Kassey Lee examines five recent numeric domain sales and figures out how they could be used.
Short numeric domains are commonly used in corporate China but many of them do not carry any meaning. For example, 4399.com (games) and 2345.com (info portal) are two of the 2019 Top 100 Chinese Internet Companies, yet no explanation can be found on their sites on how the domains are related to the site contents.
Personally, I like domains with meanings because I believe meaningful domains are much easier to remember. So, my challenge today is to look at some recent sales of 4N .com domains and see if I can create a meaning for each one of them.
Namebio reports the following five .com domains sold in the last three months, so they provide a good size for my challenge today. Now, let’s see how far I can go.
0778.com sold for $86,000. The domain rhymes with Ni Qu Qu Ba (你去去吧=please go, with implication to do something).
7910.com sold for $83,250. The domain rhymes with Qi Jiu Yao Ni (奇酒邀你=unusual wine invites you).
6439.com sold for $25,505. The domain rhymes with Le Shi Xian Jiu (乐世仙酒=angelic wine providing a generation of pleasure).
8504.com sold for $20,000. The domain rhymes with Ban Wo Ling Shi (伴我零食=snacks accompanying me).
8034.com sold for $16,500. The domain rhymes with Ban Ni Shen Shi (伴你绅士=gentleman accompanying you).
Well, the result is not too bad. As shown in this exercise, because the meaning of a domain is invented, you can use your imagination and create a different meaning appropriate for the business to operate from the domain.
RK says
Last 2 names both have 8,0 and 4 and yet have a totally different meaning. Question is: how a non Chinese speaking person can sell this kind of names? Especially with common misconception of 4 means death etc?
Kassey Lee says
Numeric domains have no intrinsic meanings. Therefore, meanings have to be invented. Some were invented long time ago, so most Chinese understand right away, such as 888 which rhymes with Fa Fa Fa (发发发=making a fortune). Only a small number of numeric domains are easy to remember both inside and outside China. Their use in the corporate world is very limited. Personally, I am not a fan of numeric domains and I don’t invest in them.