There are a few countries that should change how they do things and get in the game of repurposing their cctld.
I am talking about Benin and the island of St Helena. These two countries are fortunate enough to possess the .BJ and .SH country codes.
With .Ws looking to refresh their brand and focus on the increased interest of Chinese domain holders for short domains, especially numerics, Dot Bj and Dot Sh could get in the game. BJ for Beijing and Sh for Shanghai would resonate with Chinese investors imo. If .ws or .co are going to pick up registrations then these two could make a move as well.
Now when you look at .Sh it is run by a company not the government, Founded in 1997, the .SH domain registry is directed by its parent company, the Internet Computer Bureau PLC (ICB).
Does ICB want to spend dollars to market and make their pricing competitive ? That would be needed, same goes for .BJ which would need to lower prices significantly and create an English and Chinese version of their website nic.bj. For those that don’t know Benin is located in West Africa and is French speaking. According to the BBC it is a stable democracy.
Some domain owners have stuck their toe in the .BJ and .Sh pool. 7777.sh actually got registered today. 888.sh first registered in 2001 by an Indian registrant. Now .Sh makes this note in their rules:
3. MANDATORY RULES FOR SECOND LEVEL DOMAINS.
3.1 An applicant may reside in any legal jurisdiction.
3.2 Certain single letter, two or more letters or number domain names are available for registration in a controlled and equitable manner.
3.3 There shall be at least two nameservers for the domain (with addresses specified in the request) operating at the time the request is submitted. There is no requirement for the nameserver to be physically located on St Helena Island. There is no restriction on the IP address of these nameservers.
What is a controlled and equitable manner ?
There are a couple names that came up a lot when I checked popular 3 and 4N .sh domains. Hong Kong registrants and of course Shanghai registrants.
Dot BJ started to see registrations come in around October 2015 that focused on popular numerics like 888 and 999.
So there is a lot of work for both registries that would need to get done, but the juice may very well be worth the squeeze.
Before anyone gets crazy, NO I am not recommending you register .sh or .bj domains, I believe there is a high level of risk that only the experienced should consider. Right now I am not sure anyone can consider a serious commitment because the pricing is too high at $150 to $250 per name.
This is more about sparking conversation about the registries themselves and if they see an opportunity to jump in the game. Of course extensions need to be about more than just one facet but currently the demand coming from China is the strongest. Whether we all think it makes sense or not, you don’t fight the current of demand, give the people what they want. There are people selling numerics and getting offers everyday in spaces outside of .com. Will it continue for a month, a year, a decade ? Who knows ? Domaining has changed and unless you have a stellar portfolio like an Anything.com, or Telepathy you need to stay on top of stuff daily.
You make a lot of sense BJ certainly is much better than WS. I mean when I read about WS I thought it was a joke.
I can see people wanting 888 or 999 but I don’t think there is demand for 8833.bj or .sh or the nonsense with the hype around .ws. It is a pump and dump. The Chinese may dump all this crap in a year and these names have no other use.
Nice article. It’s a topic you and I have both written about – whether registries or domainers will repurpose / rebrand existing TLDs for a Chinese audience. And I agree with you that they probably will.
Certainly, I’m not one of those looking for the “next big thing” to jump into with both feet. For some time, I’ve been predicting a downturn or retrenchment where the Chinese sector is concerned. Right now, it looks like we’re about 2 months deep into that market decline and no sign of it stopping yet. (Data forthcoming this week.)
But in the long run (i.e. years not months), I wouldn’t be surprised to see some non-Chinese ccTLDs or nTLDs pivot and market themselves deliberately as Chinese terms. After all, it worked for .ME, .IO, and .TV – all of which have positioned themselves based on an English meaning. (Granted, that association is pretty weak outside the tech sector for .IO; but it inspired the techies anyhow.)
When it comes to China, I’m no expert. Is “SH” an abbreviation for Shanghai? According to Wikipedia, the official abbreviation for Shanghai is (surprisingly enough) “Hu”. So it might be Hungary rebranding its .HU for that city. Could be multiple abbreviations out there depending on context. Dunno.
You are right about Hu that is the oldest I believe. I have looked at municipal codes and a few other sites Joseph that did show .Sh. So maybe it is both ancient and modern.
BJ Beijing Municipality
TJ Tianjin Municipality
HE Hebei Province
SX Shanxi Province
NM Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
LN Liaoning Province
JL Jilin Province
HL Heilongjiang Province
SH Shanghai Municipality
JS Jiangsu Province
ZJ Zhejiang Province
AH Anhui Province
FJ Fujian Province
JX Jiangxi Province
SD Shandong Province
HA Henan Province
HB Hubei Province
HN Hunan Province
GD Guangdong Province
GX Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
HI Hainan Province
CQ Chongqing Municipality
SC Sichuan Province
GZ Guizhou Province
YN Yunnan Province
XZ Tibet Autonomous Region
SN Shaanxi Province
GS Gansu Province
QH Qinghai Province
NX Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
XJ Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
HK Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
MC Macau Special Administrative Region
TW Taiwan Province *
@Raymond,
That’s a handy list.
888.sh is mine. Domainerfella in NP.
I have the domain at NIC.sh, shows me a renewal price of 30 pounds = 43 USD.
.CH could have some potential as well, but it all depends on who pulls the trigger – the Chinese or the Westerner.
Thanks Raymond
That’s a good price $43 for renewal.
“888.sh has been registered since 2001 by an Indian registrant.”
Wrong.
http://namebio.com/888.sh
Domain Handle : DOM-20030
Domain Name : 888.sh … (Check 888.ac) … (Check 888.io)
Domain Status : Live
First Registered : 2001-02-06
Last Updated : 2015-09-21
Expiry : 2016-07-31 … Redemption Grace Period Ends, 2016-10-30 00:30
Back-order : Available … Purchase a Back-Order … (What is a back-order?)
Right. It was bought by the current owner from whomever owned it prevuiusly since 2001. As a matter of fact. I think it was another NPer.