I use LinkedIn almost everyday. It is the only foreign social network that I know has entered China successfully. Its growth has been explosive — being propelled by Chinese executives eager to connect with the outside world. I like this trend so much that I have started writing about domain names in Chinese to cater to my large number of Chinese connections.
Recently, LinkedIn did a study called 最跨界互联网公司 (my translation: The Best Cross-Border Internet Companies), and the best 20 companies were listed. This is about how internet companies in China are trying to solve the severe shortage of talents within their industry, which can become a barrier to a company’s growth. The solution is to seek talents from non-internet industries. The top 20 companies on this list are the most active in seeking such talents, suggesting they are most innovative in utilizing human resources to further their growth.
Since my interest is domain names, I wanted to see how these companies are using domain names. For each company on the list, I entered its Chinese name into Baidu and checked its domain names used. Here’s the result.
| Company | Business | Domain Name |
|---|---|---|
| Le TV (乐视) | entertainment | Le.com |
| VIP.com (唯品会) | ecommerce | VIP.com |
| Shanda (盛大) | game | SDO.com (not owns Shanda.com) |
| Huan Ju (欢聚时代) | entertainment | Huanju.cn |
| Chang You (畅游) | game | ChangYou.com |
| Sohu (搜狐) | media | Sohu.com |
| Tuniu (途牛) | travel | Tuniu.com |
| Sina (新浪) | media | Sina.com.cn (owns Sina.com) |
| iQiyi (爱奇艺) | entertainment | iQiyi.com |
| Jing Dong (京东) | ecommerce | JD.com |
| NetEase (网易) | media, game | 163.com (owns NetEase.com) |
| Ren Ren Wang (人人网) | social network | Renren.com |
| Qihoo 360 (奇虎360) | security | 360.cn (owns 360.com) |
| Cheetah Mobile(猎豹移动) | mobile, security | cmcm.com (owns CheetahMobile.com) |
| Alibaba (阿里巴巴) | integrated | 1688.com (owns Alibaba.com) |
| Baidu (百度) | integrated | Baidu.com |
| Di Di (滴滴出行) | ride-hailing | Xiaojukeji.com (not owns Didi.com) |
| Meituan (美团) | ecommerce | Meituan.com |
| Jinri Toutiao (今日头条) | media | Toutiao.com (Jinritoutiao.com ownership unknown) |
| Tencent (腾讯) | integrated | QQ.com (owns Tencent.com) |
As you can see, most of the companies own their exactly matching domain names and all of them have .com. Their domain names are very short as well. This shows .com is very strong in corporate China. Notice that these companies are also top brands. As the saying goes: when the brands lead, the rest follow. Therefore, in the foreseeable future, .com will continue to be the best choice as domain extension for businesses in China.
Linkedin is the best place to make Chinese connections.
I like Facebook for India connections, although Linkedin is good for India connections as well.
I also like Linkedin and Twitter for North American and European connections. Facebook is good to.
Thanks for posting this, Kassey.
It’s very interesting for Westerners to know that VIP.com is a top ecommerce company in China.
Based on what we can learn about the importance of ‘VIP’ (as an actual word in China) from Simon’s excellent presentation [https://goo.gl/zSgKdq],it’s no wonder why VIP.com chose to brand their company and site as such.
You’re 100% correct about dot-Com being the best choice for domain extensions in China (and elsewhere). That’s a fact.
However, given the facts that (i) the one-and-only VIP.com is being used in commerce, and forever gone, and (ii) ‘VIP’ is a universally understood word/concept in China, so it’s perfect for branding in certain areas…wouldn’t you agree that leveraging premium dot-VIP names for end-users are a great way to reach the Chinese market?
In the case of leveraging ‘VIP’ for a brand there’s no question in my mind that Lobster.VIP is a much more powerful domain name than LobsterVIP.com.
Thoughts?
It’s always nice to see where investors are getting their leads / research data from. LinkedIn seems like a pretty solid source. The downside is that linkedIn is slowly starting to get saturated with sales spam like FaceBook. I can only hope that they get more proactive than FB is about it.