Kassey Lee reviews the market for four character domain names.
I’m starting this monthly series to look at 4C (four character) .com domains. Thanks to the ripple effect which began with 2C and then continued on to 3C, I believe many 4C will become valuable. Yes, the market for 4C domains has gone up and down, but I believe it will be up again. I think more and more 4C domains with good patterns will be used by end users over the long term as other shorter domains become too expensive. For example, LLNN can be the poor cousin of LL, which is out of reach for many Chinese SME. Because of this belief, I also own a collection of them and check their prices daily.
For December, Namebio reports 106 sale transactions of 4C .com domains totaling $65,200. The average price is $615, the lowest price $102, and the highest price $8,100. Here are the top 5 domains from the list selected for my analysis.
EMC2.com sold for $8,100. EMC can be an acronym for E Mo Cheng (恶魔城= demon castle, also the name of a video game series). EMC2.cn does not resolve but EMC2.com.cn redirects to DellEMC.com, a Chinese site owned by Dell. EMC2 could also be E=MC squared.
CP57.com sold for $4,655. CP can be an acronym for Cai Piao (彩票= lottery ticket) and 57 rhymes with Wan Qian (玩钱=play with money). Both CP57.cn and CP57.com.cn do not resolve.
MB88.com sold for $3,755. MB can be an acronym for Mu Biao (目标=target) and 88 rhymes with Fa Fa (发发=making a fortune). MB88.cn is for sale with BIN price of 3,000 yuan and MB88.com.cn redirects to a Chinese betting site.
MW88.com sold for $3,251. MW can be an acronym for Mei Wan (每晚=every night) and 88 rhymes with Fa Fa (发发=making a fortune). Both MW88.cn and MW88.com.cn do not resolve.
HH44.com sold for $3,010. HH can be an acronym for Huang Hou (皇后=queen) and 44 rhymes with Shi Zi (狮子=lion). HH44.cn is just a landing page looking for advertisers and HH44.com.cn does not resolve.
Ethan says
HH44.com was not sold to a Chinese company, was it? To Chines people nowadays, one “4” in domain names might be acceptable, but two consecutive “4”s probably is too much.
Kassey Lee says
Hi Ethan. HH44.com is parked and whois indicates the buyer is a Li located in Beijing. The domain was bought only recently so we’ll have to see if the domain will be developed.
As Chinese, I have no problem with 0 or 4 if a name makes sense. For example, 44VS.com and QD44.qdedu.net are Chinese sites.
Kassey Lee says
I just looked at my collection and found I also own many domains containing 44.
Ethan says
I get what you mean. So it seems that consecutive 4s is not necessarily ominous to you.
Kassey Lee says
Never. I’m not superstitious.
168 says
Great to see LLNN way up in value.
I believe much easier to remember than whats left of LLLL.
Poor cousin patience pays off !
45 and 48 best use of 4’s.?
The opposite not.?
Always appreciate your contributions Kassey!
Cheers
Kassey Lee says
Thanks for your kind words. I have LLNN, NNLL, and LLLN in my collection, and I like easy to remember NN such as repeating N, those ending with 0. For LLL they are all words such as Uni, Gin, and Toy.
patrick Cowan says
What do you think of 689hk I noticed in Hong Kong that 689 was a highly sought licence plate.
Kassey Lee says
6, 8, 9 are favorable numbers but 689HK, I don’t know. I assume it’s .com. If it’s my domain, I would check 689HK.com.cn and 689HK.cn to see if there is any website developed already. I would also enter 689HK into Baidu search and see if there is any similar domains already and then check their websites. If so, contact them to see if they are interested in your domain.Good luck.
patrick Cowan says
I checked the HK.com about two years ago and it was for sale for $500,000 and yes it’s dot com
Kassey Lee says
It’s a great domain and HK is an acronym which can stand for many Pinyin phrases.
Sal says
Isn’t 4 death and 44 would be double death. You can’t be more dead then 44 double death 🙂
Kassey Lee says
People think too much of 4 as death. 4.cn is doing just fine.
Ethan says
That’s interesting. Does the “4” in 4.cn rhyme with a word or have any connotation?
Kassey Lee says
You see me often try to add Chinese meanings to numeric domains. In fact, many Chinese numeric sites do not use rhyming to create their brand. For example, look at domain registrars 10.cn (美名网) and 22.cn (爱名网). The numeric domains and their Chinese brands do not seem to match. The only thing special about these domains is that they are very short and so are easy to remember.
Ethan says
Got it. Thanks. Sometimes it can be a bit hard for people to memorize all these 10.cs, 22.cn, 4.cn, 36.cn, 75.cn, 3.cn, 56.cn, 17.cn, 48.cn, 62.cn, 93.cn …
Wahib says
Anyone interested in buying a LNLL.com?
Kassey Lee says
You can try to list it with Afternic which has extensive retail network including several domain registrars in China. Good luck.