Domains used by China’s Top 100 internet companies

Studying these domains will help you understand what types of domains China’s biggest internet companies prefer.

Spectacular domain sales to China have been reported in recent years, and many of them were bought by internet companies, such as 360.com for $17m, JD.com for $5m, and Mi.com for $3.6m. This should not surprise domain investors because internet companies are the new leaders in this internet age.

With China poised to become the largest domain market supported by its 800 million internet population, studying domains used by the best internet companies in China will help investors understand what domains to sell to this market. The opportunity came recently when the “2018 Top 100 Chinese Internet Companies Report (2018年中国互联网企业100强分析报告)” was jointly published by the Internet Society of China and MIIT in July. Based on the report and with help from Baidu search, I have created the following list.

Rank	Chinese	English	Founded	Domain
1	阿里巴巴	Alibaba	1999	Alibaba.com
2	腾讯	Tencent	1998	Tencent.com
3	百度	Baidu	2000	Baidu.com
4	京东	Jing Dong	1998	JD.com
5	网易	Netease	1997	Netease.com
6	新浪	Sina	1998	Sina.com
7	搜狐	Sohu	1998	Sohu.com
8	美团	Meituan	2010	Meituan.com
9	三六零(奇虎360)	360 Total Security	1992	360.com
10	小米	Xiaomi	2010	Mi.com
11	今日头条(字节跳动)	Toutiao	2012	Toutiao.com
12	网宿	Wangsu	2002	Wangsu.com
13	58集团	58.com	2005	58.com
14	金山软件	Kingsoft	1988	Kingsoft.com
15	携程	Ctrip	1999	Ctrip.com
16	二三四五	2345.com	2011	2345.com
17	美图	Meitu	2011	Meitu.com
18	新华网	Xinhua Net	1997	Xinhuanet.com
19	苏宁	Suning	1990	Suning.com
20	汽车之家(北京车之家)	Autohome	2005	Autohome.com
21	用友网络	Yon You	1988	Yonyou.com
22	咪咕文化	Migu	2014	Migu.cn
23	三七互娱	37 Games	2011	37.com
24	凤凰网(天盈九州)	Phoenix	2000	iFeng.com
25	恺英网络	Kingnet	2008	Kingnet.com
26	东方明珠	Oriental Pearl Group	1991	OPG.cn
27	昆仑万维	Kunlun	2011	Kunlun.com
28	多玩(华多)	Duowan	2005	Duowan.com
29	易 车 网	Yiche	2000	Yiche.com
30	快 乐 阳光(芒果 TV)	Mango TV	2006	MGTV.com
31	鹏博士	Dr Peng	1985	Drpeng.com.cn
32	唯品会	Vipshop	2008	VIP.com
33	央视网	China Central Television	1996	CCTV.com
34	四三九九(4399)	4399	2002	4399.com
35	凡普金科	Finup	2016	Finupgroup.com
36	网龙网络	NetDragon Websoft	1999	NetDragon.com
37	波克城市	Poker City	2010	Pook.com
38	米哈游	Mi Ha You	2014	Mihayo.com
39	朗玛信息	Longmaster	2010	Longmaster.com
40	幻电(哔哩哔哩)	Bilibili	2014	Bilibili.com
41	巨人网络	Giant Network	2004	Ga-me.com
42	猎豹移动	Cheetah Mobile	2010	CheetahMobile.com
43	同程旅游	LY.com	2004	LY.com
44	龙采科技	Long Cai	2004	Longcai.com
45	科大讯飞	Iflytek	1999	iflytek.com
46	21CN(世纪龙信息)	21CN	1999	21CN.com
47	泰一指尚	Taiyitech	2012	Taiyiplus.com
48	光环新网	Sinnet	1999	Sinnet.com.cn
49	竞技世界网络	JJWorld	2007	JJ.cn
50	东方财富	Eastmoney.com	2005	Eastmoney.com
51	游族网络	You Zu	2009	Youzu.com
52	斗鱼网络	Douyu	2015	Douyu.com
53	宜人贷	Yirendai	2012	Yirendai.com
54	中钢网	Zhong Gang Wang	2009	ZGW.com
55	东软集团	Neusoft	1991	Neusoft.com
56	慧聪	Hui Cong	1992	HC360.com
57	马鞍山百助	Bai Zhu	2006	BZ.cn
58	腾邦国际	Tempus	1998	Tempus.com
59	迅雷网络	Xunlei	2003	Xunlei.com
60	吉比特	G-bits	2004	G-bits.com
61	微贷网	Wei Dai Wang	2011	Weidai.com.cn
62	连尚网络	Lian Shang	2013	Wifi.com
63	钢银网	Banksteel.com	2008	Banksteel.com
64	前程无忧(前锦网络)	Qian Cheng Wu You	2000	51job.com
65	找钢网	Zhao Gang Wang	2012	Zhaogang.com
66	花椒直播 (密境和风)	Hua Jiao	2014	Huajiao.com
67	好未来	TAL	2003	100tal.com
68	蜗牛数字	Wo Niu (Snail)	2000	Woniu.com
69	游龙网络	You Long Wang Luo	2012	YLWL.cn
70	六间房	6Rooms	2006	6.cn
71	东方网	Eastday.com	2000	Eastday.com
72	房天下(搜房科技)	Fang	2006	Fang.com
73	艾德	Adsage	2007	Adsage.com
74	岚悦科技	Lan Yue Ke Ji	2013	Lanyuekeji.cn
75	华云数据	Hua Yun	2013	Huayun.com
76	联动优势	UMFintech	2003	Umpay.com
76	OFO小黄车(东峡大通)	OFO	2016	OFO.com
78	途牛	Tu Niu	2006	Tuniu.com
79	创梦天地(乐逗游戏)	idreamsky	2011	idreamsky.com
80	思贝克	Spek	2012	Spek.com.cn
81	盛天网络	Sheng Tian	2009	Shengtian.com
82	梦网科技	Montnets	2001	Montnets.com
83	猪八戒网	Zhu Ba Jie	2006	ZBJ.com
84	平治信息	Anysoft	2002	Anysoft.cn
85	驴妈妈(景域)	Lv Ma Ma	2007	Lvmama.com
86	当当网	Dang Dang	1997	Dangdang.com
87	趣丸网络	Qu Wan	2014	52tt.com
88	拓维信息	Talkweb	1996	Talkweb.com.cn
89	世纪佳缘	Jia Yuan	2003	Jiayuan.com
90	房多多	Fang Duo Duo	2011	Fangdd.com
91	天鸽互动	Tian Ge	2008	Tiange.com
92	创蓝253	Chuang Lan 253	2011	253.com
93	爱酷游	Ai Ku You	2009	le4.com
94	不锈钢电子交易中心	Exbxg	2006	Exbxg.com
95	沪江网校	Hu Jiang	2009	Hujiang.com
96	锐之旗	Rui Zhi Qi	2013	Ruizhiqi.com
97	风行网	Fung Xing Wan	2005	Fun.tv
98	美柚	Mei You	2013	Meiyou.com
99	世纪互联	Shi Ji Hu Lian	1996	21vianet.com
100	优刻得	Ucloud	2012	Ucloud.cn

