Exclusive Interview with Wang Zhen: How has Xinnet steadily advanced from .cn to a digital panorama across different eras?

When browsing web pages, we often see domain suffixes like ".com" and ".cn". Have you ever wondered about the development stories behind them? Especially ".cn", it is not only one of the symbols of the Chinese internet, but is also closely related to the development of China's digital economy.

In this process, Xinnet, as one of the earliest providers of basic internet services, played a crucial role. From the successful registration of the world's first .cn domain name in 2003 to rapidly becoming the world's largest .cn domain name registrar in 2005, to a certain extent, Xinnet's development history is almost synchronized with the explosive growth of the Chinese internet. In this process, the promotion and popularization of the .cn domain name has driven the development of the entire Chinese internet, and the explosive growth of the Chinese internet has also fed back Xinnet's growth.

For over thirty years, relying on its deep technical accumulation and keen insight into market changes, Xinnet has developed from a traditional domain name registration service provider into a comprehensive digital service provider covering emerging fields such as cloud computing, network security, artificial intelligence, and 5G, providing enterprises with all-round support for digital transformation.

So, what is Xinnet's secret to maintaining its leading position in the industry? How is Xinnet strategically adapting to market changes and evolving customer needs? And, against the backdrop of the intertwined global and digital waves, how is Xinnet helping small and medium-sized enterprises lower the barriers to transformation, seize digital opportunities, and achieve sustainable development? With these questions, we conducted an in-depth discussion with Xinnet General Manager Wang Zhen in the “China Enterprise Spokesperson: Discussing Digital Growth” column.

China Enterprise Editor: Mr. Wang, when did you join Xinnet?

Wang Zhen: I officially joined Xinnet in 2023, but in fact, my connection with China Enterprise Group can be traced back further—from 2001 to 2012, I worked at China Enterprise Power, a subsidiary of the Group, for 12 years, experiencing the company's period of rapid growth. Now that I have returned to the Group system, it is both a continuation of past experience and an innovative exploration of a new industry landscape. I believe that under the guidance of the Group, Xinnet will usher in new development opportunities.

China Enterprise Editor: Looking back on your career, what key choices have had a profound impact on your career development and industry understanding?

Wang Zhen: My career began in frontline sales. This experience allowed me to gain deep insights into market demand, customer pain points, and product value, while also cultivating keen market insight and efficient communication skills, laying the foundation for subsequent management work.

The transition from sales to management marked a shift from executor to manager, enhancing my leadership and strategic thinking, enabling me to more effectively coordinate teams, formulate business strategies, and drive sustained enterprise growth. My two experiences with the Group have allowed me to accumulate a holistic perspective on goal setting, organizational structure design, product positioning, and risk management, giving me more forward-thinking and resource integration capabilities.

In addition, the internet industry changes rapidly. Only by constantly learning and maintaining a keen awareness of trends can one find opportunities for growth. Therefore, I have always insisted on learning and have maintained long-term communication and exchange with old colleagues, new friends, and outstanding talents from different industries. This continuous accumulation of knowledge and experience sharing has not only broadened my cognitive boundaries but has also provided good support and inspiration during key decision-making.

China Enterprise Editor: While developing your career, how do you balance personal growth and career goals?

Wang Zhen: I believe that balancing personal growth and career goals is a dynamic process, the key lies in "learning while doing" . Continuous learning and deep cultivation of the industry, maintaining absolute or relative professionalism, is the most basic and important ability for a manager.

China Enterprise Editor: Looking ahead, what are some important career goals or aspirations you have yet to achieve?

Wang Zhen: In the future, I will mainly focus on Xinnet's transformation and upgrading. Currently, the industry is undergoing rapid changes, with opportunities and challenges coexisting. How to break through business scale, how to enter the international market, how to optimize products and services to better meet customer needs, how to improve the efficiency and value of the sales organization, and how to improve the company's operating system—these are all core issues that we urgently need to address. Under the situation of great changes unseen in a century, as an old internet company, Xinnet not only has the responsibility but also the ability to successfully transform and ensure the company's sustained and steady development in the face of fierce market competition.

