Enter Hong Kong market with a .COM.HK Domain

HKIRC's eligibility table defines this category in a single line: commercial entities registered in Hong Kong. The zone is therefore tied to the identity of a registered business and is not open to personal applications. For individual projects without such registration, .hk is open to all interested individuals and entities, and for residents of Hong Kong there is a separate category, .idv.hk.

The registry lists three: a Business Registration Certificate issued by the Inland Revenue Department — head office only, branch certificates are not accepted; a Certificate of Registration of Overseas Company from the Companies Registry; and a Certificate of Registration of Non-Hong Kong Company, also from the Companies Registry. If an application relies on a different document, it has to be submitted together with a letter explaining the circumstances.

Yes, provided it is registered. The accepted documents include the Companies Registry's Certificate of Registration of Overseas Company and the Certificate of Registration of Non-Hong Kong Company. What the rule asks for is therefore not Hong Kong origin but Hong Kong registration. If you hold no such registration and do not plan to obtain one, the open zone in the same country is .hk.

The difference is eligibility. .hk is registered directly at the second level and, in the words of the policy, is open to all interested individuals and entities, with no documents required as a rule. .com.hk is reserved for commercial entities registered in Hong Kong and is applied for with a registration certificate. Technically a .com.hk name is a third-level name, so the address has three parts.

Under clause 4.3, the three parts of a third-level English domain name, including the dots, cannot exceed 63 characters in total. Only letters A to Z, digits 0 to 9 and hyphens are allowed, and case is not distinguished. The name must begin and end with a letter or a digit, and hyphens are not allowed in the third and fourth character positions. An application that does not meet this structure may be refused.

If the renewal fee is not paid by the due date, the registrar cancels the registration and the name enters a black-out period. During it the holder may apply to reinstate the name by paying the renewal fee, the late charge and any other outstanding fees; if no application is made, the name may be released into the public domain. HKIRC sets the date range and it may last no more than 90 calendar days. The reminder email goes to the administrative and billing contacts recorded in WHOIS.

Changing the holder is a separate process: the parties consent to the transfer, jointly execute a transfer form and follow the procedure prescribed by the registrar. The critical condition is this: the transferee must comply with the eligibility requirements applicable to that name. For .com.hk that means the receiving party must itself be a commercial entity registered in Hong Kong. Changing registrar is a different operation, run on the authorisation password; you can start it from the domain transfer page.

Yes. The policies define the categories in equivalent groups, and .公司.hk and .公司.香港 count as equivalent to .com.hk. Chinese domain names carry a different length limit: no more than 15 characters in total, excluding the extension. In addition, all applications for Chinese names received after the policies took effect are allocated under the .香港 top-level domain. For a brand aimed at a Chinese-reading audience, it makes sense to consider both scripts together.