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A subdomain may lead to an upgrade

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Companies using a subdomain for a business unit might want to upgrade to the matching second-level domain.

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This company should consider one of these domain upgrades.

If you see a brand using a subdomain of its parent company’s domain, there may be an opportunity to sell your domain which matches the subdomain. That’s what I thought when I read a Baidu article (Chinese) about the entertainment startup Mao Yan.

Tianjin Maoyan Culture Media “owns the largest online movie ticketing website in China” according to Wikipedia. Although the company’s name is long, it’s generally referred to as “Mao Yan” (猫眼), a 2-pin name which literally means “cat’s eyes”.

Mao Yan was incubated inside the group-buying startup Mei Tuan. In response to strong demand for group buying of movie tickets, Mie Tuan set up an independent division in January 2012 to cater specifically to that need. They called the new division “Mei Tuan Movie” but subsequently changed it to “Mao Yan”, operating from the brand-matching subdomain Maoyan.meituan.com.

In August 2013, Mao Yan upgraded the domain to Maoyan.com after acquiring it earlier from a domain investor (price not disclosed). It became an independent company in 2016 and then listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2019. The company has expanded its services to include entertainment contents, ecommerce, and advertising.

Here are several things we can learn from this story:

  1. A brand of a large company operating from the company’s subdomain may upgrade to its own domain.
  2. 2-pin names are popular in China. In this case, both Mei Tuan and Mao Yan are 2-pin names.
  3. Brand-matching .com is popular, as illustrated by Meituan.com and Maoyan.com.

Domains that will appeal to this Chinese end user

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This company is ripe for a domain upgrade.

Image with green background that states "Domain Upgrades"

This company should consider one of these domain upgrades.

I was reading VC news a few days ago and came across an interesting company that may need to upgrade its corporate domain.

Shi Ji Kai Yuan (世纪开元) is a Chinese printing company with lots of awards received and ample finance secured, but a sub-par domain acquired. This makes the company a potential buyer for some of the domains suggested below.

The printer was founded in 2001 to provide a one-stop printing solution for all print jobs, graphic designs, and website designs. It is also an early adopter of the internet+printing concept, serving a large number of businesses. The name Shi Ji Kai Yuan (世纪开元) means “beginning of a new century”, which relates to its English name “Century Innovation“.

The corporate domain of Shi Ji Kai Yuan is 36588.com.cn. This numeric domain does not seem to have anything to do with the company’s Chinese or English name. Also, a sub-domain of com.cn is used, which is much less popular in China.

The company has recently completed its Series C round, pushing its total funding amount to about $30 million. With this ample finance, the company can definitely afford to upgrade its domain to a better one. Any of the following domains can match the company’s Chinese or English name.

Domain Status
CenturyInnovation.com Not resolve
CenturyInnovation.cn Not resolve
ShiJiKaiYuan.com For sale at 3,888 yuan
ShiJiKaiYuan.cn Not resolve
SJKY.com For sale with price guide of 399,999 yuan
SJKY.cn Not resolve
CI.com Used by U.S. company
CI.cn Not resolve

Take note if you own any of the domains.

These domains lie in the upgrade path of two Chinese companies

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Look at subpar domains companies are using to understand possible domain upgrades.

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I enjoy doing end user research because it can uncover domains as perfect upgrades for Chinese companies. Here are two startups I came across while reading venture capital news a few days ago.

Ding Dong Ke Tang (叮咚课堂) is a platform which helps young children learn English. Courses are AI-driven, interactive, and based on games. The company was founded in 2014 and has already accumulated close to 5 million users. Recently, it raised more than $30 million in a Series B funding round.

The company’s corporate domain is DDKT365.com but 365 appears to be unrelated to the brand. Now, Ding Dong means “jingling of bells” and Ke Tang refers to classrooms, so the brand can be shortened to simply Ding Dong without losing its identity. Therefore, its domain upgrades are DDKT .com and DingDong .com. The ultimate upgrade will be DD .com.

Wu Kong Zhang Gui (悟空掌柜) is a social ecommerce platform which provides group buying for members. The startup was established in 2018 and recently raised about $15 million in a Series A funding round.

The startup’s corporate domain is WK96.com but 96 appears to be unrelated to the brand. Now, Wu Kong is a well-known character in the novel “Journey to the West” and Zhang Gui means “shopkeepers”, so the brand can be shortened to simply Wu Kong. Therefore, its domain upgrades are WKZG .com and WuKong .com. The ultimate upgrade will be WK.com.