China Enterprise Editor: Having worked in this industry for many years, could you share some of your unique industry observations and insights?

Wang Zhen: I wouldn't say unique, but based on my observations at Xinnet, I'd like to share some thoughts. In my opinion, for a company to lead industry development, it needs to consider industry trends, competitive landscape, and customer needs from these three aspects:

First, in terms of industry trends: First, basic internet services (such as domain name registration, cloud services, CDN, etc.) are gradually becoming the "water, electricity, and gas" of enterprise digital transformation. In addition to providing standardized products, enterprises also need to develop customized solutions based on the needs of large customers. At the same time, increase investment in technology to meet the increasing requirements of customers for service availability and security; second, with the frequent occurrence of data breaches and cyberattacks, enterprises also need to continuously strengthen their security protection capabilities, providing end-to-end security solutions (such as DDoS protection, data encryption) , and meet increasingly stringent compliance requirements, becoming a trusted partner for customers; in addition, industry verticalization and scenario-based services are becoming mainstream, and enterprises need to cultivate niche markets and develop corresponding products and solutions for specific industries and customer groups; at the same time, cooperate with industry ISVs (independent software vendors) to provide one-stop services of "basic services + applications".

Secondly, in terms of competitive landscape, facing pressure from giants like Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud, we choose to cultivate the SME and niche markets, avoiding the main battlefields of the giants, focusing on regional markets or specific industries, providing value to customers through rapid response and flexible solutions; in balancing globalization and localization, especially in the face of challenges such as localization compliance and network latency encountered by Chinese companies going global, we will start by serving local foreign trade companies and cross-border service providers, providing them with better products and services; as internet infrastructure service providers gradually transform from "product providers" to "ecosystem builders," we also hope to cooperate with developers in various segments to jointly build platforms and applications, forming a complete ecosystem closed loop.

Furthermore, in terms of customer needs and innovation direction, firstly, customer needs have shifted from purely "resource-based" services (such as servers and bandwidth) to "value-based" services (such as business growth and efficiency improvement) Therefore, it is necessary to help customers optimize their business through data analysis and provide products and services such as marketing tools, security certificates, and CRM in addition to basic services; secondly, customers' requirements for service experience are increasing, making optimization of the entire process particularly important. Through AI customer service and real-time monitoring panels, we can improve the response speed and efficiency of customer support while allowing customers to understand the service status at any time; in addition, SMEs are increasingly demanding low-cost, easy-to-use digital tools. To this end, we have launched lightweight products such as "one-click website building" and "lightweight cloud servers" to lower the barrier to entry.

In general, the internet infrastructure service industry is at a critical stage of "technology upgrade + demand diversification." Our ultimate goal is to upgrade the company from a "resource provider" to a "digital transformation partner" and strive to occupy a leading position in industry transformation.

China Enterprise Editor: What advice do you have for young people who are about to enter or have just entered this industry to help them better plan their career development?

Wang Zhen: Career advice for young people can be summarized in two points: Learning and positioning. First, actively reach out, consult with customers, and learn from the market to truly understand customer needs, market dynamics, and industry trends. At the same time, through professional books and AI learning tools, conduct systematic and professional knowledge learning. This combination of practice and theory will allow young people to have more rational thinking. Then, combine their own abilities and interests to further position their career direction, deciding whether to take the technical route, product design, or management path.

In addition, I want to tell young people, A career is not a straight line, but a spiral upward process. Every choice and effort will accumulate potential energy for the future. Maintain curiosity, embrace change, and you will surely realize your value in this vibrant industry.

China Enterprise Editor: Now let's talk about Xinwang. In the early days of the internet industry, the domain name market was relatively niche. How did Xinwang quickly seize this opportunity and quickly establish a market advantage?

