Archive for March, 2007
Internationalization. Other than being a mouthful to read aloud, it is a real challenge if you are trying to host multiple languages website, across multiple locations.
Like most IT issue however, hosting multiple-language site either works just fine and you never think there is a problem or it can turn out to be a full-blown nightmare.
In the time of nightmare, don’t you wish there is someone around to help? Well, we had been through numerous scenarios and can confidently say we can help.
Let me share just one example we just encountered a few days ago.
Internationalization problems (or challenges) come in many permutation. In this particular case, it was a case of programmers working in one language assuming people who use their software also speaks the same language. Having dealt with just one language all the time, they are not equipped to solve problem arising from interaction with another language.
Indeed as Einstein put it, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.“So happily one fine day, an English speaking user brought a Chinese software and install on an English-based server. And like they said, all hell broke loss.
Was it the hosting company problem who did not configure their server to handle another language? Or was it the software company problem who did not anticipate someone using their software with another language?
While they are deciding, we already decided to get the customer’s site up, without starting a global war.
- Do you have a multiple languages website?
- Are you localizing and migrating your web application to run in China?
- Are you thinking of moving your Chinese website from an overseas server to a server in China?
- You have website in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Arabic and they just don’t work the way they do compared to the server back home?
Leave us a comment.
Or better yet, come host with us.
March 30th, 2007
We encountered so many myths, facts and fallacies concerning the registration of .cn domain I think it is time to provide the right information.
Indeed, many webhosting companies in China are not aware of the details since they operated in the local market context. Amazingly even some of the accredited registrars are not able to give the right answer if you query them (whether out of ignorance or on purpose I do not know).
Backgrounder
First let’s get to know some background information. The .cn domain, also know as the countr-code top-level domain (cctld) for China is administrated by the national body CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center). This means that the domains you had registered are governed by their policies.
There are 6 .cn cctld - .cn, .com.cn, .net.cn, .org.cn, .edu.cn, .gov.cn. Of which .cn and .com.cn are the ones of interest to most people.
Although you can register .cn and .com, .net domains at the same time, the .cn domain is not governed by the body that manage the .com, .net global domain. This brings us to the next point.
How to register?
Like most other top-level domains, the .cn domains are distributed by domain registrars. The top registrars are accredited directed by CNNIC. These registrars then distribute through a network of sub-registrar or resellers.
59Box, for example, is a domain reseller. There is nothing wrong with getting from a domain reseller who may differentiate based on service, price, product bundle or other creative offers.
So far so good, but here’s where things start to turn interesting.
The price you paid
If you register your domain in China, most likely through a Chinese provider, the price you would had paid is likely between ￥60 - ￥200 (about US$7.80 - 26).
If you had registered your domain outside of China, the price you would had paid is probably from US$25-50.
Imperfect market information and price discrimination aside, one of the least known fact about CNNIC accreditation is that it is divided into domestic and international. Domestic registrar (within China) are handled by CNNIC directly. International registrars are handled exclusively through an organization known as NeuLevel, Inc.
Beside pricing, this little known division also cause some problems to the unaware. Chief of which is transferring.
Transferring domains
Why do you want to transfer domain? There are a few reasons. You may have a few domains registered with different registrars and want to consolidate them with one registrar. Or you simply want to save money. Sometime you may need to transfer because of some restriction or requirement imposed by the hosting company.
If you had been used to the ease of transferring .com domain, trying to transfer a .cn domain is an exercise in patience. Lots of it.
Transferring between a domestic registrar and an international registrar is a gray area! Previously it was not allowed but Neulevel’s FAQ seems to indicate it is possible in one direction. Transferring from an international registrar to a domestic registrar is highly unlikely.
Before you start thinking that transferring between domestic registrars would be simple, stop. Many domestic registrars still practice the unscrupulous tactic of holding a domain name hostage. We had have a few clients whose domain were systematically obstructed when transferring. But you legitimately owned a domain, going through some paperwork should solve it.
Your Options?
If you are operating in China, register your domain with a domestic company (like us!). There is no reason to register with an international provider and pay much more (for less).
Previously if you do not have a presence in China, an international registrar is the only alternative. However companies such as 59Box (us) are starting to appear and fill the gap. Providing lower cost .cn domain registration at a service level that international clients are accustomed to expect.
Do you have any other problems with .cn domains? I certainly hope to hear any feedback and try to help any much as I can.
March 25th, 2007
You might be surprised but online payment is alive and well in China. Compared to a few years ago, making online payment is getting easier everyday.
The only caveat - you have to read Chinese. Most of the payment interface are in Chinese only or have badly translated English interface. If you do not read Chinese, online payment can still be a challenge.
At 59Box, one of the things we wanted to do is to make it easy for customer to pay us. (We don’t understand why many companies here make it so difficult to pay them.)
Beside the usual cash and crediting into bank account, we are lining up a few popular online payment options. You can find the information on our Payment page.
Online Credit Card payment
Credit card is getting more popular in China especially with the young and mobile working professionals. Integrating with credit card processor for China issued cards is pretty straight forward. We had integrated with ChinaBank Payment to process local credit cards.
