strategy China Domain Strategies of the Largest Internet Companies

Have you ever wondered what kind of domain names the world's largest Internet companies use in China? Do they use .com, .cn, or even the latest Chinese IDN extension? To gauge the practical domain market, I studied the ten largest Internet companies in the world that are operating in China to see which domains they own and which they use for their main websites.

I used Wikipedia to compile a list of the ten largest Internet companies in the world that operate inside China. The ten companies are: Amazon, Google, JD.com, Tencent, Alibaba, Salesforce.com, Baidu, LinkedIn, NetEase, and TripAdvisor.

Then, I entered each company into Baidu search to find the domain and extension that they list for their main website and whether they forward any other domains to their main site. To evaluate their use of Chinese IDN extensions, I chose to look at the extension .公司 (.company), because “公司” (the word “company”) is already present in many Chinese company names.

Here are the results of my study.

Amazon

Amazon has been operating in China since 2004. Its Chinese name is “亚马逊” (Ya Ma Xun), which is also the Chinese name for the Amazon region in South America. Baidu search shows that Amazon.cn is the main website that the company uses in China. However, the company's icon in the search results also suggests that the company is promoting Z.cn as a consumer facing brand. Amazon actively protects its brand by owning their name with several variations and domain extensions, including YaMaXun.com, YaMaXun.cn, and 亚马逊.公司 (Translation: Amazon.company). Amazon utilizes all of those domain names, redirecting them to Amazon.cn.

Google
Google's journey in China has been very bumpy. Google’s Chinese name is “谷歌” (Gu Ge), which means “song of the valley.” My Baidu search yielded Google.cn, Google.com.hk, and even Google.com in use. Google.cn seems to be the main Chinese site. While Google search is completely banned in China, some of Google.cn’s functions work, such as maps and translation. Google also owns GuGe.cn, but it does not resolve. Another entity owns 谷歌.公司 (Translation: Google.company).

JD.com
JD.com is a Chinese ecommerce company. Its Chinese name is “京东” (JingDong), which means “capital,” and “east.” It is taken from the names of the company’s founder and his former girlfriend. Baidu search shows that JD.com is their main site. For brand protection, the company also owns JD.cn and JingDong.com, which forward to their main website. JD.com also owns 京东.公司 (JingDong.company).

Tencent
Tencent is a Chinese Internet company best known for the mobile apps QQ and Wechat. Its Chinese name is “腾讯” (Teng Xun), which can be translated to mean “fast information.” Tencent’s main website is hosted at QQ.com. For brand protection, they also own Tencent.com, Tencent.cn, TengXun.cn, and 腾讯.公司 (Translation: Tencent.company). They do not own the Pinyin version of their name: TengXun.com.

Alibaba
Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce company. Its Chinese name is “阿里巴巴” (A Li Ba Ba), which is the same as the Chinese name for the folk tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” Alibaba’s main website in China is located at 1688.com, which sounds similar to the name Alibaba, while Alibaba.com is the main domain for the rest of the world. They also own Alibaba.cn, which redirects to 1688.com, and 阿里巴巴.公司 (Translation: Alibaba.company).

Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com has an office in Beijing but does not have a dedicated website for its Chinese operation, or a Chinese name. Instead, the company has a Chinese section on Salesforce.com. However, some pages on Salesforce.com’s Chinese section are still in English, giving the impression that the company is not fully operational in China. They do own Salesforce.cn, which does not resolve.

Baidu
Baidu is the search engine in China. Its Chinese name is “百度” (Bai Du), which comes from a poem about searching persistently for the ideal. Baidu.com is the company’s main website. The company also owns Baidu.cn, which forwards to Baidu.com, but they do not own 百度.公司 (Translation: Baidu.company).

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of few foreign Internet companies that is successful in China. Its Chinese name is “领英” (Ling Ying), which means “leadership and elite.” LinkedIn’s main website in China is also LinkedIn.com. They also use LinkedIn.cn, which has a simpler design. The company’s Pinyin names LingYing.cn and LingYing.com also redirect to LinkedIn.com. As of this writing, 领英.公司 (Translation: LinkedIn.company) is still available for registration.

NetEase
NetEase is a Chinese Internet technology company. Its Chinese name is “网易” (Wang Yi). 163.com is the company’s main website and NetEase.com redirects to it. The company also owns NetEase.cn, but at the moment that domain does not resolve. NetEase does not have great brand protection, as 163.cn, Wangyi.com, Wangyi.cn, and 网易.公司 (Translation: WangYi.company) belong to another party.

TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is the largest travel booking and reviews website in the world. Its Chinese name is “猫途鹰” (Mao Tu Ying). TripAdvisor’s main website in China is Tripadvisor.cn. They also own the Pinyin domains MaoTuYing.com and MaoTuYing.cn, which both redirect to Tripadvisor.cn. 猫途鹰.公司 (Translation: MaoTuYing.company) is available for registration at the time of this writing.


Here are the things I have learned from this study:

1. Companies headquartered outside of China tend to use .cn to host their main Chinese websites, but Chinese companies prefer using .com. If Chinese companies have no problem using .com for their main websites in China, then foreign companies can host their Chinese content on their .com website, since websites can automatically detect Chinese visitors and direct them to the Chinese version. Doing so would allow companies to focus on their .com brand.
2. In China, both Alibaba and NetEase use numeric .com domains for their main websites, indicating the popularity of numeric .com names.
3. Four out of the ten companies that I researched own their .公司 (.company) domain name, indicating the potential of the .公司 (.company) Chinese IDN.
4. Baidu is the only company using a Pinyin name for its main site, indicating that Pinyin names are less popular than other names among the largest companies.
5. Six companies use 2-character Chinese names derived from their Pinyin translations (“2-pin”), which suggests that 2-pin domain names are popular among Pinyin names.
6. Most companies have invested in creating a memorable Chinese name for their company, e.g., LinkedIn, whose Chinese name “领英” means “leadership and elite.”

Follow me to learn more about Chinese domain names. Special thanks go to the NamePros editing team for their great support.