When it comes to selecting domain names, Chinese startups are creative. They have to. There is tremendous pressure to build a business on a .com domain name but a good .com name is very expensive.
Due to the global demand for .com, acquiring a short and easy to remember .com name is almost impossible for many Chinese startups.
So, startups on low budget can solve this problem by being creative. One way to do so is by combining a name with a number which rhymes with a Chinese phrase, making it still relatively easy to remember.
For example, Che Xian Wu You (车险=car insurance, 无忧=no worries) is a mobile app that lets users compare car insurance policies and shop for the best one. Chexian.com would be an excellent domain name but it’s not available and would be very expensive even if it could be purchased.
The next choice would be Chexianwuyou.com, an exact match. This domain name is not available either and it’s a bit long.
The company decided to go for Chexian51.com. The reason is that 51 rhymes with “Wuyou”. Chexian51.com has the same meaning as Chexianwuyou.com but is shorter.
As demand for .com domain name continues to increase all over the world, we’ll see more and more companies resorting to creative domain names. However, the same theme remains: shortness. Scarcity of .com names will force companies to look outside the box.
Interesting. A rhyme like that is far from obvious to non-Chinese speakers looking at the domain.
Chinese language study was a subject I used to dislike at school. Now I can see how useful it is in my life.