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You can still pick up Pinyin domains from the drops

by — Expired Domains 0 Comments

Good quality Pinyin domains drop every day.

Graphic that says 'pinyin' in yellow type on purple background

I thought most meaningful Pinyin are already owned by Chinese investors because there are over 900 million internet citizens and a large pool of investors in China. These Chinese domain investors even triggered the global domain boom in 2015/2016.

Therefore, it amazes me to see Pinyin domains dropping regularly in the last few months. For example, the following 10 Pinyin domains are now available for registration as of this writing.

Domain Pinyin Chinese Meaning
Haidiou.com Hai Di Ou 海地鸥 Gull of sea and land
Hongshuli.com Hong Shu Li 红薯里 Sweet potato neighborhood
Longyishun.com Long Yi Shun 龙一瞬 Dragon, in the twinkle of an eye
Jinxingchang.com Jin Xing Chang 尽心尝 Try wholeheartedly
Wogeke.com Wo Ge Ke 握个客 To grasp individual customer
Aidatan.com Ai Da Tan 爱打探 Love to scout out
Fengmidi.com Feng Mi Di 蜂蜜帝 Emperor of honey
Gushutang.com Gu Shu Tang 古书堂 Hall of ancient books
Jingfuxin.com Jing Fu Xin 静福心 A heart with tranquility and happiness
Kailanna.com Kai Lan Na 凯蓝娜 Triumphant, blue, elegant

As you can see, many of these Pinyin domains are quite short –- fewer than 10 characters. Imagine investing just $10 to acquire a domain such as Fengmidi.com to develop it into a business empire supplying honey to 1.4 billion consumers in China. The opportunity is unmeasurable!

The interesting thing is that I do not deliberately look for Pinyin domains. In fact, I mainly invest in English-based domains but somehow Pinyin names just come across my desk as I scan domains provided by ExpiredDomains.net every day.

Why are two letter domains so sought after in China?

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Kassey Lee explores why two letter domains are valuable to Chinese companies.

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

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.

English-based domains DO have a market in China

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Kassey Lee shows some more examples of Chinese companies using English-language domains.

Image with the words "English domains in China"

It thrills me almost every day to come across well-funded startups in China using English brand names and domains. The more I read about them, the more I am convinced there are selling opportunities for English-based domains to the second-largest economy in the world.

For example, below are some Chinese startups with funding raised recently.

Company Business line Domain
Compass (鑫蜂维) Business IT CompassHZ.com
Duckbill (鸭嘴兽) Container trucking DuckbillSCM.com
LinkDoc (零氪) Medical tech Linkdoc.com
inxmed (应世) Medical tech inxmed.com
Sunmnet (三盟) Smart education Sunmnet.com

As you can see, even though these companies have Chinese names, they use domains based on their English brand names. Also, .com is the first choice in corporate China. All five startups in the list above use .com.

You may also notice that some of the domains do not precisely match their English brand names, for example CompassHZ.com and DuckbillSCM.com. This is where you may find selling opportunities if you own the shorter domains (Compass .com and Duckbill .com).

My daily observation reflects what I see in the 2019 Top 100 Chinese Internet Companies list, where a significant 30% of the companies own English-based domains. Below are some examples.

Rank Company Domain
1 Alibaba (阿里巴巴) Alibaba.com
2 Tencent (腾讯) Tencent.com
5 Ant Financial (蚂蚁金服) Antfin.com
18 Cheetah Mobile (猎豹移动) CheetahMobile.com
19 Autohome (汽车之家) Autohome.com

Clearly, English-based domains do have a market in China. If you own such domains, be sure your domains are available to buyers in China too. This can be achieved by listing your domains at a marketplace that has retail outlets in China, such as Afternic (fast transfer). This approach also helps you avoid language and payment issues when selling to China.

Is .com king in China?

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By registration volume? No. But that’s not the only measure.

