CNNIC

Name

CNNIC

Legal name

China Internet Network Information Center (中国互联网络信息中心)

Website

https://cnnic.net.cn

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Domain Registry Services

NAICS

Regulation and Administration of Communications, Electric, Gas, and Other Utilities (92613), Information (51)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Communications Services, Nec (4899)

akta.pro primary industry

Communications, Media & Spectrum Regulators (BPAIAOAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Digital Policy, Data Governance & Cybersecurity Standards Cooperation (BPADANAH), Data Distribution, Connectivity & Market Data Platforms (Entitlements, Normalization, APIs) (FSAFAIAJ)

Keywords

• Domain registry services
• DNS infrastructure
• IP address allocation
• Internet governance
• CcTLD management

Headquarters

HQ city

Beijing

HQ country

China

HQ region

Asia

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Domain name registration and management services: CNNIC generates revenue through annual domain name registration fees for .CN, .中国 and other Chinese ccTLDs. Services include domain registration, renewal, WHOIS queries, privacy protection, cloud resolver services (SDNS), and IP/AS number allocation. Revenues support the operation of the national TLD global service platform and SLA commitments.
2. Domain security and brand protection services: One-time fees for enterprise digital identity protection products including brand protection services, anti-phishing detection services, and commercial cryptographic applications deployed at overseas registrars in Singapore and Canada.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

CNNIC is the sole official registry and management institution for China's country-code top-level domains (.CN, .中国, .公司, .网络), providing domain registration, DNS resolution, IP address allocation (IPv4/IPv6/AS), RPKI services, and related internet infrastructure management. It operates the National TLD Global Service Platform with 100% resolution availability and serves as China's authoritative source for internet development statistics and research.