First of all, .com is king in China. 86% of the companies use .com and only 13% use .cn. The only non-mainstream extension found is .tv. Also, short domains are preferred as 99% of the domains are 10 characters or less excluding the extension (the median is only 6 characters). So, if you want to sell to corporate users in China, focus on short .com domains.

This study breaks the myth that Chinese companies prefer Pinyin but not English domains. In the list, Pinyin domains account for only 37% of the domains and English domains take up 36%. Here, I’m using the term “English” loosely and treat names such as CTrip, iflytek, and OFO as English. (Acronym has 10% and numeric 7%.)

[clickToTweet tweet=”If you want to sell to corporate users in China, focus on short .com domains of less than 10 characters” quote=”If you want to sell to corporate users in China, focus on short .com domains of less than 10 characters.”]

Digging deeper, 78% of Pinyin domains are 2-pin (two Pinyin words such as Bai Du). This implies that if you want to invest in Pinyin domains, focus on 2-pin names. For acronym and numeric domain investors, note that no company on this list uses a domain longer than 4L or 4N. This means you have less chance to sell to corporate China if your have 5L/5N or longer domains.

Even though this list contains the best internet companies in China, there are still many of them not following the norm held by global brands of owning brand-matching .com domains. There are issues in brand matching (e.g. Ga-me.com), use of subdomain (e.g. Drpeng.com.cn), and misspelling (e.g. Mihayo.com). This offers great selling opportunities of the right domains.

In summary, if you want to sell to corporate users in China, focus on short .com domains of less than 10 characters excluding the extension. Both Pinyin and English names are fine. For acronym and numeric domains, try not to exceed 4L or 4N.