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Domains used by China’s Top 100 internet companies

by — Domain Sales 6 Comments

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

Researching domains used by top Chinese internet companies.

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.

RankChineseEnglishFoundedDomain
1阿里巴巴Alibaba1999Alibaba.com
2腾讯Tencent1998Tencent.com
3百度Baidu2000Baidu.com
4京东Jing Dong1998JD.com
5网易Netease1997Netease.com
6新浪Sina1998Sina.com
7搜狐Sohu1998Sohu.com
8美团Meituan2010Meituan.com
9三六零(奇虎360)360 Total Security1992360.com
10小米Xiaomi2010Mi.com
11今日头条(字节跳动)Toutiao2012Toutiao.com
12网宿Wangsu2002Wangsu.com
1358集团58.com200558.com
14金山软件Kingsoft 1988Kingsoft.com
15携程Ctrip1999Ctrip.com
16二三四五2345.com20112345.com
17美图Meitu2011Meitu.com
18新华网Xinhua Net1997Xinhuanet.com
19苏宁Suning1990Suning.com
20汽车之家(北京车之家)Autohome2005Autohome.com
21用友网络Yon You1988Yonyou.com
22咪咕文化Migu2014Migu.cn
23三七互娱37 Games201137.com
24凤凰网(天盈九州)Phoenix 2000iFeng.com
25恺英网络Kingnet2008Kingnet.com
26东方明珠Oriental Pearl Group 1991OPG.cn
27昆仑万维Kunlun2011Kunlun.com
28多玩(华多)Duowan2005Duowan.com
29易 车 网Yiche2000Yiche.com
30快 乐 阳光(芒果 TV)Mango TV2006MGTV.com
31鹏博士Dr Peng1985Drpeng.com.cn
32唯品会 Vipshop2008VIP.com
33央视网China Central Television1996CCTV.com
34四三九九(4399)439920024399.com
35凡普金科Finup2016Finupgroup.com
36网龙网络NetDragon Websoft 1999NetDragon.com
37波克城市Poker City2010Pook.com
38米哈游Mi Ha You2014Mihayo.com
39朗玛信息Longmaster2010Longmaster.com
40幻电(哔哩哔哩)Bilibili2014Bilibili.com
41巨人网络Giant Network2004Ga-me.com
42猎豹移动Cheetah Mobile2010CheetahMobile.com
43同程旅游LY.com2004LY.com
44龙采科技Long Cai2004Longcai.com
45科大讯飞Iflytek 1999iflytek.com
4621CN(世纪龙信息)21CN199921CN.com
47泰一指尚Taiyitech2012Taiyiplus.com
48光环新网Sinnet1999Sinnet.com.cn
49竞技世界网络JJWorld 2007JJ.cn
50东方财富Eastmoney.com2005Eastmoney.com
51游族网络You Zu2009Youzu.com
52斗鱼网络Douyu2015Douyu.com
53宜人贷Yirendai2012Yirendai.com
54中钢网Zhong Gang Wang2009ZGW.com
55东软集团Neusoft1991Neusoft.com
56慧聪Hui Cong1992HC360.com
57马鞍山百助Bai Zhu2006BZ.cn
58腾邦国际Tempus1998Tempus.com
59迅雷网络Xunlei2003Xunlei.com
60吉比特G-bits2004G-bits.com
61微贷网Wei Dai Wang2011Weidai.com.cn
62连尚网络Lian Shang2013Wifi.com
63钢银网Banksteel.com2008Banksteel.com
64前程无忧(前锦网络)Qian Cheng Wu You200051job.com
65找钢网Zhao Gang Wang2012Zhaogang.com
66花椒直播 (密境和风)Hua Jiao2014Huajiao.com
67好未来TAL 2003100tal.com
68蜗牛数字Wo Niu (Snail)2000Woniu.com
69游龙网络You Long Wang Luo2012YLWL.cn
70六间房6Rooms20066.cn
71东方网Eastday.com2000Eastday.com
72房天下(搜房科技)Fang2006Fang.com
73艾德Adsage2007Adsage.com
74岚悦科技Lan Yue Ke Ji2013Lanyuekeji.cn
75华云数据Hua Yun2013Huayun.com
76联动优势UMFintech2003Umpay.com
76OFO小黄车(东峡大通)OFO2016OFO.com
78途牛Tu Niu2006Tuniu.com
79创梦天地(乐逗游戏)idreamsky2011idreamsky.com
80思贝克Spek2012Spek.com.cn
81盛天网络Sheng Tian2009Shengtian.com
82梦网科技Montnets2001Montnets.com
83猪八戒网Zhu Ba Jie2006ZBJ.com
84平治信息Anysoft2002Anysoft.cn
85驴妈妈(景域)Lv Ma Ma2007Lvmama.com
86当当网Dang Dang1997Dangdang.com
87趣丸网络Qu Wan201452tt.com
88拓维信息Talkweb1996Talkweb.com.cn
89世纪佳缘Jia Yuan2003Jiayuan.com
90房多多Fang Duo Duo2011Fangdd.com
91天鸽互动Tian Ge2008Tiange.com
92创蓝253Chuang Lan 2532011253.com
93爱酷游Ai Ku You2009le4.com
94不锈钢电子交易中心Exbxg2006Exbxg.com
95沪江网校Hu Jiang2009Hujiang.com
96锐之旗Rui Zhi Qi2013Ruizhiqi.com
97风行网Fung Xing Wan2005Fun.tv
98美柚Mei You2013Meiyou.com
99世纪互联Shi Ji Hu Lian199621vianet.com
100优刻得Ucloud2012Ucloud.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%.)

