Following closely on the heels of Google, the popular domain registrar GoDaddy has also announced their decision to pull out of the Chinese market.
GoDaddy will stop registering .cn domain names. However, they will continue to manage existing registrations.
Speaking at a U.S. Congressional Executive Commission on China, Christine Jones, Executive V.P. of GoDaddy said that the decision was made following the new requirements that the Chinese Government has imposed on the registration of new websites.
The Chinese government has now made it mandatory for newly registered sites to provide a photo ID of the person registering the site along with other details of business registration in China.
Jones later admitted that GoDaddy had also been a target of the same spate of cyber attacks that sparked Google’s battle with China.
Ellen Nakashima and Cecilia Kang at The Washington Post write, “The rules, the company believes, are an effort by China to increase monitoring and surveillance of website content and could put individuals who register their sites with the firm at risk. The company also believes the rules will have a ‘chilling effect’ on new domain registrations.”
Google and GoDaddy might soon be joined by PC manufacturer Dell, who has also suggested that they may move their operations from China to India. Could this increased monetary pressure, arising from the loss of business from China might make the government rethink their stance?
