Recently, I read in the news that the domain Kelu.com was sold for 150,000 yuan in China. It may appear as just an ordinary transaction. However, if you look further, you may find actually there is a category of domains which are perfect for globally minded startups in China.
First of all, “kelu” is short and pronounceable, so the name can be remembered by consumers in many countries around the world without much difficulty. (Just for comparison, how many people outside China can pronounce the name “Huawei” correctly?).
Going deeper, you may realize that “kelu” is also Pinyin, which may represent Chinese phrases such as 客路 (path of guests) and 科路 (tech path). The former can be used for hotels or tourism-related businesses, and the latter for technology-oriented fields.
Specially, “kelu” is actually 2-pin (two Pinyin words). 2-pin names are the most popular name pattern in corporate China. For example, among the 37 companies in the 2018 Top 100 Chinese Internet Companies Report using Pinyin names, 29 of them or 78% are 2-pin.
Putting these pieces together, what does it imply?
There is a category of domains which I call “4L with Pinyin twist”, which are perfect match for Chinese startups wanting to go global on day one. Such domains have two personalities, with its Pinyin part appealing to consumers within China and its “pronounceable” part to consumers around the world outside China.
In short, “4L with Pinyin twist” domains have great potential in corporate China. For domain investors, be sure to check if your 4L domains have the Pinyin personality as well.
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In the Chinese market, Pinyin domain names are the most popular. The only thing that rivals the Pinyin domain name is the digital domain name. In particular, two to five digital domain names. Moreover, digital domain names without 4 and the first number not 0 are particularly expensive. Of course, short-character domain names, such as two- to three-letter English domain names, are also very popular.