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Top foreign brands give clues on investing in .cn domains

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See how these major global brands approach the Chinese market, domain-wise.

Image of hanging lanterns with Chinese letters and .CN

You can learn a lot about investing in .cn by looking at how top foreign brands handle this extension in their domain strategies.

I picked the first 10 foreign brands from the Global 500 list and examined them for this study. The reason is that, as the best global brands, they must have studied the choice of domains for their entry into the Chinese market carefully.

Below are the foreign brands and their Chinese domains.

Walmart is known as 沃尔玛 (Wo Er Ma) operating from Walmart.cn in China. Woerma .cn does not resolve and seems to belong to a beverage company in Henan. Walmart has acquired Woerma.com but it does not resolve either.

Amazon is known as 亚马逊 (Ya Ma Xun) operating from Amazon.cn. The company also owns Z.cn, Yamaxun.cn, and Yamaxun.com but they all forward to Amazon.cn.

Apple is known as “Apple” and no Pinyin name is used. Its main site is Apple.com.cn even though it also owns Apple.cn (which forwards to Apple.com.cn).

Toyota is known as 丰田 (Feng Tian) operating from Toyota.com.cn. The automaker also owns Toyota.cn but it does not resolve. FengTian .cn is for sale and FengTian .com is owned by a fertilizer producer in Jiyuan.

Volkswagen is known as 大众汽车 (Da Zhong Qi Che) operating from Volkswagen.com.cn. The automaker also owns Volkswagen.cn which does not resolve. DaZhongQiChe .cn seems to be owned by an individual and DaZhongQiChe .com is for sale.

Samsung is known as 三星 (San Xing). Although the Korean conglomerate owns Samsung.cn, the domain forwards to Samsung.com hosted in Korea. Its Chinese contents carry an ICP license even though the contents are published outside China. SanXing. cn and SanXing .com are owned by an IT company and a medical device manufacturer in China, respectively.

BP is promoted as “BP” even though it has the Chinese name 英国石油公司 (British Petroleum). Its Chinese contents are published on BP.com hosted in the United States. BP .cn is owned by an individual.

Shell is known as 壳牌 (Qiao Pai) operating from Shell.com.cn. Shell .cn is for sale now. QiaoPai .cn is also for sale and QiaoPai .com is owned by an equipment manufacturer in Liaoning.

Exxon Mobil is known as 埃克森美孚 (Ai Ke Sen Mei Fu) operating from ExxonMobilChemical.com.cn. The company also owns ExxonMobil.cn which does not resolve. Both AiKeSenMeiFu .cn and AiKeSenMeiFu .com are still available for registration.

Daimler is known as 戴姆勒 (Dai Mu Le) operating from Daimler.com.cn. The automaker also owns Daimler.cn which forwards to Daimler.com. DaiMuLe .cn is owned by an individual and DaiMuLe.com is for sale.

What can we learn from these brands about investing in .cn domains?

First, you can invest in English-based .cn domains. None of the brands in this study use Pinyin-based domains for their main sites. This is because English is acceptable in China, and that’s why Apple does not even bother to get a Pinyin brand. The Pinyin domains for Exxon Mobil are still available for registration!

Also, focus on .cn instead of .com.cn. The six brands still using .com.cn probably have done so for the historical reason as explained in “Should you invest in .cn or com.cn?“. They should switch to .cn now.

A useful website to learn more about the China domain market

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Want to dig into China’s domain opportunities? Start here.

Magnifying glass over Chinese flag

The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) website provides useful data to help you decide how to invest for the China domain market.

Of particular interest to domain investors is the Internet Statistics section. Here, you can find English reports of surveys CNNIC has conducted on domains and internet usage since 1997. The earliest English report was released in 2012.

I’ll use the latest report (No. 47) released this year to show you some of the useful information you can get.

The Summary page at the beginning of the report is a good place to start. It highlights, for example, the following information as of December 2020.

  • 989 million users accessed the internet, with a penetration rate of 70.4%.
  • 782 million consumers bought goods online.

As you can see, China has great potential as a domain market. Next, study the “Domain Name” section because it gives you details about domains registered in China.

Extension Registrations %
.cn 18,970,054 45.2%
.com 12,630,968 30.1%
.中国 1,703,082 4.1%
.net 938,792 2.2%
.org 145,656 0.3%
.info 31,445 0.1%
.biz 21,583 0.1%
NEW gTLD 7,446,046 17.7%
Others 89,985 0.2%
Total 41,977,611 100.0%

According to the table, .cn and .com are the two major extensions to focus on. If you decide to invest in .cn domains, the next table is also important.

