
Its users are now being automatically redirected to Google’s Hong Kong-based search engine,, which gives results in simplified Chinese characters that have not been censored by Google. GoDaddy’s announcement came just two days after Google, chafing at Chinese censorship and cyber-attacks, announced that it was ceasing to censor the Chinese version of its search engine, Google.cn. GoDaddy also revealed that it has been the target of dozens of cyber-attacks since the start of the year and blamed the Chinese authorities: “We believe that many of the current abuses of the Internet originating in China are due to a lack of enforcement against criminal activities by the Chinese government.” “Not only that, but we are concerned about the chilling effects we believe the requirements could have on new domain name registrations.” “We are concerned about the security of the individuals affected by (the) new requirements,” Jones said. Jones told the hearing that only 20 per cent of GoDaddy’s clients had provided the requested documents and that, as a result, thousands of websites could be shut down by the Chinese authorities. The authorities are insisting that all of GoDaddy’s existing clients also comply with the rules.

Individuals and companies wanting a website must now personally provide the authorities with copies of photo IDs and business licences as well as fill out and sign forms. cn domain names had increased significantly since the end of 2009.

Jones said the demands being made by the Chinese authorities to allocate. cn domain name websites it has already sold. GoDaddy chief legal counsel Christine Jones told yesterday’s congressional hearing: “We decided we didn’t want to become an agent of the Chinese government.” The company will continue to administer the 27,000. China cannot continue to benefit from international trade relations without accepting the accompanying obligations, which include access to freely reported news and information, a requirement for evaluating and monitoring investments.” The press freedom organisation added: “The World Trade Organisation should take a close look at this subject. Censorship and Big Brother controls do not favour business activity.” This decision shows that the situation has become untenable for Internet companies. “We now call on Microsoft and Yahoo! to be courageous and follow their example. “We welcome the fact that another US company is following the example set by Google and is resisting the demands of the Chinese censors,” Reporters Without Borders said. cn suffix) because of the radical controls being demanded by the Chinese authorities. If some users are based outside China, or you plan to travel frequently outside China, this would be a recommended solution as access to email servers based in mainland China from overseas can also be problematic due to the same Great Firewall issues.US Internet company GoDaddy announced during a US congressional hearing yesterday that it will stop selling websites with Chinese domain names (those ending in the. So this is a temporary solution at best.Ĥ) Using Gmail/Google Apps but with a mail client: Some users have reported having no issues accessing their Gmail accounts through a mail client such as Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird.ĥ) Using the email function of a standard web hosting account in Hong Kong: many Hong Kong web hosts such as KowloonHosting offer business email accounts that can be used only for emails if the necessary DNS records are configured correctly. Some examples include:ģ) Using a VPN: this would allow you to use Gmail as usual but there were cases where the Chinese firewall blocks or interferes with these VPN. Both are offered by SinoHosting.Ģ) Corporate Email solutions offered by Chinese internet companies: many large Chinese internet conglomerates offer business email hosting which is generally reliable. As such, international companies are recommended in general to select the Hong Kong-hosted service. While mainland China servers are theoretically fasters to access from the country, the privacy of data hold by Chinese operators is always a concern.

Two server options to consider: mainland China (offered by Microsoft in partnership with 21Vianet) or Hong Kong.

Below our top 5 alternatives if you need to use email for your business while in China.ġ) Outlook / Office365: probably the strongest Gmail/Google Apps for Work alternative, and a worldclass mail service with excellent delivery. As you are probably aware China does not play nice with Google services and for the last two years Gmail has virtually been unusable in mainland China.