Product overview

CNNIC operates as China's national internet network information center providing a comprehensive suite of internet foundational resource services. The core offerings include: (1) national top-level domain services (.CN/.中国) serving as the registry operator; (2) SDNS cloud services comprising authoritative DNS resolution, recursive DNS resolution, and DDoS protection; (3) IP/AS allocation services for IPv4/IPv6 addresses; (4) WHOIS lookup services; (5) cloud registry services for registrars. The platform infrastructure includes the national domain global service platform with two-location-three-center architecture and globally distributed parsing nodes, along with the internet big data platform for infrastructure monitoring. Research capabilities are housed in the national engineering laboratory for domain management technology, which has developed emerging technologies including the Agent Internet Domain System and AI Agent Gateway System for multi-agent interconnection. As of 2026, CNNIC manages over 20.85 million .CN domains and operates parsing nodes across multiple provinces including Jiangsu, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Anhui, and Qinghai.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• .CN domain: 20.85 million registrations, #1 globally for 11 consecutive years
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability9 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• 中国电信 (China Telecom)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 April 2026CNNIC and China Telecom jointly developed the AI Agent Gateway System (AI智能体网关系统) with capabilities in agent orchestration and scheduling, full-process service monitoring, standardized service publishing, and network capability invocation. China Telecom's Cloud Network Operating System R&D Center developed the system. Both parties co-hosted the Agent Internet Domain and Gateway System press conference in April 2026.
• 万联易达集团 (Wanlian Yida Group)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 April 2026Wanlian Yida developed industry application results based on CNNIC's Agent Internet Domain System and China Telecom's AI Agent Gateway System, deployed on the Wanlian Moore platform for bulk commodity trading scenarios, achieving precise supply-demand matching through multi-agent cross-domain interconnection.
• 新疆维吾尔自治区通信管理局 (Xinjiang Communications Administration)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 March 2026Jointly launched the national top-level domain (Xinjiang) resolution node — the only node in Northwest China connected to all three major telecom operators. Daily resolution: 242 million requests; latency reduced from 45.62ms to 11.14ms (76% improvement).
• 清华大学 (Tsinghua University)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 March 2026Co-organizer of IETF 125 (2026) with CNNIC, 清华大学, 中国互联网协会, 中国通信标准化协会. Jointly developed intelligent agent domain system research and presented at IETF 125 Hackathon. Professor Li Xing (李星) contributed keynotes on IPv6 technology. Joint research on satellite internet identifier systems.
• 四川省通信管理局 (Sichuan Communications Administration)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 December 2025Jointly launched the national top-level domain (Sichuan) resolution node in December 2025, providing .CN resolution with 2.131 billion daily requests and latency reduced from 41.6ms to 11.3ms. Supported by Sichuan Telecom, Mobile, Unicom, and Sichuan BC.
• 阿里云计算有限公司 (Alibaba Cloud)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 December 2025CNNIC conducted field research at Alibaba Cloud in October 2025 to explore AI-era internet domain technology development. Also discussed Chinese domain name business expansion and international standard support. Alibaba Cloud provides RPKI services to ~300 domestic institutions.
• 江苏省通信管理局 (Jiangsu Communications Administration)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 December 2025Jointly launched the national top-level domain (Jiangsu) resolution node in December 2025, providing 24/7 .CN resolution services for Jiangsu users with 2.2 billion+ daily resolution requests and latency reduced from 36.2ms to 16.5ms. Supported by Jiangsu Telecom and Jiangsu Mobile.
• 工信智库联盟 (MIIT Think Tank Alliance)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 November 2025CNNIC's think tank officially joined the MIIT Think Tank Alliance in November 2025, gaining access to a network of 100+ member institutions. CNNIC will contribute research on internet infrastructure key technologies, internet development and digital economy, and global internet governance.
• 浙江省足球协会 (Zhejiang Football Association)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 November 2025Launched '浙超.中国' national top-level domain for the Zhejiang Football Super League, marking an innovative practice of integrating national top-level domains with sports events. Zhejiang 22 Network Technology provides technical support for the partnership.
• 中国国际中文教育基金会 (China International Education Foundation)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 November 2025CNNIC signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Foundation to launch the Chinese domain name '孔子学院.中国', enabling global Confucius Institutes to establish Chinese-language internet presence. 500+ Confucius Institutes will progressively adopt .中国 domains.
• 宝贝回家志愿者协会 (Baby Homecoming Volunteers Association)minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 28 October 2025CNNIC partnered with the association to launch a public welfare campaign using Chinese domain names to help find missing children. Supported by Ename (易名科技) and Kenpai (垦派科技) as registration service partners.
• 曙光信息产业股份有限公司 (Sugon / Dawning Information Industry)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 October 2025CNNIC Director Liu Yulin visited Sugon in October 2025 to explore cooperation on high-end computing, intelligent computing power, and self-controlled ecosystem. Both parties agreed to build a high-level sci-tech innovation platform based on the National Engineering Laboratory.
• 中国科学院计算机网络信息中心 (CNCNIC, CAS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 October 2025Co-organizer of the 6th China Internet Infrastructure Conference (2025) and co-organizer of IETF 125 (2026). Jointly conducting RPKI research and cross-network testing with CNCnic on high-performance scalable RPKI key technologies, including practical network validation experiments.
• 青海省通信管理局 (Qinghai Communications Administration)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 September 2025Jointly launched the national top-level domain (Qinghai) resolution node in September 2025, providing .CN resolution for Qinghai users with 8 million+ daily requests and latency reduced from 39ms to 23ms. Supported by China Mobile Qinghai.
• ICANN (互联网名称与数字地址分配机构)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 September 2025CNNIC and ICANN maintain ongoing cooperation on global domain system management, Chinese IDN promotion, and internet governance. ICANN VP Samiran Gupta visited CNNIC in November 2025 for in-depth discussions on domain system development, Chinese IDN applications, and international governance. ICANN supports CNNIC's role in Asia-Pacific domain ecosystem.
• 移动专用网络国家工程研究中心 (National Engineering Research Center for Mobile Private Networks)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 July 2025CNNIC Director Liu Yulin visited the center led by CAS Academician Zhang Hongke to explore collaboration on internet basic resource core technologies. Both parties agreed to establish a long-term cooperation mechanism for talent exchange and joint research攻关.
• 联合国互联网治理论坛 (UN IGF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 July 2025CNNIC participated in IGF 2025 (Norway, June 2025) with a delegation. Deputy Director Zhang Xiao serves on the IGF MAG (Multistakeholder Advisory Group). CNNIC contributed to AI governance discussions and global digital governance framework development.
• APNIC (亚太互联网络信息中心)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 April 2025APNIC President Jia Rong served as keynote speaker at the 6th China Internet Infrastructure Conference. CNNIC experts hold APNIC Executive Committee seats. Joint IPv6 and RPKI technical training held in December 2025 with 240 participants from 65 organizations.
• 赛域科技（北京）有限责任公司 (Saiyu Technology / 赛域科技)coreTechnology or IntegrationWholly-owned subsidiary of CNNIC operating the 1.2.4.8 public recursive resolver service, managing the national TLD global service platform's technical operations, and organizing the IPv6 Technology Application Innovation Competition (强基赛道). Also developed the full-identifier service system (全标识服务体系).

