China.com sells sub domains

China.com is to franchise part of its web domain to brands, countries and cities as part of a move to get people to publish more information in Chinese.

The domain name, which is owned by Chinese software company CDC, has partnered with an Italian advertising agency to launch Italy.China.com – one of the first sub-domains for countries. Korea.china.com has also subscribed to the scheme.

Xiaowei Chen, general manager of China.com, told silicon.com: "[These] are two examples of country.china.com, where our content partners provide country-specific content and advertisers from that country target the Chinese audience.

Xiaowei said: "We're hoping to launch a brand.china.com service soon, where companies can promote their image and products customised for the Chinese market."

Some cities in China are already publishing information on the city.china.com domain about government issues, tourism and business.

China.com attracts six million visitors per day to its website. Content and advertising for the Italian section, which went live yesterday, will be provided by marketing company ProAdvertising on subjects such as Italian fashion, football and cooking.

Some content will be offered by text message, WAP and multimedia messaging services, the company said.

Carlo Brizi, business director for ProAdvertising, said in a statement: "China.com is one of the most valuable URLs in the world. We are to offer a promotional platform for our customers wishing to enter the China market."

China has a population of 1.3 billion, roughly a fifth of the world's population.