Wang Zhen: In the early stages of the internet industry, although the domain name market had not yet reached scale, its potential value had already begun to emerge. Xinwang, with its keen market sense, was the first to enter this market, and gradually established its market advantage by providing high-quality domain name registration services.

In order to meet the registration needs of different customers, Xinwang was the first to launch an online Chinese version registration process and domain name management system, greatly simplifying the domain name registration process and improving registration efficiency. At the same time, Xinwang's domain name management system has rich functions, supporting domain name resolution, renewal, and transfer operations, greatly improving the customer experience.

In terms of customer service, Xinwang is also at the forefront of the industry. We were the first to establish the industry's first 7×24-hour professional customer service team, ensuring that customers can obtain timely and efficient solutions to any problems they encounter, winning widespread recognition and trust from customers.

China Enterprise Editor: The internet basic application service industry has undergone more than 30 years of transformation since Xinwang's establishment in 1993. From your perspective, what key nodes has this industry's evolution experienced? What are the core driving forces behind these changes?

Wang Zhen: Over the past three decades, the internet basic application service industry has undergone a profound transformation from nothing to something, from start-up to maturity.

In the early days, with the rapid development of network infrastructure, from dial-up internet access to the popularization of broadband services, a solid foundation was laid for the industry. Basic services such as domain name registration and hosting emerged to meet the basic needs of enterprises and individuals for internet access. Subsequently, the rise of mobile internet was like a revolution, expanding application scenarios from traditional PCs to convenient mobile devices, not only greatly enriching users' online lives but also pushing the boundaries of the industry to continuously expand.

The core driving forces behind these changes mainly include three aspects: First, technological progress, the improvement of network communication, server performance, and computing and storage capabilities have laid a technological foundation for industry development; second, the upgrading of market demand, the demand of enterprises for internet services has expanded from basic connection to intelligence and customization, giving rise to new business models such as cloud computing and SaaS; third, the optimization of the policy environment has provided a good development environment for the industry, promoting the sustained and healthy development of the industry.

China Enterprise Editor: After years of deep cultivation, Xinwang can be said to have established a firm foothold in the industry. Standing at this point today, looking ahead to the next five years, what trends do you think the industry will show that are worth paying attention to? What forward-looking layouts has Xinwang made under these trends?

Wang Zhen: In the next five years, the internet basic application service industry will show a trend of diversification and intelligence. The deep integration of cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence will drive the industry towards more efficient and intelligent development. At the same time, network security and privacy protection will become the focus of the industry, and enterprises need to strengthen technological research and development and investment to ensure the security and privacy of user data.

In the face of these trends, Xinwang has formulated a detailed forward-looking layout and implementation plan.

In the field of cloud computing, Xinwang will continue to increase investment, optimize virtual machines, cloud storage, and other products, improve their performance and stability, and create industry-leading efficient and reliable cloud services. At the same time, Xinwang will strengthen cooperation with well-known domestic and foreign cloud computing providers to jointly explore new opportunities in the cloud computing field.

In terms of network security, Xinwang is building a comprehensive security protection system that meets market needs and launching security products such as SSL certificates and host protection. In addition, Xinwang will also establish a network security emergency response mechanism to ensure that it can respond quickly and properly handle security incidents when they occur, ensuring customer network security.

In addition, in terms of sales and service systems, Xinwang will be based on four sales channels: online, telemarketing, direct sales, and channels, and actively explore a multi-dimensional operation model of "platform + user + product." To this end, Xinwang will strengthen sales team building and training, improve service quality, and provide customers with comprehensive and precise services. At the same time, Xinwang will also strengthen compliance and regulatory work, closely monitor policy dynamics, actively participate in the formulation and revision of industry standards, ensure that all businesses comply with legal requirements, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the industry.

China Enterprise Editor: Next, we will focus on Xinwang's core business. In terms of domain name registration, trading, and management, how does Xinwang combine customer needs to provide differentiated value?

