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Domain upgrade is the name of the game in China

November 20, 2019 by Kassey Lee

The domain behavior in corporate China is quite similar to what we see in the west. Companies like to upgrade to shorter domains for a variety of reasons: such as better name, prestige, publicity, or going global. Let’s look at some examples.

VIPshop.com is obviously not a top-notch domain for an ecommerce platform which is listed on New York Stock Exchange. The company Wei Pin Hui (唯品会) invested $2 million in 2013 to upgrade to VIP.com. Now, the domain “VIP.com” is also the company’s brand name. Currently, VIPshop.com forwards visitors to VIP.com.

In 2014 mobile phone maker Xiao Mi (小米) acquired Mi.com for $3.6 million, even though it already owned the brand-matching XiaoMi.com. Now, XiaoMi.com points to the new corporate domain Mi.com. I think the reason for the upgrade is to go global. Mi.com is much easier to remember than XiaoMi.com outside China.

Internet security company Qihoo 360 (奇虎360) started out at 360Safe.com and then upgraded to 360.cn. In 2015, it invested a whopping $17 million to acquire 360.com. However, the company still uses 360.cn as its corporate domain and 360.com merely forwards visitors to the former.

Upgrade from Pinyin to acronym is also popular. Zhu Ba Jie (猪八戒 = a character in the novel Journey to the West) is a marketplace for logo design and other digital services. A few years ago, it changed its corporate domain from the brand-matching ZhuBaJie.com to the acronym domain ZBJ.com. Acronym may be easier to remember than Pinyin for consumers outside China, as illustrated in this case.

As you can see, Chinese companies like to upgrade to shorter .com domains. If you own a domain sitting in the upgrade path, your domain will be very valuable. Research is key to finding out such possibility.

Join me on LinkedIn for further conversation

Originally published on Grandseeds.com

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Filed Under: Chinese Domain Names, Domain trends, Grandseeds.com

About Kassey Lee

Kassey Lee is the publisher of Grandseeds.com, a Chinese domain market newsletter containing daily blog, news, and Q&A.

Comments

  1. Snoopy says

    November 21, 2019 at 12:08 am

    Interesting article, cheers.

  2. AbdulBasit Makrani says

    November 21, 2019 at 12:34 am

    Very well said! Absolutely agree on that.

  3. Ethan says

    November 21, 2019 at 1:02 am

    In my opinion, the example of Mi.com is not a good one because it goes against a common sense in the domaining industry that using a brand-mismatching domain name is a bad practice.

    • Kassey Lee says

      November 21, 2019 at 4:39 am

      They may position Mi as a global brand. Mi.com is already their corporate domain.

      • Ethan says

        November 21, 2019 at 8:43 pm

        Thanks for the info. I just checked their website and saw that they say MI means “Mobile Internet”. I would advice they rebrand into “Mobile Internet” then.

        • Gene Downs says

          November 23, 2019 at 2:28 pm

          Good comment

  4. 168 says

    November 22, 2019 at 7:52 am

    Sounds too Much like ME in many cultures. Doesn’t describe the product/service.
    If they want global appeal they should have GMI.com
    IBM- International then BM.
    Can only imagine how much effort goes into ” explaining ” what it means forever.
    Mobile internet – a phone co – disconnected meaning.
    .com is losing appeal in the tech sector.
    .io and .ai are popular because it describes their product / service in the domain. Not because they’re short.
    They should align with their market mindset Not domainer old news hype.
    Acronyms aren’t always a best choice just because of the short or implied prestige.
    There is a reason it was available. No western Corp thought it was a good choice.
    VIP – good example. They cater to VIP

    In western culture VIP doesn’t carry the same social or cultural weight as in China.
    Luxury is more appealing in the west and it’s longer :).
    Aa always, appreciate your cultural insights.
    Cheers

  5. 168 says

    November 22, 2019 at 8:13 am

    .mobi extension was intended as an acronym for mobile internet.
    Maybe they should buy the extension instead and offer it as a platform for thier product/ service.
    Could be very “easy to remember” 😊
    Cheers

    • Kassey Lee says

      November 22, 2019 at 7:04 pm

      Would be wonderful if they do. I once had a large portfolio of .mobi domains and still keep a few as reminder of my failure.

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