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Verisign: Verisign operates the .com and .net registries and the authoritative DNS infrastructure for two of the largest TLDs globally. It is the closest direct peer to CNNIC's role as a national registry operator with critical DNS infrastructure, comparable in scale and infrastructure dependency.
• AFNIC: AFNIC operates the .fr ccTLD registry for France and provides associated DNS and IP resource services. As a non-profit registry under French government oversight, AFNIC is comparable to CNNIC in mandate, scale, and the mix of registry operations with research and policy output.
• Nominet: Nominet operates the .uk country-code top-level domain registry for the United Kingdom. As a national registry with policy stewardship, cybersecurity services (e.g., Nominet Cyber), and a non-profit orientated governance model, Nominet is structurally comparable to CNNIC's .CN operator role.
• DENIC eG: DENIC is the cooperative registry operator for Germany's .de ccTLD, one of the largest ccTLDs globally. DENIC's member-based governance model and its role operating a national DNS registry with strong reliability metrics closely parallels CNNIC's .CN registry operations.
• JPRS (Japan Registry Services): JPRS manages the .jp ccTLD registry and provides DNS and registry-related services for Japan. As a national registry operator with deep technical capabilities and IDN support, JPRS is a natural Asian regional peer to CNNIC's .CN registry operations.
• CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority): CIRA operates the .ca ccTLD registry and offers cybersecurity services such as CIRA DNS Firewall. CIRA's combined role as a national registry operator and DNS security services provider mirrors CNNIC's authoritative DNS, RPKI, and DNS security monitoring capabilities.

Regional players

• KISA (Korea Internet & Security Agency) / KRNIC: KISA operates the .kr ccTLD registry through KRNIC and provides broader internet security services for South Korea. It is a regional peer to CNNIC as a national registry operator with government affiliation and cybersecurity functions, though serving the Korean market rather than China.
• TWNIC (Taiwan Network Information Center): TWNIC operates the .tw and .台灣 ccTLDs for Taiwan. It is a regional peer to CNNIC's management of .CN and .中国, with similar technical scope (registry + DNS services) but a smaller scale and different geographic footprint.

Broad incumbents

• Public Interest Registry (PIR): PIR operates the .org gTLD and other registry-related services. As a non-profit registry operator with a public-interest mandate, PIR is comparable to CNNIC's non-profit status and national infrastructure orientation, even though it operates gTLDs rather than ccTLDs.
• Identity Digital: Identity Digital operates a portfolio of more than 25 gTLDs including .info, .pro, and several new gTLDs. While CNNIC manages a ccTLD portfolio, Identity Digital's role as a multi-TLD registry operator with comparable registry back-end infrastructure makes it a structurally similar incumbent in the registry services space.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat7 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/china-internet-network-information-center

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about CNNIC