In order to accept cards issued outside China, a more beat-about route is required. Currently we are going through the process and hopefully will be able to accept all credit cards very, very soon.
AliPay
Have not heard of AliPay? It is a service similar to PayPal, with some China favor thrown in. Just like PayPal, you can sign up with your email and make payment to another email address.
We have an AliPay account and is integrating the payment process. So if you have an AliPay account, you can choose this option.
Online Bank Transfer
Internet banking is also becoming popular option nowadays. By far the best internet banking platform we have seen is from Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC). Ask for the internet-banking service when you open an account.
With Internet banking you can do online fund transfer to our account. There is no charge if your account is in Shanghai and a small charge if outside of Shanghai. Our account information is on the Payment page.
Transfer with ATM machine
OK this is not strictly online but still very convenient if you hold an account with any of the local banks below. Simply go to the ATM and do a fund transfer to us. Our account information can be found on our Payment page.
- Bank of China
- Industrial and Commercial Bank
- Bank of Communications
- China Construction Bank
- China Merchants Bank
- Agriculture Bank
So there you have it, payment made easy. But it does not stop here. If you still need other options like PayPal, Moneybookers, Western Union, etc. Just get in touch with us.
March 21st, 2007
We are great fan and supporter of the open source movement. When getting ready our hosting service, one of the questions we asked was whether to go open source or buy commercial softwares.
We like to go for open source, but it means more work. The extra work probably cost more than if we just pay for the commercial products. But we thought, since we are at it - bring new ideas to hosting in China - we might as well introduce and promote something we believe in - open source.
Open source is huge in the hosting space. For example, eight of the ten most reliable web hosters run their sites on the open source operating system Linux. (Someone should start a similar measurement within China but not surprised if there is one already.)
But Windows hosting is huge in China. Just about every hosting company provide Windows hosting. And just about any small, medium website is hosted on the Windows platform. Not sure how many of those are licensed copies, though. Ever notice in China Linux hosting seems to cost more than Windows hosting? Looks like some cost is missed out somewhere. Imagine BSA going into the datacenter and start shutting down each server that does not have a license. Gives you a grin thinking about it doesn’t it.
We decided to stand behind what we believe in and use open source control panel for hosting as well. Sorry cPanel and Plesk fans, we like them very much too, save us lots of energy, but it is open source all-the-way this time.
Virtualmin is the control panel we will provide by default because we know and use it for a long time. There are a couple more open source control panel around and we like very much to partner with people who can support these panels.
Please get in touch if you like to showcase your favorite control panel to our China hosting users. We can work out a win-win-win business model for you, we and the open source project.
March 10th, 2007
IP here is not Intellectual Property, yet another hot topic in China, but Internet Protocol, as in IP address.
Here’s an interesting visualization of IP allocation per capita (via Ip Assignment, Per Capita).
The colors indicate 1 IP is available for how many people in the country.
Notice that China, among most other countries have less than 1 IP per capita. (Exact value is not provided, interested to work that out?)
If the rate of Internet growth in China holds true, China may be running out of IP soon. Or is it?
My interest in this was aroused recently I enquired about getting more IP addresses to provide VPS service. To my horror I was told that IP is assigned 1 per rack space and would cost almost as much as a co-location to get another. Checking with a few more providers gives basically the same answer. The reason? “IP demand is very ???” (interesting term here, how do you translate it succinctly?)
According to 2006 IPv4 Address Use Report (somewhere near the bottom), China distributed 98.02M addresses compared to US 1366.53M. This information, if put together with another data - China’s 137M Internet users, second behind US’s 207M users but with only 10% penetration - does make the IP shortage scenario look very real.
But Andy Oram presented the other side of the argument - there isn’t an IP address crunch. In fact, Asia-Pacific used up only 13.9% of the IP allocated. This is much inline with the rest of the world.
So what is the true picture of IP allocation in China? This article and this APNIC article may enlighten.
But my question still remains - how to get more IP? Is anyone able to introduce me into a guanxi circle to get a block of IPs?
March 4th, 2007
Many things are cheap in China unfortunately web hosting is not one of them.
I not saying this so that we can get our customer to pay more. (And we will never do that, ever.)
Before we became a hosting company in China ourselves, we tried to find hosting with rock-bottom price like those American hosters (for like $5 a month, unlimited everything!). After talking to people and understanding the market, we learnt that the are factors with make cheap hosting very unlikely.
On critical factor is IP scarcity (more on this topic another time). Economic 101, scarcity increase, demand increase, price increase. There are just too few IP to go around. I recall a source mentioning the whole of China has as many IP address allocated as Stanford University.
Monopoly of infrastructure. Again Econ 101, monopoly or oligopoly props up prices. Datacenters, backbones are owned by a few powerful players. There isn’t any real competition to drive down price or push up service level.
Finally, surprise, surprise, server hardwares are not cheaper (and often more expensive) in China. For example, check out Dell’s price for the PowerEdge 860 in US and in China.
So with a high base cost, the price can only go so low. As price goes lower, service and reliability suffered.
Our journey to drive down cost and improve reliability for our own hosting usage led to the decision to set up a new hosting company and share our effort with customers.
As we grow, we are committed to find innovatives way to push the standard and value of hosting services.
March 2nd, 2007