Kassey Lee provides this great overview of how to invest for the Chinese market.

I often receive the same kind of questions from readers, such as how to sell to China and where to list domains. So, I have decided to write this guide with links to specific articles covering various aspects of the China domain market.

Big picture first. China is the largest digital economy driven by 900 million savvy digital consumers. Domains are the foundation of any digital economy and a large digital economy offers massive growth for domains. Read “New data explains the Chinese domain name market” to understand the big picture and also find out which extensions are popular in China.

Corporate China is truly different from the rest of the world. .Com used in China rivals that of the USA. In fact, .com is the first choice and some companies just own the .com without the matching .cn domain. So, if you want to sell to China, you need to look at .com domains. Read “China loves .com“.

What is the implication for domain acquisition if over 60% of digital consumers in China visit a website directly? This means Chinese companies are looking for easy-to-remember domains for their websites. Read “Direct visits driving demand for domains in China (update)“.

Internet companies are the new leader in the business world, so by studying the top internet companies in China, you can understand what types of domains corporate China wants to buy. The article “What domains do Chinese internet companies want to buy?” lists the top 100 internet companies and their corporate domains.

How do you sell domains to China? If you have domains in the 6 figures or higher price ranges, you can just hire a China-based domain broker. However, if you are like me, and the majority of domain investors holding domains of average quality, there is an easy way to avoid the language and payment issues: use an MLS (multiple listing service) provider. Read “How to sell domains to China“.

How do you find end users in China? Even if you don’t read Chinese, you can use the methods described in “Three steps to Chinese end user research” to find end users for your domain. You can then contact them using contact email addresses found in “7 ways to find contact email addresses for Chinese companies“.

Finally, remember that you can use Google Translate or similar translation services to help you communicate with Chinese buyers.

Kassey Lee discusses China’s rise and what it means for domain investing.

After listening to an interview with billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio (Ray Dalio: CHINA Town Hall 2020), I have started paying attention to what he says about China. After all, Dalio helped China create the nation’s stock markets in the late 1980s.

Dalio starts by sharing his personal involvement in China as soon as the country opened up. The most interesting bit I’ve found is the history he mentioned about global trading, reserve currency, and financial center.

According to Dalio, all leading trading empires over the last 500 years had the world’s reserve currency and the world financial center. During the 1600s and 1700s, the Dutch guilder became the world’s reserve currency and Amsterdam became the world’s financial center after Holland became the world’s largest trading country.

In the 1700s and 1800s, the British pound became the world’s reserve currency and London became the world’s financial center after the British Empire became the world’s largest trading country. From the 20th century up until now, the United States dollar is the world’s reserve currency, and New York is the world’s financial center after the U.S. became the world’s largest trading country.

Now, China has become the world’s largest trading country, Dalio said. That means many Chinese companies are going global and will continue to do so for quite a while. This will be reflected in the choice of name and matching domain by Chinese startups. What kind of domains will they choose? I think the following types are desirable.

English .com domains
The internet is global by its very nature. English is the global language and .com a global extension, so many Chinese startups will naturally choose to use an English-based name with the matching .com domain. Some examples are NetEase.com (网易) and ByteDance.com (字节跳动).

Pronounceable Pinyin domains
Some Pinyin words are easy to pronounce outside China, so Chinese startups will pay attention to this aspect when choosing a name and its matching domain. The best Pinyin domain I like is Alibaba.com (阿里巴巴), and another one is Baidu.com (百度).

Acronym domains
If you have a Pinyin domain that is not easy to pronounce, you can upgrade to an acronym domain. A good example can be found in the story of “How a 3 letter domain helped this business go global” where ZhuBaJie.com was upgraded to ZBJ.com.

Numeric domains
Numeric domains are popular in China. In my opinion, 2-digit domains even without meaning or 3-digit domains with good meanings can also be used outside China. Examples are 17.com (which has no meaning) and 360.com (which suggests “complete” or “comprehensive”).

In short, China will continue to offer great opportunities for domain investors as it consolidates its position as the world’s largest trading country.