Wang Zhen: Xinwang always adheres to customer needs as its core, creating a more targeted and differentiated domain name service system. We understand that enterprises of different industries and scales have different needs in domain name selection. Therefore, from domain name registration, trading to management, we have built a complete domain name lifecycle service system.

In terms of domain name registration, as the earliest domain name registration service institution in China established in 1993, Xinwang has accumulated more than 30 years of experience and supports a large number of domain name suffixes, meeting the needs of enterprises in various aspects such as brand protection and market expansion.

In terms of domain name trading, in response to the problem of "ideal domain names being occupied" faced by customers, we have launched services such as one-price purchase and entrusted purchase to help customers obtain key domain names more efficiently. At the same time, for customers with idle domain names, we also provide precise matching transaction matching services to make resource circulation smoother and improve the commercial value of domain name assets.

As for domain name management, our domain name console not only supports efficient management but also provides value-added services. Especially in terms of domain name security, our system has a 5T+ DNS attack protection capability and provides a series of security solutions such as privacy protection, registrar security lock, and resolution protection to ensure the security of customers' domain name assets. In addition, we also provide brand monitoring services for customers who value brand and intellectual property protection.

China Enterprise Editor: It sounds like Xinwang not only provides domain name registration and trading but also establishes a complete system for domain name management and security protection. Are there any specific cases that can further illustrate how these services help enterprises?

Wang Zhen: Of course. Taking leading Internet companies such as JD.com, Sina, and Tencent as examples, these companies often have large and scattered domain name assets, involving multiple business lines and brand matrices, making management extremely difficult. They often face problems such as outdated information updates and brand counterfeiting.

To address this pain point, Xinwang independently developed a brand customer asset security management platform to realize cross-platform integrated monitoring of domain name assets. This system can summarize all the company's domain name assets, intelligently detect their status, ensure information synchronization updates, and provide brand infringement warnings and tracking functions, helping companies quickly respond to potential risks and providing a solid guarantee for the company's Internet brand image.

China Enterprise Editor: In addition to domain names, hosting services are also one of Xinwang's important business segments. In the face of the general trend of enterprises moving to the cloud, how does Xinwang adjust its product portfolio to meet the diverse needs of enterprises of different scales?

Wang Zhen: Indeed, cloud adoption by enterprises has become an irreversible development trend, and the cloud needs of enterprises of different scales also vary. Therefore, based on market demand, Xinwang has created a rich product line and customized solutions.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, we provide basic cloud hosting. This type of product is cost-effective and easy to deploy, suitable for website hosting, lightweight applications, and development and testing scenarios;

For large and medium-sized enterprises and industries with high computing needs (such as finance, e-commerce, and games) , we provide high-performance cloud hosting, with powerful computing resources and high stability, meeting high-load and high-traffic demands;

In addition, we have also launched elastic computing solutions, allowing enterprises to flexibly adjust resources according to business needs, avoiding waste, and being able to quickly expand computing capabilities during business peaks to ensure stable system operation.

In terms of industry solutions, we have also done a lot of exploration. For example, for the e-commerce industry, we provide cloud hosting with high availability and load balancing to cope with the surge in traffic during large promotions. For financial and government customers, we provide secure cloud services that meet compliance requirements to ensure data security.

Taking Boda Thermal Power as an example, as an infrastructure unit in Yizhuang Development Zone, Boda Thermal Power originally deployed its business system in a local data center, facing high maintenance costs and equipment aging problems. Xinwang provided it with a cloud-native transformation solution, completing the cloud migration of the core system in just three months. After migrating to the cloud, its system performance, stability, and agility have been significantly improved, while meeting security and compliance requirements, ensuring the livelihood services of tens of thousands of enterprises and residents.

China Enterprise Editor: In the field of application services, Xinwang's corporate email and website construction products are already relatively mature. In the face of the accelerated trend of enterprise digital transformation, how does Xinwang further enhance the competitiveness of these products to better empower enterprises?

Wang Zhen: Taking corporate email as an example, we comprehensively enhance the value of enterprise application services around three core directions: security, personalization, and internationalization.