If you want to sell to corporate users in China, focus on short .com domains of less than 10 characters.Click To Tweet

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.

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Is .Com still king in China?

by — Uncategorized 8 Comments

Kassey Lee analyzes new data about domain name and website usage in China.

Is .com still king in China? How important is .cn? Is there any other extension worth watching in China? These are questions many domain investors may have in their minds. To answer these questions, I turn to the annual publication “China Statistical Report on Internet Development,” the latest of which was released last month.

The big picture first. China now has a whopping 772 million internet users but the figure represents only 56% of the entire Chinese population, indicating a lot of room for further growth. More internet users will drive more demand for products and services, which in turn will require more websites.

You can also look at it from the number of websites developed in China. The number has grown to 5.3 million but is still very small when compared with the approximately 90 million companies reported by the National Bureau of Statistics of China. This large gap may be due to companies not being online yet or running their business on ecommerce platforms such as JD.com. Eventually, these companies will want to move to their own website to gain complete control of their business. Therefore, we can expect real demand for domains to continue for a long time in China. Click to continue reading…

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Analysis: next generation companies in China still prefer .com

by — Uncategorized 7 Comments

Kassey Lee reviews top level domain usage by top new internet companies in China.

Several years ago some domain experts predicted that the next generation companies would prefer new extensions because of better names at lower prices than .com. Is this trend happening now? I want to know, so do people investing in the Chinese domain market.

Long established magazine CI Week has recently published the “2017 Top 300 New Internet Companies” (2017新互联网公司TOP300) list, which provides an excellent source to study this trend.

I have selected the top 30 companies from the list for a detailed analysis. For each of the companies, I used Baidu search to find the domain name for its corporate site. The result is shown in the table below. Click here to continue reading…

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Report suggests bright future for Chinese domain market

by — Uncategorized 2 Comments

Kassey Lee examines data from a recent CNNIC report.

If you invest in the Chinese domain market, you need to know CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) because it publishes a national survey report twice a year on China’s internet landscape. The latest report — the 40th — was published in July. You can download it in Chinese here.

According to the report, China has 751 million internet users. This represents only 54% of the Chinese population so there is a lot of room for growth. Compare this number with the 323 million population of the entire USA and you can appreciate the sheer size and potential of the Chinese market. This number, coupled with the continued increase in internet-related products and services, means there will be an ever expanding internet economy, which in turn will create more companies and therefore more demand for domain names.

Only 54% of China's population is online. This means 700 million more potential growth.Click To Tweet

There are now 5 million websites, growing mostly at double digits over the last 6 years. This number is dwarfed by the estimated 77 million companies in China. This large gap may be due to companies not being online or running their business from ecommerce sites such as JD.com, etc. Eventually, these companies will want to move to their own address (domain name) to gain complete control of their business. Therefore, high demand for domain names can be expected to continue.

The report shows that 96% of the internet users go online via their mobile phone. This has significance for domain investors. Whatever you do for the Chinese market, think mobile. Make sure, for example, that the landing page of your domain name for sale is mobile ready. Also, 92% of the internet users use a messaging app as their communication tool, with Wechat and QQ being mentioned as the top ones. If you want to communicate with Chinese buyers, a Chinese messaging app may be your best choice rather than email which is popular in western countries. Click here to continue reading…

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ICANN asks new TLD registries to ask for permission on China

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

Operators must submit RSEP for approval.

Are Chinese gateways used to comply with real name verification rules in China a registry service?

To date, it seems like only the operators of .XYZ think so. They submitted a so-called RSEP to ICANN to get approval for their gateway before they introduced one.

Now other registries, including .Club and Radix, have submitted at least one RSEP for such a service at the behest of ICANN. (ICANN has commented. See below.)

It its RSEP, .Club noted:

Club Domains, LLC believes that the service is not a Registry Service because it does not meet the definition of Registry Service under the Registry Agreement, signed between .Club Domains, LLC and ICANN. This is because the service is fundamentally implemented and operated by the Providers – there have been no changes to the Registry Services as defined in the Registry Agreement. It is our position that the use of the Provider to facilitate the Registry Operator’s compliance with local laws does not constitute an additional Registry Service requiring an RSEP However, as an accommodation to ICANN, and in response to ICANN’s request, .Club Domains, LLC is filing this RSEP.

It doesn’t appear that any registries have halted registrations in China while waiting for approval.

An ICANN spokesperson provided this explanation:

The service a registry wants to offer and how it implements the service will determine what, if any, contractual provisions are triggered.

ICANN’s role in evaluating and approving proposed Registry Services and proposed subcontractors providing the service is largely technical, with its evaluation solely focused on ensuring no significant security, stability or competition concerns would be created by approving the service and provider and ensuring the service is consistent with other provisions of the contract between the registry and ICANN.

If the ICANN organization is made aware that a registry may be offering a Registry Service ICANN has not been notified about, the organization will investigate to determine whether the implementation of the service requires notification under the registry’s contract.

This suggests that the request for RSEP might be on a “complaint” basis rather than a new-TLD wide request. I can imagine who might have complained to ICANN…

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