New | China.com, among world's most costly domain names, relaunched to boost Beijing's voice
China Radio International bought domain for HK$90 million and hopes site will bolster country's reputation
China Radio International, a state-owned media conglomerate and new owner of one of the world’s most-coveted internet domain names, China.com, has relaunched the site in an effort to boost the nation’s media presence abroad.
The relaunch of the website, reported on Monday, marked a new turn in the troubled existence of the government-sponsored domain name under a Hong Kong-listed company. China Radio International plans to use the highly coveted address to create the nation’s flagship multilingual online platform.
China.com will help the nation to “create a favourable global public opinion environment”, said Tong Liqiang, executive vice-president of the Beijing government’s internet information office, at an event marking the re-launch in Beijing on Saturday. As of Monday, it features content in eleven languages.
For Anne Nelson, a Columbia University professor who has studied Chinese state-media presence abroad, the site's main challenge will be credibility. "To the extent that directives come out of the Communist Party, it will be hard for their operations to gain significant international audiences as trusted news sources," she said.
"In the realm of entertainment, Chinese cultural perspectives remain ethnocentric," she added.
The platform, which has yet to move beyond its current state as yet another government-sponsored website exclusively sharing stories by the state-run media outlets, was acquired for a staggering HK$90.8 million in August last year from China.com Inc. by a holding company owned by the broadcaster. The domain Hongkong.com was also acquired.
