GoDaddy.com says it will stop registering domains in China

Domain registrar GoDaddy says it will stop registering Web sites in China in response to new regulations requiring domain registration applicants to disclose extensive personal data, including photographs of themselves. Whatever your thoughts about GoDaddy as human rights champions and defenders of all that is good in the world, the move could be symbolically significant: they're the world's largest domain registration company.

• [efergus3]

  Annnnd, number 4. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100325/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_go_daddy_china

• [Anonymous]

  Westerners do not realize that to get on the internet at an internet cafe, you must show your identification card. In addition, for the past 4 years now, there is a policeman at every internet cafe. The point is that China has hardly changed in 5000 years. Only the surface has changed. They got a tan, you might say, or changed their hair style. The DNA is the same: an obsession with control and authority figures at every level, from the boss of the local noodle stand on up, who are so awful they would make Hitler and Hirohito blush.

• [relgin]

  China demanding more information about .cn domains is good because every last .cn site I find is a spam site selling drugs or fake watches and most people that set up a .cn domain are American or Russian spam/crime syndicates. I only wonder if the CCP will take over the spam registrar business now.

• [relgin]

  P.S. This is an interesting bit of information about godaddy that I found as well:

  http://nodaddy.com/

• [mudpup]

  I wonder if the cost of implementing these regulations had anything to do with this decision?

• [Anonymous]

  This is solely because the new rules make registrations more complicated and slower, and their business relies on a high volume of registrations. It’s just not profitable enough.

• [efergus3]

  Yup, Posted this and the fact that Dell is going to move to India on the previous Google Post. China is going to lose a lot of business.

• [Anonymous]

  maybe go daddy does`t want the chinese government worming their way into their software….

• [cortana]

  And watch as the spammers quickly run to .ru domains, because now .cn would require them to actually identify themselves!

• [bolamig]

  Great job Xeni and all who believe that we are capable of being kind because it’s the right thing to do.

• [Namdnal Siroj]

  About trust:
  The US has very similar privacy policies, requiring extensive personal information from foreign entities and individuals, for instance having to provide finger prints and pictures, when entering the US, even on a connecting flight.

  About spin:
  China is becoming increasingly expensive in terms of production.
  One reason may be that China has been implementing better working conditions, thus making labor more expensive.
  Another may be that some countries are increasingly hesitant to sell commodities to China (because it needs such large quantities?) and prices have been rising.
  It sounds great for a company that’s leaving China to say that it is because of privacy policies, censorship, but things are rarely as one-dimensional as any company’s press release makes them out to be.

  • [Agies]

    Requiring fingerprints and pictures of a foreign national entering the country isn’t anywhere close to requiring the same for citizens registering a domain in China.

    • [Anonymous]

      You’re correct. From my frequent flying perspective, requiring fingerprints on a connecting flight, something I have done several times, seems quite a bit more draconian than requiring a photograph when registering a domain, something I have only done once in my life.

• [Anonymous]

  As much as I’d like to say this is a stroke at internet freedom and yada yada, really it’s GoDaddy, it’s all about the money. It just so happens this gross violation of internet freedoms also happens to cost alot of money for GoDaddy to comply with. So they instead will not bother with china at all. Despite their motives, it’s nice to see people are finally standing up to China’s Gov’t.

• [Anonymous]

  Go Daddy is owned by Bob Parsons. He doesn’t have to answer to anyone but himself. He’s personally losing money by refusing to work with China, but he won’t lose his job. I think a CEO that had to answer to stockholders and the market would be more reluctant to lose that revenue.