First is security and compliance assurance. We introduce SSL encryption and intelligent anti-spam filtering technology to corporate email to ensure data security.

Second is personalized customization. We understand that different enterprises have different usage habits and business needs, so we provide services such as interface optimization and function customization to help enterprises improve work efficiency.

Third is internationalization support. For enterprises with cross-border businesses, we provide functions such as global multi-point forwarding and multilingual email translation to help enterprises overcome language and geographical barriers and promote efficient international business communication.

China Enterprise Editor: Are there any enterprise practice cases for these measures?

Wang Zhen: Of course, there are many practical cases. For example, Liancheng CNC has been using Xinwang corporate email since 2017. As the company's business expanded to Japan, they needed a more stable and secure cross-border communication tool. Xinwang optimized the mail system to achieve efficient transmission and security protection of cross-border emails, significantly improving the efficiency of its international business communication and strengthening its professional brand image.

China Enterprise Editor: In addition to corporate email, does Xinwang also have corresponding technological improvements in website construction and enterprise marketing services?

Wang Zhen: In terms of website construction, Xinwang focuses on SEO optimization, providing keyword analysis, page structure optimization, and website analysis tools to help enterprises monitor user behavior and optimize conversion rates. In addition, we provide online promotion solutions such as content marketing, social media integration, and keyword advertising to enhance the market competitiveness of enterprises. Taking Yumeijing as an example, as a traditional fast-moving consumer goods brand, during its digital transformation process, it used Xinwang's SEO strategy optimization and website upgrade services to significantly improve its brand's online exposure and strengthen its data analysis capabilities. This measure helped Yumeijing expand wider market channels and achieve sustainable business growth.

China Enterprise Editor: In addition to traditional businesses, has Xinwang introduced cutting-edge technologies such as AI into product research and development? How do these technologies enhance the competitiveness of core services?

Wang Zhen: AI applications have become key to improving business efficiency and user experience. Xinwang has widely introduced AI intelligent tools in technical services and business process optimization, mainly in scenarios such as knowledge bases, review processes, and customer service.

We have built an AI knowledge base, enabling technicians to quickly retrieve optimal solutions and improve problem-solving efficiency. The AI intelligent matching function accurately identifies user needs and automatically recommends the best solutions. Simultaneously, the system has self-learning capabilities, allowing it to update and optimize knowledge base content in real-time to ensure coverage of a wider range of problem scenarios. Through this technological upgrade, Xinwang has significantly reduced response times and improved overall service quality.

In the review process, we have deployed AI automated review applications that can intelligently identify user information, verify the authenticity of materials, and automatically classify tasks, reducing manual intervention, significantly shortening the review cycle, and improving accuracy.

Overall, the application of AI has yielded significant results, not only significantly improving operational efficiency and customer experience but also freeing up employees to focus on more innovative work. In the future, we will expand the application scenarios of AI, including intelligent customer service, AI data analysis, and risk prediction models, further enhancing Xinwang's market competitiveness.

China Enterprise Editor: The rapid popularization of 5G and cloud-native technologies has also placed higher demands on infrastructure services. What are Xinwang's plans in this area?

Wang Zhen: Xinwang mainly improves the quality and efficiency of infrastructure services through containerization technology, edge computing, and CDN optimization.

In terms of containerization technology, we modularize infrastructure services, lowering the threshold for user use while providing standardized container images to support rapid deployment in multiple environments, greatly improving service agility.

In terms of edge computing, we deploy efficient computing nodes at the edge of the 5G network, sinking core functions to reduce backbone network pressure and data transmission delays, ensuring high real-time performance and high reliability.

In terms of CDN optimization, we cooperate with CDN service providers to provide standardized service modules and flexibly deploy them to edge nodes to meet the business needs of ultra-low latency and high throughput, improving user access experience.