Picture of a laptop, cup of coffee, and basil plant with the word .com over a green background

We often see the expression “.com is king” which usually refers to the situation in the United States. Sometimes I also see this term used inside China. But is .com really No. 1 in China?

Well, it depends on how you interpret the expression. If you look at the number of domain registrations in China, then definitely .com is not No. 1. The following table lists the .cn and .com domain registrations in the last 15 years, according to China Statistical Report on Internet Development.

Year .cn .com
2005 1,096,924 1,202,497
2006 1,803,393 1,939,343
2007 9,002,000 2,436,000
2008 13,572,326 2,739,130
2009 13,459,133 2,783,652
2010 4,349,524 3,713,244
2011 3,644,147 3,528,511
2012 7,507,759 4,834,690
2013 10,829,480 6,311,480
2014 11,089,231 7,949,939
2015 16,363,594 10,997,941
2016 20,601,491 14,345,243
2017 20,845,513 11,307,915
2018 21,243,478 12,783,290
2019 22,426,900 14,924,706

By registration volume, .com was No. 1 only in 2005 and 2006. After that, .cn has always been No. 1 . Currently, .cn is 1.5 times of .com. So, .com is not king by registration volume.

However, if you look at extensions preferred by corporate China, the situation is the opposite. For example, over 80% of corporate domains of the Top 100 internet companies in China use .com.

Year .cn .com
2018 13% 86%
2019 14% 84%

Corporate demand is where you get the highest prices for domains. For example, Mi.com was sold to Xiaomi for $3.6 million in 2014 and 360.com to Qihoo 360 for $17 million in 2015. In other words, .com is No. 1 by price.

It’s safe to say that bigger companies in China prefer .com and .com domains command a higher price.

A site is developed on .Cn, so do you have an end user for your matching .com?

by — Domain Sales 0 Comments

As Kassey Lee explains in this post, a developed .cn domain corresponding to your .com does not necessarily mean you have found a potential buyer for an upgrade.

the word "domain upgrade" on a red backgrounder, black arrow pointing upward inside a circle

It’s time to look at some 4-character domains sold in June and see if they may appeal to end users in China as upgrades. This can be done by checking both .cn and .com.cn domains of the corresponding .com sold.

TA88.com sold for $5,800. TA88 .cn forwards to HGG696 .com which looks like a betting site. The site erroneously states that its name is Crown .com but the domain actually belongs to a large Chinese forklift truck manufacturer. So, TA88.com is unlikely a potential upgrade for TA88 .cn.

FX66.com sold for $1,400. FX66 .cn is a forex investment blog where FX is short for forex and 66 is often linked to the Chinese idiom Liu Liu Da Shun (六六大顺=everything going smoothly). The site seems to be inactive with the last blog entry posted in 2017. FX66 .com.cn is developed but its contents may not be original. So, there is no strong motivation for either site to upgrade to FX66.com.

i111.com sold for $810 and is for sale at 28,880 yuan ($4,100). i111 .com.cn seems to be developed but I had a problem viewing the site. Its page source indicates that the site owner is Chen Ming (晨明=daybreak brightness), a large group of companies operating in finance, real estate, logistics, and many other fields. In this case, ChenMing.com would be a better choice than i111.com as an upgrade for the company.

66DS.com sold for $600 and is for sale at €28,600 ($33,000). 66DS.cn is owned by Da Shun (大顺), a company which provides waterproofing to tunnels and other public infrastructures. DS matches the company name but 66 seems to be unnecessary. In this case, DaShun.com would be a better choice than 66DS.com as an upgrade for the company.

WC11.com sold for $557 and is for sale at 13,880 yuan ($1980). WC11.cn is a very basic blog and it does not seem to have any serious contents. The domain does not match the site title Fo Shan (佛山). So, WC11.com is unlikely a potential upgrade for WC11.cn.

As you can see, brand-matching is still an issue faced by end users in China, which makes the search for buyers more challenging. A developed .cn domain corresponding to your .com does not necessarily mean you have found a potential buyer for an upgrade. You must first determine if the .cn name matches its brand.

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