Learning from Chinese domain auction sites

At college I studied consumer behavior, market research, and other subjects in marketing. Most of them have long been forgotten, but one of the few ideas I still remember is this: knowing your customers. Unfortunately, when I look at the world around me, I often see businesses not trying to understand their customers and serving them well.

When it comes to selling domain names to China, the same rule applies. This is particularly important as China now accounts for 40% of the global domain sales. As a large market, China deserves special attention. When I look at auction sites in the west and in China, I see one difference — Chinese sites give more relevant information about the domain names they are selling.

Here’s an image taken from an auction page of 22.cn. Beneath each domain name, you can see a description about the domain name as well as its buy-it-now price.

Let’s take 5102.com as an example. I have reproduced its details below.

5102.com
我要恋爱，婚恋好米
¥ 158,000

Translated to English, the description is “‘I want to fall in love.’ Good domain name for use in love and marriage areas”. It tells you two things: (1) meaning of the domain name, and (2) area of business application.

The meaning of 5102 comes from rhyming. 5102 rhymes with 我要恋爱 (‘I want to fall in love). Now, rhyming is creative work. Not every Chinese can come up with a phrase that rhymes with a number. It takes time and experience. In other words, many buyers may not be aware of the value in 5102 until its meaning is suggested here.

When business owners offering dating or match-making services see 5102.com, they’ll immediately understand the value and power of this domain name, and are willing to pay a premium price for it. In such situation, 5102.com is no longer one of the thousand 4N domain name for sale. A meaningful domain name rises up above the crowd.

That’s why I’m so interested in meanings of domain names. If you can give Chinese meaning to a domain name, you may greatly increase the value of the domain name when marketed to Chinese buyers.