Automobile manufacturer Beijing Jeep has lost its Chinese domain name after failing to renew it for another year.

The domain at www.jeep.cn was registered by Shenzhen Baiku Technology Company at 5:19 am on April 2, only five hours after the cut-off time for Beijing Jeep to issue payment for the domain name.

Beijing Jeep registered the domain name in 2003. The validity period was for two years and expired on March 17, 2005. But Beijing Jeep failed to pay fees to extend the service within 15 days (by April 1) as required by CNNIC, so it lost the domain name immediately the next day.