Hong Kong companies doing business on the mainland must brace for the biggest change ever in e-commerce when hundreds of new domain names are released next year, says the Asian head of the international body governing web names.
For the first time, non-English domain names will be up for grabs to the highest bidder with domains such as the Putonghua equivalent of .com.
There are currently only 22 generic top-level domains (including .com, .org, .edu and .gov) and 280 country codes (such as .hk).
But all this will soon change with more than 1,900 applications for new domains now being assessed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
"For the people in Hong Kong, there will be a lot of choice," said Xiaodong Lee, ICANN's Asia vice-president based in Beijing.
Within the next 12 months, new domains such as .casino and .art will be released and their dollar value is not lost on brick-and-mortar companies that want to grow their online presence.