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Potential Chinese buyers of two letter domains

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Chinese companies with 2-pin names sometimes opt for two-letter domains as brands.

Two Ls on a background that is yellow on the top and blue on the bottom

This morning I was thinking about several two-letter domains used by Chinese companies: JD.com, BL.com, and XC.com. They have one common feature which has implications for investors owning acronym domains.

The three domains are all acronyms for Pinyin names. JD.com is owned by Jing Dong, BL.com by Bai Lian, and XC.com by Xue Cheng. Notice that Jing Dong owns the exact match 2-pin JingDong.com yet has chosen to focus on the shorter 2-letter JD.com. In a way, you can see acronym domains as upgrades.

2-pin is the most popular type of Pinyin names in corporate China. So, as an exercise, I picked 20 2-pin names from the 2019 Top 100 Chinese Internet Companies Report and worked out their matching acronym domains. The result is listed below.

Company Current Domain Possible Upgrade
Teng Xun (腾讯) Tencent.com TX.com
Bai Du (百度) Baidu.com BD.com
Wang Yi (网易) Netease.com WY.com
Mei Tuan (美团) Meituan.com MT.com
Xin Lang (新浪) Sina.com XL.com
Sou Hu (搜狐) Sohu.com SH.com
Su Ning (苏宁) Suning.com SN.com
Xiao Mi (小米) Mi.com XM.com
Xie Cheng (携程) Ctrip.com XC.com
Yong You (用友) Yonyou.com YY.com
Lang Chao (浪潮) Inspur.com LC.com
Wang Su (网宿) Wangsu.com WS.com
Long Cai (龙采) Longcai.com LC.com
Xun Lei (迅雷) Xunlei.com XL.com
Yi Che (易车) Yiche.com YC.com
Mei Tu (美图) Meitu.com MT.com
Hui Liang (汇量) Mobvista.com HL.com
Duo Yi (多益) Duoyi.com DY.com
You Zu (游族) Youzu.com YZ.com
Zhen Dao (珍岛) 71360.com ZD.com

If you are the owner of one of the above two-letter domains, don’t get too excited yet. Some of the companies listed may not have the desire to acquire two-letter domains. For example, Baidu.com is so well known that changing to BD.com will require a lot of marketing efforts to promote the new brand. Also, Xie Cheng once owned XC.com so it is also unlikely they want to repurchase it again. Therefore, each individual company must be studied to ascertain their need to acquire a 2L domain.

What is the implication for investors owning acronym domains? As far as China is concerned, acronym domains up to four-letter .coms can serve as an upgrade. If your domain happens to fall into the upgrade path of a well-funded Chinese company, then your domain may be very valuable.

Say 51 if you want something in China

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Why China loves the number 51.

The number 51 on an orange background

Just enter 51 in Baidu search and you’ll see many domains starting with the number 51. What is significant about this number in China?

Well, when you say 51 in Chinese, it sounds like many Pinyin phrases. One of them is Wo Yao (我要=I want), which is useful as a call to action. Here are some examples.

51Talk.com provides online one-to-one English tutoring services. Actually, “51Talk” is the Chinese brand for the services. The company started in 2011 and succeeded in listing on NYSE in 2016. In “51Talk”, 51 rhymes with Wo Yao (我要=I want) and “Talk” is an English word. Together, the domain means “I want to talk (to the world)”.

51BXG.com was launched in 2011 as a nationwide portal providing news, market prices, inventory levels, and a variety of information about stainless steel products. In “51BXG”, 51 rhymes with Wo Yao (我要=I want) and BXG is the acronym for Bu Xiu Gang (不锈钢=stainless steel). Together, the domain means “I want to (know) stainless steel”.

51Wan.com is a game platform for fee-paying members. The service was launched in 2007 and membership exceeded 100 million by 2017. In “51Wan”, 51 rhymes with Wo Yao (我要=I want) and Wan is the Pinyin word for 玩 (=play). Together, the domain means “I want to play (games)”.

51.la is a very interesting case because .la is the country extension of Laos which also happens to be the Pinyin word for 啦 (indicating exclamation). The service was launched 16 years ago to help webmasters monitor/analyze visitors and currently it has 3.5 million registered webmasters. “51.la” means “I want it!”

