On the first day the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) announced that it would register Chinese domain names for free, it received 36,000 applications for domain names.

According to the China Economic Times, five days ago, the CNNIC began accepting domain name applications for ".cn" addresses. Currently, there are only 48,695 domain names registered.

On January 18, CNNIC announced that it would began handling applications for Chinese domain names.

Before, Internet domain names were all in English, which was very inconvenient for Chinese enterprises. Now, after registering a Chinese domain name, an Internet user only needs to enter the Chinese web address to visit a website.

However, Mao Wei, director of CNNIC says, not all of the 36,000 Chinese domain names will be approved. The CNNIC has requested that one organization apply for a maximum of five Chinese domain names a day, and the total number of applications by one organization cannot exceed 50.

"The goal here is so that the resources will be evenly distributed, so Chinese domain names won't be hoarded by one organization," said Mao.