Based on the above, Xinwang has achieved modularization and standardization of infrastructure services, further improving service performance. At the same time, we actively cooperate with ecological partners and deeply integrate into the 5G and cloud-native industrial chain, transforming from a traditional infrastructure service provider to an agile and intelligent digital service provider.

China Enterprise Editor: Does Xinwang have any targeted cooperation or customized service plans for the small and medium-sized enterprise market? What practical help do these measures provide to enterprise customers' operations?

Wang Zhen: Xinwang always pays attention to the pain points of small and medium-sized enterprises and is committed to lowering the threshold for their digital transformation. From 2023 to 2024, Xinwang and CNNIC jointly launched the "Internet Basic Resources Empowering Millions of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Digital Action," providing 1 million small and medium-sized enterprises with free registration services for ".CN" and ".China" national top-level domains and reducing the cost of applying for and using IPv6 addresses. This measure has reduced the cost of internet basic resources for small and medium-sized enterprises, helping them take a solid first step.

China Enterprise Editor: In 2025 and the following years, where will Xinwang's business focus be? Are there any plans to launch new products or services to better meet market demand?

Wang Zhen: In the future, Xinwang will continue to focus on serving small and medium-sized enterprises and assisting them in their digital transformation. With the growth of Chinese manufacturing enterprises going overseas and cross-border e-commerce demand, Xinwang will launch a series of new products and services in the cross-border e-commerce field, using digital and AI technologies to help small and medium-sized enterprises expand overseas markets.

The following is a fun interactive session; we have collected some questions that everyone was curious about from the last session~

China Enterprise Editor: Recently, there has been news that the girlfriend.ai and boyfriend.ai domains were sold for over US\$200,000. What are your thoughts on this hot domain transaction?

Wang Zhen: This type of transaction actually reflects several major trends in current technology and the market. I will discuss my views from the following four perspectives:

First, a reflection of the AI technology boom: With the explosion of generative AI such as ChatGPT, the field of artificial intelligence has become a focus for investment and entrepreneurship. The .ai domain, as the Anguilla country code domain's "technical pun," has become an identity symbol for AI companies (such as Stability.ai, Character.ai), and its commercial value has naturally risen.

Second, the underlying logic of domain investment: Short, memorable, and highly business-relevant domains have inherent marketing advantages. For example, "insure.com" was sold for \$16 million. In this transaction, the combination of "girlfriend/boyfriend" and "AI" almost pre-books the brand keywords for future products.

Third, the defensive registration strategy of well-known companies: Tech giants and startups often acquire related domains at high prices to prevent brand dilution. Examples like Meta spending tens of millions of dollars to acquire fb.com are not uncommon. This transaction may be a strategic reserve for a certain AI company to deploy in the virtual social track.

Fourth, the brand positioning thinking of entrepreneurs and startups: In emerging fields such as Web3 and the metaverse, early registration of domains related to core keywords (such as *.eth, *.xyz) can help companies acquire traffic entrances at low cost and protect their brands in advance. In the future, as AI technology matures, domains that integrate human emotions and technology may continue to appreciate. However, investors also need to be wary of policy-driven valuation fluctuations caused by technological ethical controversies. For entrepreneurs, domains are no longer just network addresses but also weapons in the cognitive war to seize user minds. This transaction once again proves that domains are strategic assets, especially on the eve of the explosion of the AI emotional companionship track, and preemptively registering key domains is equivalent to preemptively locking down industry discourse power.

China Enterprise Editor: If you weren't doing your current job, what career would you most like to try?

Wang Zhen: That's a very good question, and I've considered it many times. Soldiers and teachers are professions I respect and admire most; they have a strong sense of mission and responsibility. They lead by example, act as role models, and their work is ordinary yet great. Although I haven't pursued these careers, I often use some of their professional qualities to demand myself in my work and studies.

China Enterprise Editor: Finally, please express your expectations for the team in one sentence?

Wang Zhen: Driven by innovation and based on collaboration, we will jointly build a team that not only pursues excellent performance but also values growth and value, breaking through challenges and achieving each other through breakthroughs.