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There is no true alphabet in written Chinese; instead a system of characters is used, with each character representing a different word or syllable. The average educated Chinese person knows between five and ten thousand characters (as many as fifty thousand altogether have been recorded, though the majority of these are obsolete).
Inputting Chinese characters with keyboard devices designed for Western languages is not an easy task. The standard for domain names does not allow such characters, and much work has gone into finding a way around this, either by changing the standard, or by agreeing on a way to convert internationalized domain names into standard ASCII domain names while preserving the stability of the domain name system.
Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) is a mechanism defined in for handling internationalized domain names containing non-ASCII characters. Rather than redesigning the existing DNS infrastructure, it was decided that non-ASCII domain names should be converted to a suitable ASCII-based form by browsers and other user applications. This was the birth of Punycode.
An example of Punycode would be a domain such as ·Â*ÃU.com which is inputted in Punycode as xn--pw0a62s.com. To obtain the code, users must first input the Chinese characters into a converter and then place the result into the address bar of the browser. This indirect method is not preferred by Chinese users.
Another alterative is Wubi, which stands for ¡°five stroke input method¡±. Wubi maps major components of Chinese characters into Roman letters. The Chinese character components are inputted in the order in which they would be written by hand. Wubi is used primarily by speed typists and those who use a keyboard a great deal, because it is fast. However, it requires special training and ongoing practice and its learning curve is quite steep. Most Chinese do not believe that it is worth the investment in time that learning the Wubi method requires.
The vast majority of computer users in the Peoples' Republic of China type out their words in transliteration, using the standard Roman alphabet keys on a QWERTY keyboard (which is prevalent throughout China). To generate a character, they type out its sound according to the same spelling system. This is the Pinyin method. Using standardized software in conjunction with the English language QWERTY keyboard, a Chinese can type in the word yuming (Pinyin) and ÃòÃûgets put into the document.
To accomplish this, they need to switch typing methods at least twice. For instance, to type ÃòÃû.com into the address blank, they need to:
Switch to Chinese typing mode by using "Ctrl+Shift" at least once, sometimes more.
Type Pinyin yuming , select ÃòÃû from a list of choices that appears for yuming, then
Switch back to English typing mode by using "Ctrl+Shift" or "Ctrl+Blank" , type .com, and then they¡¯re done.
Of course, longer or more complex words make this process all the more burdensome. Since they must use Pinyin anyway, they prefer to have the domain nomenclature in Pinyin so that no further work is necessary.
Pinyin is the official system of China; it is used on street signs, in brochures, and is taught in school as a required subject. Dictionaries are organized by Pinyin as well as by character. Even in Taiwan, people are using modified Tongyong Pinyin instead of Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II.
Pinyin has been accepted by the Library of Congress, The American Library Association, and most international institutions as the transcription system for Mandarin. In 1979, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) also adopted Pinyin as the standard romanization for Modern Chinese. Microsoft has integrated Pinyin into its Word software.
The use of Pinyin will become even more widespread as the Chinese becomes ever more comfortable with the Roman alphabet. China encourages its population to learn English and made English compulsory in primary schools from Grade 3 in 2001, while big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have already introduced English at Grade 1. An estimated 176.7 million Chinese were studying English in 2005 within the formal education sector. As a result of these policies, China now produces over 20 million English speakers each year.
One seeking evidence of the Chinese present level of comfort using Pinyin need look no further than to Baidu.com, the Chinese search engine giant, whose name is taken from a Song Dynasty poem that ¡°compares the search for a retreating beauty amid chaotic glamour with the search for one¡¯s dream while confronted by life¡¯s many obstacles.¡± Baidu.com is the most-trafficked website in China and the fourth most-trafficked website in the world.
In a similar vain, virtually all of China¡¯s dominant Internet companies, such as Tencent, Netease and Shanda, are Pinyin-named,
Understandably, the use of Pinyin in URLs has greatly facilitated searches online for the Chinese speaking population throughout the world. Pinyin-based URLs vastly outnumber their Chinese character-based counterparts and all the major Chinese search engines use Pinyin as their primary search language.
The China Internet Network Information Center reported that there were 123M Internet users in China as of June 2006. New York's eMarketer say this figure is expected to grow to 200M by 2007, which would make China the largest Internet market in the world by the end of next year.
Increasingly, the Chinese are adopting the type-in method for searching, the use of which is now widespread among English speaking searchers. Typing-in is the practice of searching for information on the Internet by entering the query subject directly into the URL bar. This type-in traffic is also referred to as direct navigation. WebSideStory, a market research organization, reports that direct navigation has a conversion-to-sale rate which is almost double that of traditional search engine clicks.
For example, if a Chinese were interested in obtaining shopping information for a long weekend in Beijing, instead of performing a search-engine search for beijinggouwu (Pinyin for Beijing shopping), they would type-in beijinggouwu.com in the browser's address bar to quickly review the suitability of the site content.
Pinyin domain names are presently selling for pennies-on-the-dollar relative to their English language counterparts. Recently, the domain caopiao.com (lottery ticket) sold for the equivalent of around $4,600. It has been widely estimated that its English counterpart is worth in the very high $XX,XXX and possibly $XXX,XXX.