Breakdown Registrations %
.cn 16,274,907 85.8%
.com.cn 2,136,939 11.3%
.net.cn 285,579 1.5%
.org.cn 150,474 0.8%
.adm.cn 85,281 0.4%
.gov.cn 17,930 0.1%
.ac.cn 12,341 0.1%
.edu.cn 6,422 0.0%
Others 181 0.0%
Total 18,970,054 100.0%

It indicates that .cn has a much wider audience than .com.cn. This was not the case in the early days when direct registration of .cn was not allowed. .Com.cn was the only choice for corporate China but now .cn has taken the lead.

So far, I have touched on only a small part of the report. There is still a lot of information to digest.

If you are serious about the China domain market, I suggest downloading all the reports, inputting the data into Excel, and making charts. By doing so, you will be able to see changes in the market over the years.

Three recent numeric domain sales and possible Chinese meanings

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Here are some possible uses for these recent NNNN domain sales.

Five pound number signs in blue on a yellow background

When reading recent domain sales recently, I came across three interesting numeric domains ending with either 98 or 99, which are familiar to Chinese consumers as having the meanings of “being rich for a long time” or “for a long long time,” respectively.

The three domains are 2698 .com (sold for $18,656 on September 1 at GoDaddy), 8499 .com ($82,000 on September 6 at GoDaddy), and 9599 .com ($10,099 on July 16 at Sedo), according to Namebio.

2698 .com rhymes with An Lu Jiu Fa (安路久发 = safe road of being rich forever) and Er Lou Jiu Ba (二楼酒吧 = drinking bar at second floor), which can be used for investment and drink services respectively.

8499 .com rhymes with Ban Shi Jiu Jiu (办事舅舅 = the uncle who handles work) and Ba Shi Jiu Jiu (霸世久久 = lord over the world for a long long time), which can be used for business services and general fields, respectively.

9599 .com rhymes with Jiu Wu Jiu Jiu (酒屋99 = wine house No. 99) and Jiu Wo Jiu Jiu (酒窝舅舅 = the uncle with a dimple), which can be used for wine services and general fields respectively.

Unlike longer numeric domains that are mostly traded among investors, 4N .com domains are actually used by end users in China, such as 4399.com (games) and 2345.com (info portal). I like their solid foundation.

To get an idea of other rhymes, see my guides to numeric domain rhyming 0-4 and 5-9.

CAICT report on the Chinese domain industry

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This report shows what domains are big in China.

Picture of a report pie chart and the words "domain report"

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) recently released a research report (Chinese language only) on the Chinese domain industry. I just finished reading it and found some bits and pieces that may help you understand the domain market in China.

Published in July this year, the report is called “Internet Domain Name Industry Report (互联网域名产业报告)”. A large part of the report covers general discussions such as DNS and ICANN, but it also contains some data relevant to domain investment.

There are now 43 million domains registered in China. The largest extension is .cn with 20 million domains (47% of total), followed by .com with 12 million domains (29%). The top 10 are .cn, .com, .中国 (IDN China), .icu, .top, .wang, .net, .xyz, .vip, and .club.

You may think Chinese IDN domains must be very popular in China because of its 1.4 billion Chinese-speaking population. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Domains in Chinese IDN extensions account for only about 6% of all domains registered in China. This is because there are still many issues to be tackled, such as user awareness and support by applications.

How does China compare with other countries? The United States has the largest number of domains registered, followed by China, Germany, Tokelau, and Canada. When we look at domains in country extensions only, if the free .tk (Tokelau) domains are excluded, then .cn is the largest country extension in the world.

Finally, the United States has the largest number of domain registrars in the world, followed by Japan, Germany, UK, France, and then China.

 

Domains related to fitness, health, and sports may be the next trend in China

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China should see increased interest in exercise thanks to a new government plan.

Picture of a map of China with exercise equipment on it

The State Council in China announced a fitness plan on August 3 to encourage a healthier population. This may create a boom in the fitness space and, thereby, boost demand for domains related to fitness, health, and sports in China.

The National Fitness Program (全民健身计划) covers five years from 2021 to 2025 and aims to have 38.5% of the population engaged in regular exercise by the end of the program.

The government will introduce a wide range of initiatives, such as providing land and facilities, enhancing education and training on fitness, organizing national sports events, and integrating fitness with tourism.

The sports industry is expected to grow to 5 trillion yuan by 2025. Since the sports industry was 2.95 trillion yuan in 2019, you are looking at an injection of about $300 billion into the industry within a short time. I can see thousands of new brands or startups springing up to offer products or services for fitness, health, and sports. This will translate into significant demand for domains related to fitness, health, and sports.

If you have domains in these areas, you may want to ride the boom. To find out more about what domains are wanted by corporate China, read “The largest companies in China still prefer short, English-based .com domains” and “What domains do Chinese internet companies want to buy (multi-year analysis)?“. Most importantly, make sure you list your domains at a marketplace with retail outlets in China (such as Afternic) to expose your domains to potential buyers in that market.

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