Numbers don’t lie. They tell you direction, and the direction is up. I’m talking about the importance and therefore the value of domain names in China.
Baidu has released the latest (April) numbers on how Internet users come to a website, and the trend is very favorable to domain names.
| Visit Method | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Direct | 42.40% |
| Referral | 30.22% |
| Search | 24.27% |
| Directory | 2.34% |
| Social media | 0.77% |
This shows direct (type-in) traffic is the No. 1 source of visitors to a website, and this traffic is trending up as well, increasing from 41.68% in March to 42.40% in April. This means more and more Chinese users are using domain names directly to come to visit a website.
On the contrary, source of visitors from search has dropped from 26.22% in March to 24.27% in April, showing the decreasing importance of search engines in China. Surprisingly, social media are practically insignificant in playing any role in this respect.
This result points to the increasing importance of domain names. As evident in many recent cases such as JD.com and Le.com upgrades, Chinese companies are willing to spend a fortune to secure a short and easy domain name. The easier Chinese consumers can remember a brand and its corresponding domain name, the more often they will use the domain name to visit the brand’s website.
So, domain names in China will continue to be important. In particular, short and easy-to-remember .com names will continue to rise in their values.
Excellent findings and thank you for sharing.
You are welcome.
“The easier… consumers can remember a brand and its corresponding domain name, the more often they will use the domain name to visit the brand’s website.”
Great quote!
Glad that you like it, Jon.