It is not our position that domains in Pinyin and English will reach a parity in value over the shorter term. We do feel, however, that the gap between the two will unquestionably narrow in the next year or two, thus making Pinyin domain names a very astute investment.
Inputting Chinese characters with keyboard devices designed for Western languages is not an easy task. The standard for domain names does not allow such characters, and much work has gone into finding a way around this, either by changing the standard, or by agreeing on a way to convert internationalized domain names into standard ASCII domain names while preserving the stability of the domain name system.
Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) is a mechanism defined in for handling internationalized domain names containing non-ASCII characters. Rather than redesigning the existing DNS infrastructure, it was decided that non-ASCII domain names should be converted to a suitable ASCII-based form by browsers and other user applications. This was the birth of Punycode.
An example of Punycode would be a domain such as ·Â*ÃU.com which is inputted in Punycode as xn--pw0a62s.com. To obtain the code, users must first input the Chinese characters into a converter and then place the result into the address bar of the browser. This indirect method is not preferred by Chinese users.
Another alterative is Wubi, which stands for ¡°five stroke input method¡±. Wubi maps major components of Chinese characters into Roman letters. The Chinese character components are inputted in the order in which they would be written by hand. Wubi is used primarily by speed typists and those who use a keyboard a great deal, because it is fast. However, it requires special training and ongoing practice and its learning curve is quite steep. Most Chinese do not believe that it is worth the investment in time that learning the Wubi method requires.
The vast majority of computer users in the Peoples' Republic of China type out their words in transliteration, using the standard Roman alphabet keys on a QWERTY keyboard (which is prevalent throughout China). To generate a character, they type out its sound according to the same spelling system. This is the Pinyin method. Using standardized software in conjunction with the English language QWERTY keyboard, a Chinese can type in the word yuming (Pinyin) and ÃòÃûgets put into the document.
To accomplish this, they need to switch typing methods at least twice. For instance, to type ÃòÃû.com into the address blank, they need to:
Switch to Chinese typing mode by using "Ctrl+Shift" at least once, sometimes more.
Type Pinyin yuming , select ÃòÃû from a list of choices that appears for yuming, then
Switch back to English typing mode by using "Ctrl+Shift" or "Ctrl+Blank" , type .com, and then they¡¯re done.
Of course, longer or more complex words make this process all the more burdensome. Since they must use Pinyin anyway, they prefer to have the domain nomenclature in Pinyin so that no further work is necessary.
Pinyin is the official system of China; it is used on street signs, in brochures, and is taught in school as a required subject. Dictionaries are organized by Pinyin as well as by character. Even in Taiwan, people are using modified Tongyong Pinyin instead of Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II.
Pinyin has been accepted by the Library of Congress, The American Library Association, and most international institutions as the transcription system for Mandarin. In 1979, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) also adopted Pinyin as the standard romanization for Modern Chinese. Microsoft has integrated Pinyin into its Word software.
The use of Pinyin will become even more widespread as the Chinese becomes ever more comfortable with the Roman alphabet. China encourages its population to learn English and made English compulsory in primary schools from Grade 3 in 2001, while big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have already introduced English at Grade 1. An estimated 176.7 million Chinese were studying English in 2005 within the formal education sector. As a result of these policies, China now produces over 20 million English speakers each year.
One seeking evidence of the Chinese present level of comfort using Pinyin need look no further than to Baidu.com, the Chinese search engine giant, whose name is taken from a Song Dynasty poem that ¡°compares the search for a retreating beauty amid chaotic glamour with the search for one¡¯s dream while confronted by life¡¯s many obstacles.¡± Baidu.com is the most-trafficked website in China and the fourth most-trafficked website in the world.
In a similar vain, virtually all of China¡¯s dominant Internet companies, such as Tencent, Netease and Shanda, are Pinyin-named,
Understandably, the use of Pinyin in URLs has greatly facilitated searches online for the Chinese speaking population throughout the world. Pinyin-based URLs vastly outnumber their Chinese character-based counterparts and all the major Chinese search engines use Pinyin as their primary search language.
The China Internet Network Information Center reported that there were 123M Internet users in China as of June 2006. New York's eMarketer say this figure is expected to grow to 200M by 2007, which would make China the largest Internet market in the world by the end of next year.
Increasingly, the Chinese are adopting the type-in method for searching, the use of which is now widespread among English speaking searchers. Typing-in is the practice of searching for information on the Internet by entering the query subject directly into the URL bar. This type-in traffic is also referred to as direct navigation. WebSideStory, a market research organization, reports that direct navigation has a conversion-to-sale rate which is almost double that of traditional search engine clicks.
For example, if a Chinese were interested in obtaining shopping information for a long weekend in Beijing, instead of performing a search-engine search for beijinggouwu (Pinyin for Beijing shopping), they would type-in beijinggouwu.com in the browser's address bar to quickly review the suitability of the site content.
Pinyin domain names are presently selling for pennies-on-the-dollar relative to their English language counterparts. Recently, the domain caopiao.com (lottery ticket) sold for the equivalent of around $4,600. It has been widely estimated that its English counterpart is worth in the very high $XX,XXX and possibly $XXX,XXX.
It is not our position that domains in Pinyin and English will reach a parity in value over the shorter term. We do feel, however, that the gap between the two will unquestionably narrow in the next year or two, thus making Pinyin domain names a very astute investment.
