When it comes to the use of hyphens in domain names, there isn't a global convention. A hyphen in a domain is generally not preferred in the U.S. but commonly used in countries like Japan. Bill Hartzer has written about the negative impact of hyphenated domains on search engine ranking.
Naturally, I thought it would be interesting to research whether there are companies in China running their business(es) on hyphenated domain names. I conducted a small survey with the letter-hyphen-letter pattern (L-L) of .cn domain names, which included 676 domain names. I wrote a small program to generate L-L names, and then I visited their websites one by one. For the first lot, I generated a total of 130 names, starting from
What a surprise! I found so many companies already actively using hyphenated domain names that I decided not to check the remaining 546 domain names. Instead, I spent some time looking at some of the websites I found, and I've included four examples to show how Chinese companies use and value their hyphenated domain names.
A-J.cn
Ai Jia is a kitchen cabinet and closet maker founded in 2002. It is one of the pioneers in the "green home" industry. A-J is an abbreviation for the company name, so the domain name is a good match. The website has a modern and sleek design. A Whois search revealed that the domain was registered in 2005, a year later than that of AJ.cn, which is owned by Chinese domain registrar eName. This suggests that the hyphenated name could be a second choice for the company. AJ.cn has a landing page only.
C-C.cn
Cheng Cheng Electric manufactures switch gears and electrical equipment. The company was founded in 1986 and controls a group of subsidiaries. The website is in Chinese and English. The domain name was registered in 2003 and matches the company name. CC.cn appears to be owned by an unrelated person and listed for sale.
C-M.cn
CM is a registered trademark and marketing service to help Internet retailers capitalize on the massively popular WeChat platform in China. The service is run by a company called Qi Bo. C-M.cn was registered in 2005 and CM.cn appears to be owned by an unrelated person. CM.cn shows eName's domain search and sale page.
D-W.cn
Daili Wang is a portal of general agencies run by Tianxin Software. Daili Wang literally means "agency net." The domain name was registered in 2009 and matches the name of the service. DW.cn was registered in 2003; the domain name is owned by a Beijing-based company called Qian Qin but it does not resolve.
--
After reviewing these results, we can see that short, hyphenated domain names are viable in China. However, further study is required to find out whether this applies to longer, Pinyin names as well.
This article was inspired by a question from @briguy. Special thanks go to the NamePros editing team for their general help and support.
Naturally, I thought it would be interesting to research whether there are companies in China running their business(es) on hyphenated domain names. I conducted a small survey with the letter-hyphen-letter pattern (L-L) of .cn domain names, which included 676 domain names. I wrote a small program to generate L-L names, and then I visited their websites one by one. For the first lot, I generated a total of 130 names, starting from
a-a, a-b, ..., a-z to e-a, e-b, ..., e-z.What a surprise! I found so many companies already actively using hyphenated domain names that I decided not to check the remaining 546 domain names. Instead, I spent some time looking at some of the websites I found, and I've included four examples to show how Chinese companies use and value their hyphenated domain names.
A-J.cn
Ai Jia is a kitchen cabinet and closet maker founded in 2002. It is one of the pioneers in the "green home" industry. A-J is an abbreviation for the company name, so the domain name is a good match. The website has a modern and sleek design. A Whois search revealed that the domain was registered in 2005, a year later than that of AJ.cn, which is owned by Chinese domain registrar eName. This suggests that the hyphenated name could be a second choice for the company. AJ.cn has a landing page only.
C-C.cn
Cheng Cheng Electric manufactures switch gears and electrical equipment. The company was founded in 1986 and controls a group of subsidiaries. The website is in Chinese and English. The domain name was registered in 2003 and matches the company name. CC.cn appears to be owned by an unrelated person and listed for sale.
C-M.cn
CM is a registered trademark and marketing service to help Internet retailers capitalize on the massively popular WeChat platform in China. The service is run by a company called Qi Bo. C-M.cn was registered in 2005 and CM.cn appears to be owned by an unrelated person. CM.cn shows eName's domain search and sale page.
D-W.cn
Daili Wang is a portal of general agencies run by Tianxin Software. Daili Wang literally means "agency net." The domain name was registered in 2009 and matches the name of the service. DW.cn was registered in 2003; the domain name is owned by a Beijing-based company called Qian Qin but it does not resolve.
--
After reviewing these results, we can see that short, hyphenated domain names are viable in China. However, further study is required to find out whether this applies to longer, Pinyin names as well.
This article was inspired by a question from @briguy. Special thanks go to the NamePros editing team for their general help and support.
