Many investors may see China only as a buyer for expensive .com domains. However, the days are coming when you’ll hear more and more about Chinese owners selling domains to buyers outside China. A recent news story I read is an indication of what is to come.
Last month, the domain Viafintech.com was sold by its Chinese owner to a German company for 46,980 yuan. The buyer is Barzahlen Cash Payment Solutions GmbH, a fintech startup founded in 2011 in Berlin. Barzahlen is also a payment system which is widely used across Germany. The company’s corporate domain appears to be Barzahlen.de.
The fintech startup owns the English-based brand “Viacash” for a payment infrastructure used in Europe, which operates from the matching Viacash.com. The company also indicates that it owns the trademark “Viafintech” and registered the domain Via-fintech.com in January this year.
Here are several points of interest to domain investors. First of all, the domain Viafintech.com was registered by a Chinese investor named Lu Chen on September 8. 2018 and sold via the marketplace on West.cn. This shows domains can be sold to China as well as from China. In other words, China is becoming a global domain market where domains are bought and sold inside and outside China.
The transaction shows that brand-matching domains are important and valuable. Barzahlen already owns Via-fintech.com but was willing to further invested about $7,000 to acquire the Viafintech.com. This tells us selling upgrade for brand matching purpose is an opportunity for domain investors.
Note that Viafintech.com is English-based on the .com extension. This falls into the EnglishDotcom domain strategy I have been advocating for quite a while. The best way to position your startup as a global player is to choose the EnglishDotcom domain strategy, because English is the global language and .com the global extension.
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