Apart from Wo Yao (我要=I want), 51 also rhymes with other Pinyin phrases such as Wei Yi (唯一=one and only one), Wu You (无忧=without worries), and Wu Yi (武艺=martial art). In my opinion, the 51-prefix allows you to create a Chinese brand and then register the matching domain in a low-cost way.

Donuts hires new CFO

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Former Napster CFO joins top level domain name company.

Picture of Donuts CFO Randy Haas

Randy Haas

Top level domain name company Donuts has hired Randy Haas as its new Chief Financial Officer.

Haas was previously CFO of Napster (Rhapsody). Prior to that, he spent 19 years in finance roles at Microsoft.

Donuts is owned by private equity company Abry Partners, which acquired the company in 2018.

Haas will have his work cut out for him. I expect Donuts to continue to work on acquisitions, and don’t be surprised if Public Interest Registry acquires Donuts once (and if) Ethos Capital completes its takeover of the company. Ethos Capital is led by Erik Brooks, who led Abry Partners’ acquisition of Donuts and who, at least until recently, sat on Donuts’ board. The two companies could save a lot of money by combining forces.

January’s top domain name news stories

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Looking back at last month in domains.

Image that reads "Top Five Posts" with the number five next to it

There was a lot of news in the domain name industry last month. Here’s a look at the top five posts on Domain Name Wire ranked by the number of pageviews.

1. This company’s domain name is a ten digit domain! – Using your telephone number as a domain name seems a little backward, doesn’t it?

2. .Com prices are going up after Verisign pays off ICANN – The optics are bad after ICANN accepts $20 million payment as part of a deal to raise .com prices.

3. Google’s new search results pages: love it or hate it? – A lot of people hate it, so Google is testing pages without favicons.

4. California Attorney General delays .org sale – The attorney general has opened an investigation into the sale and ICANN, but Public Interest Registry is pushing back on the delay.

5. XYZ to launch five top level domains this year – XYZ is on a .quest to provide more .beauty.

Here are the DNW podcasts published in January:

Podcasts:

#267 – The domain sales lander OG (listen)

#268 – Interview with Saw.com cofounders (listen)

#269 – From selling vinyl to selling domain names (listen)

#270 – A NamesCon preview with Michael Cyger and Monte Cahn (listen)

 

Acronym domains containing “v” have end users in China

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V isn’t popular in the West, but it is in China.

Graphic in the sesame street fashion that says "This post is brought to you by the letter V". The V is stylized in blue.

I just read the Premium Domain Sales Observation Report (pdf) published by Guta. It’s a good source to understand the high-end segment of the Chinese domain market. The report analyzes sales of short .com domains and the latest issue intrigues me with the sale of a domain containing the letter “v”.

VQD.com was sold in December last year for a mere $8,440. That’s a very low price. I have to go back to 2014 to find similar sales — and 6 years is a long long time in the age of the internet. The low price may be due to the “v” in the domain, which is considered non-premium according to the Chips domain investment theory.

Being curious, I visited a large number of three-letter .com domains beginning with “v” and I was pleasantly surprised to find Chinese companies actually operating from “v” domains. Here are some examples.

VKQ.com offers digital contract services based on blockchain. The service is currently available in China only. Its Chinese brand is 3-pin Wei Kuai Qian (微快签) which means “micro fast signing”. As you can see, VKQ does not exactly match the Pinyin name. The problem part is the “v” letter but the company uses the rhyming technique to overcome it. “v” is associated with “wei” because “v” sounds similar to “wei”.

VQS.com is a game portal where you can download games to play on Android phones. Its Chinese brand is V Qi Shi (V骑士) which means “the V knight”. By incorporating “v” into their Chinese brand, they don’t have to deal with the acronym issue at all. QS matches the rest of the Pinyin name.

VNS.com redirects to www–vns.com, which is an online casino. The company simply uses “vns” in its Chinese brand VNS娱乐城. The website does not appear to have any explanation of the brand and what “vns” stands for (virtual network service?). In this case, translation to Pinyin is not involved.

So, acronym domains containing “v” do have end users in China. If a domain containing “v” happens to fall into the domain path of a well-funded end user, then the domain is very valuable. It pays to do end user research.