An Hui Hua Mi Xin Xi Ke Ji You Xian Gong Si (安徽华米信息科技有限公司) was formed in 2013 between Xiaomi and an electronic company. Like many Internet startups in China, the company banked on new technologies and quickly made its presence felt in the wearable market.
It powers Xiaomi’s popular M Bands fitness tracker and already has an office in Silicon Valley. With new product line Amazfit wearable and large amount of capital injection, the company is aiming to be No 1 in wearable devices in the world.
Now, let’s look at some names. The company’s trading name is Hua Mi Ke Ji (华米科技), which is taken from its legal name (see the parts in bold in “An Hui Hua Mi Xin Xi Ke Ji You Xian Gong Si”).
The company’s marketing material suggests the name is going even shorter: Hua Mi (华米). This is in line with the popular naming convention of double-pin names in China.
The company’s corporate site used to be Huami-inc.com, but they managed to acquire Huami.com some time ago and Huami.com is the company’s new corporate site. (Huami-inc.com is now a job openings site for the company.) Look at how the company name has evolved.
An Hui Hua Mi Xin Xi Ke Ji You Xian Gong Si => Hua Mi Ke Ji => Hua Mi => HM?
Now that they own Huami.com, will they continue and acquire the ultimate prize of HM.com? I won’t be surprised if it happens, because Chinese companies are willing to spend a fortune for a nice 门面 (literally meaning door and face). They see domain name as the door to their corporate world.
This shows Chinese companies act in the same way as those in the US and the rest of the world. They all want short .com domain name matching their company name. If you own a short .com name, it’s worth the effort to do research and see if it’s part of the name of a rising star in China’s corporate world.
