Kassey Lee explores why two letter domains are valuable to Chinese companies.
Actually, I found the answer in a comment made by Jeff Sass (CMO of .club) on the September 7 DomainSherpa show — even though he was not referring directly to China.
On the show, Jeff said, “When you get into two-letter domains regardless of the extension, the value is not just the fact that they are short two letters, but there are so many different potential applicants.” His comment applies to China, too.
First of all, Chinese companies highly value short domains. A good example is Jing Dong (京东), the third-largest internet company in the world, according to Wikipedia. In 2012, it already owned the brand-matching JingDong.com. However, the company wanted a shorter domain and upgraded to JD.com. Currently, JingDong.com forwards to JD.com.
Two letter domains have many different potential applicants. This is particularly true in China for a cultural reason that I explained in “The cultural reason 2 letter domains are valuable in China“.
Let’s take JD as an example. According to Domain Meaning Assistant, JD can be an acronym for more than 1,300 Pinyin phrases, which means a variety of Chinese brands. Here are ten examples to give you a taste of it.
Chinese brand | Pinyin | Meaning | Application |
---|---|---|---|
京都 | Jing Du | Kyoto, Japan | Japanese restaurant |
景点 | Jing Dian | Scenic spot | Tourism business |
九鼎 | Jiu Ding | Nine sacred tripods | Finance and investment |
焦点 | Jiao Dian | Focus | Investigative journalism |
金盾 | Jin Dun | Golden shield | Security |
角度 | Jiao Du | Point of view | Entertainment |
绩点 | Ji Dian | Accomplishment point | Education |
绝顶 | Jue Ding | The very top | Sports |
健道 | Jian Dao | Healthy way | Health business |
决断 | Jue Duan | Make decision | Business consulting |
As you can see, two letter domains can be used to create a variety of Chinese brands. That’s why Chinese investors and companies own a lot of two letter domains.
Jeffrey Sass says
Thanks for noting the comment, Kassey! We continue to see a lot of activity in China with 2, 3, and 4 character and numeric domains. 🙂 Stay safe and healthy!
Kassey Lee says
Your talks are always interesting. Yes, acronym domains up to 4L and numeric domains up to 4N can have genuine application. Beyond that they are mostly for trading among investors.