Yes, the pun is intended. This post is about a Chinese audio manufacturer and the domains it owns, hopefully giving us some hints about selling domains to corporate China.
FiiO Electronics Technology is a Chinese audio manufacturer founded in 2007. It makes music players, earphones, and various audio accessories which are sold in China and many countries around the world. According to the company’s website, the name FiiO “is composed of Fi (fidelity from HiFi) and iO (number 1&0), representing the real feeling and convenient life that digital brings to life.” Obviously, FiiO is not Pinyin. The company’s Chinese name is 飞傲 (Fei Ao = flying with pride) which rhymes with its English brand, suggesting that the English brand came first before the Chinese brand.
For a long time, the audio maker had not just one but three corporate domains: Fiio.cn, Fiio.net, and Fiio.com.cn. That changed last year when they acquired Fiio.com at an undisclosed price and gradually shifted from the three domains to Fiio.com as the sole corporate domain. Why .com? According to the company’s public statement, .com speeds up its communication with the world and increases its flow of information.
FiiO Electronics Technology understands what it means to be a brand-matching domain. They acquired Fiio.com but not FiioElectronics.com and FiioElectronicsTechnology.com. (The later two domains are still available for registration as of this writing.) Your brand is the name commonly remembered by the general public. In this case, Fiio is the brand and therefore Fiio.com is the brand-matching domain. Furthermore, if you want to become a global player, then a brand-matching .com is a must.
While the audio maker owns Fiio.com and Fiio.cn matching its English brand, they have not acquired Feiao.com (inactive) and Feiao.cn (for sale) matching its Chinese brand. This suggests that they focus only on their English brand and related domains. Nevertheless, I think it’s good to secure Feiao.com and Feiao.cn as well – if only for brand protection purpose.
In summary, Fiio has a sound domain strategy by owning its brand-matching Fiio.com and Fiio.cn, allowing it to cover both China and the rest of the world. English or English-like .com domains are popular in corporate China. If you own a domain which happens to fall into the upgrade path of a Chinese company, then the value of your domain will be great. Research is vital in uncovering the potential of your domain.
Join me on LinkedIn for further conversation
