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Business Insider “China is Buying Up The Internet”

November 8, 2015 by Raymond Hackney

Business Insider published an article on Saturday that takes a look at what most in our business have been discussing for months. Buyouts here, buyouts there, no more 6N.com or 4L.net. The article delves into why domain names are the perfect Chinese investment vehicle.

No customs declaration. No property taxes. No annual fees (outside of a $10 registration fee). Domestic and international escrow services. Ownership privacy. If there was ever an asset made to handle Chinese wealth, it was domain names.

The article goes on to look at other important factors such as rarity and liquidity. Nice to see LLLLsales.com get a mention.

Today is different, with numeric and short domains (often unpronounceable to the Western world) defying all traditional domain-name investment logic and shattering record charts. For example, according to DNJournal:

989.com was just sold for $818,181.

899.com changed hands for $801,000.

588.com grabbed $1,000,000.

While these type of domain names have always had value, the explosion has also led to five-number domains (like 87899.com), six-number domains and even longer combinations attracting thousands of dollars in bids.

China, after all, is a numbers culture.

And the demand doesn’t stop there.

For non-Chinese investors, domains like mzqy.com and yybw.com were traditionally of lower demand since they never passed the radio test. Today, however, four-letter combinations are bringing in ever-increasing prices. Take one look at leading auction house NameJet’s home page and you will see a vast number of four-letter dot coms or visit LLLLsales.com to view market sales activity for only four-letter domains.

On the surface, this may seem to make little sense.

But it certainly does.

The key for everyone is whether or not this can be sustained, I see names being regged out to 14N.com, names like 77777778888888.com for example. The article seems to believe if prices take a hit there is a pool of Chinese investors waiting to jump in and buy.

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Filed Under: Chinese Domain Names, Domain trends

About Raymond Hackney

Raymond Hackney has been involved with domain names since 1997. One of the most prolific writers in the domain industry and founder of TLDinvestors.com and 3Character.com

Comments

  1. elevator says

    November 8, 2015 at 2:08 am

    Really great time in the industry.
    Thanks for this nice article.
    Cheers.

  2. todd says

    November 8, 2015 at 10:15 am

    I find it interesting that you you let everyone know the article is from Business Insider but you don’t mention it was written by Alan Dunn the domainer. I think that’s a huge point to leave out.

  3. Harold says

    November 8, 2015 at 3:24 pm

    Nice to see talk outside of domaining. I don’t think it matters who wrote the article. Chinese buying up everything number wise.

    • todd says

      November 8, 2015 at 5:48 pm

      It absolutely matters. There is a big difference between an article written by an outsider compared to one written by an insider. Insider articles you have to take with a grain of salt because you don’t know how deep their hand is in the pot.

      • Harold says

        November 8, 2015 at 6:19 pm

        Doesn’t matter to me and I really don’t care what you think.

  4. Joseph Peterson says

    November 8, 2015 at 5:00 pm

    Nice to see such articles about the domain market appear in mainstream publications like Business Insider.

    Good job, Alan Dunn!

    If there’s 1 thing in the piece I’m not sure of, then it would be the references to an “established wholesale market”. Yes, it’s important to emphasize to non-domainers that an active wholesale market has existed for decades. That much we know to be true because, as domainers, we participate in that market daily.

    However, 1 thing the Chinese market emphatically is not is established. Prices are unstable; indeed, they’ve been rising sharply throughout the past year. Today a domain might sell for $1500 that would only have fetched $25 last Thanksgiving. Vast chunks of numerics are being registered today when last year they were deemed utterly worthless. LLLL.net has been gobbled up in its entirety only recently.

    Nothing about that picture shows equilibrium. The Chinese domain market is … anything. You may call it anything. But not “established”. Who knows what it will be next year? Up? Maybe. The same? Maybe. Down? Maybe.

  5. frank meester says

    November 8, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    i had 2 domains ”relisted” for free with flippa.com because i did not get my price .
    after reading this article ,i ended the llsitings early ,lol
    One more year i might get double or triple
    8889985.com
    8686688.com

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