Hong Kong companies will soon be allowed to register more than one Internet domain name in a move to liberalise the '.hk' world.
For the first time, individuals will also be able to register their own '.hk' sites under a plan by a government taskforce reviewing policies on Internet address assignment and administration.
Previously, any company wanting a '.hk' Internet address could only register a single domain name - the address typed into a Web browser to access a site - and that had to relate to the actual name or nature of the business, said taskforce chairman Professor Charles Kao Kuen.
The old policy was designed to prevent cyber squatting, where people register domain names of well-known businesses and trademarks and then try to sell them.
The '.hk' world will still be limited to companies registered in Hong Kong - a move that will most likely frustrate any multinationals seeking a localised domain name as it means setting up an SAR office.
The taskforce had wrestled with setting up a list of reserved domain names - such as forbidding the registration of 'micro soft.com.hk' - as a further safeguard against cyber squatting, but the public and the local Internet industry were against the idea.