I want to expand on what I wrote in the June 3 blog post “This .com story will repeat many times in China” and look at how to seek opportunities for your .com name in China.
We know .com is king in China and therefore is frequently the target of domain upgrade by Chinese companies. If you own a short .com name, it’s worth the effort to do research and see if your domain name may become a target of acquisition by a Chinese company.
How ?
Here are some tips that you can try, even if you can’t read Chinese. Right now I see OYY.com expiring and being auctioned on Namejet, so let’s use this domain name as an example.
First, check OYY.cn to see if it is an operating site, because .cn is the most likely candidate for .com domain upgrade. Enter OYY.cn into your browser and check. Unfortunately, OYY.cn does not resolve.
Also try the .com.cn extension, which is still popular even though it is not as prestigious as .cn. In this case, OYY.com.cn does not resolve either.
Then, use Baidu search. Enter OYY into the search box and then check links in the search result, looking for domain names containing OYY. Voila! I see two names: OYYTV.com and OYY-shop.cn.
Visit each of the websites. Look for images of factories, global or national retail network, growth charts, etc. to try to get a feel of the size of the company. In this example, OYYTV.com looks modern and OYY-shop.cn is a cosmetics site, but there is no hint about their sizes.
Another tip is to check the About Us page and then use Google Translate to get a general idea about the company. I’m particularly interested in seeing data such as number of employees, offices, and retail stores.
If you don’t read Chinese, this is how you can locate the About Us page.
1. While at the home page of a site, use the search function of your browser.
2. Paste one of the following Chinese phrases into the search box.
公司简介 (company outline)
集团简介 (group outline. If it exists, that alone already indicates the company is of significant size.)
关于我们 (about us)
3. If the search lands you at a link, click to open the page. If not, continue the search or try the other Chinese phrases.
4. Paste content of the opened page into Google Translate and read the translation.
In the example of OYYTV.com and OYY-shop.cn, the first two Chinese phrases do not work but the last one 关于我们 succeeds. (Some sites have multiple instances of the same Chinese phrase, one of which may be clickable.)
The About Us page of both sites do not provide any data to indicate the size of the companies, so I speculate that they as small- to medium-sized companies.
In your case, if possible, show the websites and also the About Us pages to a Chinese friend to confirm your speculation.
This are simple tips that I hope can help you locate potential buyers in China. Please let me know if you come across any issues.
Jeff Schneider says
Hello Kassey,
It is always wise to educate people, rather than run them over with loaded agenda recommendations that Reg. owners are pushing. Keep up the good work. Kudos
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master https://www.UseBiz.com )
Kassey Lee says
Thanks for the kind words, Jeff.
AbdulBasit Makrani says
Nice tips Kassey and good reminder for me as well 🙂
Krishna says
Kassey Lee, your posts are so helpful for domainers like me who are struggling to understand Chinese market and the thought process of Chinese company managements.
Thank you
Kassey Lee says
If you have specific issues with the Chinese market, please let me know.
Nick says
GREAT POST! Every time I went to a .cn domain the same as my .com I had no idea what the page said, what it did, or how to find the about us page. Any clue on how to tell is the site is popular?
Kassey Lee says
The purpose of the exercise has only one purpose: Can the company afford an expensive upgrade to .com. Whether the site is popular or not does not bother me.