ICANN has approved the use of Chinese language internationalised domain names.

In what has been described as “another step forward in global internet accessibility”, Chinese language users will soon be able to access the internet using Chinese script, following ICANN’s (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approval of a set of Chinese language internationalised domain names.

The new IDN country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and the associated organisations approved are: CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Centre), HKIRC (Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited), and TWNIC (Taiwan Network Information Centre).

This follows ICANN’s recent approval of non-Latin character internet addresses, which was described at the time as being “the biggest technical change to the internet since it was created four decades ago”.

Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN, said: “This approval is a significant change for Chinese language users worldwide. One fifth of the world speaks Chinese and that means we just increased the potential online accessibility for roughly a billion people.”

The ICANN board has also allowed the application for the .xxx  top-level domain (TLD) – similar to .com and .co.uk – to move forward. The controversial .xxx TLD has been assigned for use by the adult entertainment industry.