By studying these two companies alone, I have identified many domains that are ideal as upgrades for the companies: DDKT .com, DingDong .com, DD .com, WKZG .com, WuKong .com, and WK .com.

These companies upgraded their domain names

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Lots of companies are paying to get a better version of their domain name.

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Of the forty reported sales at Uniregistry over the past two weeks, I was able to connect 17 of the purchases to end users. Many of these are upgraded domain names that are flawed.

For example, the sewing machine company Bernette dropped the ‘My’ off the front of its domain. Brave Thinking Institute shortened its too-long domain name with a three-letter domain. And iDecideInteractive bought the short, clear domain iDecide.com.

These are just three of the companies that realized they could improve their brand presence with a better domain.

Here are the end user sales I discovered:

BTI.com $100,000 – The domain forwards to Brave Thinking Institute, which is some sort of life and business coaching company.

Holocare.com $22,200 – Holocare bills itself as the “World’s first innovation centre for mixed reality in health.” Think holographs.

Gelal.com $16,500 – Gelal is a Turkish courier service.

AutoZen.com $15,000 – Open Road Auto Group is a car dealer.

TheAdvocates.com $11,500 – The Advocates personal injury attorneys smartly upgraded from UtahAdvocates.com.

ShopShowroom.com $11,000 – Showroom, as the business will be called, is “Creating a personal showroom for the modern woman.”

JacoBeach.com $10,000 – This is interesting. The buyer forwards the domain to an Airbnb in Jaco, Costa Rica.

Cricket .bet $8,500 – It’s not every day that you see a .bet domain sell. EGames Bond Ltd in Malta bought the domain.

iDecide.com $8,000 – iDecideInteractive creates interactive presentations. It uses the domain iDecideInteractive.com. Nice upgrade.

Bernette.com $8,000 – Sewing machine company Bernette bought this domain. It’s an upgrade from MyBernette.com.

NotaryOnline.com $7,600 – Sequiter operates legal and document websites, including LawDepot.

Phoenix .ca $6,000 – This domain forwards to GetPhoenix .com, a site that sends ED medicine to Canadians.

RapidRadiology.com $5,000 – Rapid Radiology provides radiology reports to healthcare organizations. It forwards the domain to its website RapidRad.com. Smart purchase.

Chocho.com $5,000 – Chocho is a plant protein. The website at this domain shows the brand Mikuna, so that might be the buyer.

CustomLandscapes.com $5,000 – Custom Landscapes is a landscaper in Denver, North Carolina.

KETK.com $4,400 – Nexstar Media Group bought this domain for its television station KETK.

CoinCollecting.org $3,000 – American Numismatic Association. It promotes coin collecting.

4 companies that upgraded their domain names

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These four Chinese companies upgraded their domain names for different reasons.

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

As a student of the Chinese domain market, I am excited to see companies upgrade to good domains, but I am even more excited when companies upgrade from good to great domains. Generally speaking, Chinese companies upgrade for the following reasons.

Matching brand: An end user may upgrade because its existing domain does not match its brand. For example, the world’s largest drone maker DJI ( 大疆) used to operate from DJI-Innovations.com. In 2013, the startup invested $300,000 to upgrade to the brand-matching DJI.com as its new corporate domain. Currently, DJI-Innovations.com redirects to DJI.com.

Going global: XiaoMi (小米) is the fourth largest mobile phone maker in 2018 according to Wikipedia but its name is not easy to pronounce and remember outside China. XiaoMi already owned the brand-matching XiaoMi.com but in 2014 it upgraded to Mi.com for $3.6 million. Currently, XiaoMi.com redirects to Mi.com.

Switching extension: Qihoo 360 (奇虎 360) is an internet security company. It sells a number of products with names starting with “360”, such as 360 Safeguard, 360 Mobile Safe, 360 Secure Browser, and 360 Mobile Assistant. Its corporate domain was 360.cn. In 2015, the company shelled out (a reported but not confirmed) $17 million to acquire 360.com. Currently, 360.cn is used for the domestic market only.

Going short: Jing Dong (京东) is the third largest internet company in the world according to Wikipedia. It already owned the brand-matching JingDong.com but in 2012 it acquired JD.com for $5 million. Currently, JingDong.com redirects to JD.com.

As we can see in these examples, Chinese companies like to upgrade their domains. So, it is a good idea to check and see if your domains fall into the upgrade path of end users in China.

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