Chinese Web users lost around 10,000 Internet domain names due to disruption caused by last month's earthquakes off Taiwan, state media, quoted by a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report said the Web site addresses vanished after Chinese users were unable to update them or failed to re-register them on their expiry, the official Xinhua news service said, citing China International Network Information Center.
The Reuters report said domain name servers were not responsible for lost domain names if holders did not re-register in time, Xinhua quoted a center insider as saying, since the loss was an 'act of God.'
But domain name servers may compensate individuals and companies under a scheme yet to be finalized, Xinhua added.
Two powerful earthquakes off Taiwan on December 26 severed undersea cables, knocking millions of Internet users offline and sparking chaos for businesses across Asia, the Reuters report said.