Recently an executive in the domain industry asked me to comment on the main differences between China and the west in domain names. First of all, when people say 'the west,' I think they are mostly referring to the US. So the question now becomes: what are the differences between China and the US in domain names? One difference lies in the domain extension. In the US, .com is king both in terms of … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

The beauty of LLNN .com domain names is that they are very cheap, and some are even available for registration at about $10. For some startups in China wanting to enjoy the prestige of .com but without much budget, LLNN .com names become attractive. Here are five Chinese companies I have found which use LLNN .com to launch their services. BY56.com Bai Yun Wu Liu (百运物流) is a logistics startup. BY matches … [Read more...]

Recently I read several articles that got me thinking about domain investment in China. Has China become the largest domain market in the world? If not, is it possible that China will become one soon? If China becomes the place with the most domain activities, what does it mean to the domain industry in general and domain investors in particular? According to the article "It’s official—China is the … [Read more...]

I often say that "short" is the key to Chinese domain investment. So, when I received the Liquid Domains Market Overview report published by Giuseppe Graziano of GGRG.com a few days ago, I was eager to find out how it relates to China. The report used Estibot to estimate the total value (size) of .com domain names in each category, and gives us a breakdown by country. Because I'm particularly interested … [Read more...]

In July this year, CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) released their latest statistics on internet in China. This survey started in 1998 and has been conducted twice a year every year. The information gives us insight into China's internet in general and domain names in particular. According to the survey, China's internet population has grown to 710m. This represents only slightly over … [Read more...]

If you invest in the Chinese domain market, it's almost impossible not to come across the name Wen Sheng CAI (蔡文胜). Cai is not only a successful domain investor, he is also a great angel investor. Within the Chinese domain community, however, he is affectionately called "the domain king." Cai dropped out of high school and went to the Philippines in 1993 to work in an import export business. After he … [Read more...]

Today, people are still confused by the meaning of .com, even though it has been 30 years since the first .com domain name -- Symbolics.com -- was registered in 1985. Here's an example to illustrate the issue. During the DomainSherpa Discussion show aired on March 6, 2014, Michael Berkens mentioned a casual survey by Monte Cahn when he was doing a presentation at the Digital Marketing and gTLD Strategy … [Read more...]

I often come across the phrase Quan Fang Wei Fu Wu (全方位服务) which many Chinese companies use to describe their services. This phrase means to provide 'full service' to the satisfaction of customers. Many companies go even one step further. They use domain names containing 360 to build their official websites, showing how dedicated they are to making their customers happy. Entering the number 360 into … [Read more...]

I read Chinese domain news almost every day and often I find interesting things hidden in the news. Recently, I came across the news that a Chinese government agency is using an English domain name. This is quite unusual for a country with rich culture and history because national pride always takes priority. Guo Wu Yuan (国务院 = The State Council) is the chief administrative authority of China. It … [Read more...]