Any webmaster would be curious why Apple’s China site moved from apple.com to apple.com.cn. What’s good about a CN domain? Why does Apple like CN? Let me analyze it based on my own site-running experience.
Apple’s Global Domain Strategy
Long, long ago, Apple’s China site was apple.com.cn. After a problem with the .cn root servers, Apple switched mainland China to the globally uniform format the next day, globalizing it to apple.com/cn — Hong Kong, China became apple.com/hk and Taiwan, China became apple.com/tw, all under apple.com for a unified brand image. Recently, though, they switched back to apple.com.cn.
The ICP Filing Theory
Many people online say ICP filing requires moving the domain into China, and that Apple couldn’t possibly do that. But apple.com obtained an ICP filing number long ago, as shown below, so the domain change wasn’t about ICP filing.
Sensitive Domestic Circumstances
My guess is that there are sensitive circumstances specific to China. On apple.com you can switch country or region, and the region list splits China into Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, each shown with a different flag, as below. That’s extremely sensitive. Apple may have defined its China site as apple.com.cn specifically to sidestep the issue — and on apple.com.cn you can’t switch country or region at all, so that page never appears and the sensitive issue is avoided.
At the same time, certain domestic policies require separation: iCloud, for instance, is operated by Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD), so features like iCloud and the App Store have to be distinguished from the international versions. Distinguishing them starting at the domain makes operations easier.
The Love-Hate Relationship With CN Domains
Many veterans don’t recommend CN domains, because CN is administered by China’s CNNIC — meaning a notice from some domestic authority can shut down resolution of a given CN domain worldwide. It’s a country-code domain, after all, administered by a particular country. .com, .net, and .org are international domains, not administered by any single country.
The love for CN comes from this: when you can’t get the .com, a CN domain is more readily accepted in China than the alternatives. .cn is already quite popular in China — if you use .red or some uncommon TLD, people tend to assume the site is fake and won’t click.