of approved new gTLDs more actively to the important local Chinese SME end-market for usage. We are deeply honoured to be one of only three registries to be approved in this first round of approvals.”

Toby Hall added:

“China is a key market for the Group, the country accounting for 42% of the 27 million new top-level domain addresses that have been registered to date. It therefore was a priority of 2016 to successfully access this region. Having a domain that is fully compliant, approved and extremely well accepted by the Chinese market, is therefore a key asset for the Group.”

Dr Mao Wei, a luminary of the Chinese domain industry and Board Chairman of ZDNS, MMX.s technical partner in China, commented:

“We congratulate dot VIP on its approval and believe it has the potential to become one of the most popular, significant top-level domains in China.”

The full announcement confirming the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (“MIIT”) approval can be found at:

http://www.miit.gov.cn/n1146285/n1146352/n3054355/n3057709/n4704651/c5396564/content.html.