Domain Empire

interviews Successful Chinese Domainer Gives Advice to Investors

Spaceship Spaceship
A very good contact of mine in China has just shared an interesting piece of news with me. As you'll know, the Chinese domain market has taken off rapidly within the past six months in particular, and whilst Western investors are struggling to understand what's happening, it seems that many Chinese investors are having the same sentiments.

My contact has told me that many Chinese investors are still trying to understand what is happening with the domain investment market. With floor prices for four-letter "CHIP" .COMs increasing to over $2,000 per name and other extensions increasing in popularity, it seems that Chinese domainers are also looking for guidance on what they should be spending their money on.

Last night (November 18th), famous investor John Xu made a comment in a WeChat group that caused great interest among the Chinese domaining community. The 4.CN founder told fellow investors to be "cautious and rational in registering meaningless domain names with long letters and numbers." This could be referring to the current buyout of "Chinese Premium" 5L domains, and the continued registration of seven-, eight-, and nine- number domains.

He also warned the WeChat group that hype and false reports tend to exist in this market, which can give misguided information to new investors. Mr. Xu also expects domain names to eventually be "reasonably allocated" to all investors.

It is interesting to see that many Chinese investors are struggling to fathom what's happening in the short domain market, and it's good to see an experienced investor such as Mr. Xu dispensing this advice to those looking to invest in domain names.

Do you agree with Mr Xu's opinions? Write a comment below.

Other news that was dispensed to me today was the fact that another famous Chinese investor - Lei Zhu - has recently completed some very good sales. After selling 277.com for an undisclosed fee, Lei Zhu then sold 699.com for a price close to $1,000,000.
 
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Lei Zhu and Mr Xu has a bad letters: 'i' and 'u' ..
 
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Lei Zhu and Mr Xu has a bad letters: 'i' and 'u' ..

When they'll discover that theyll change with a nice Q
 
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As others have noted throughout this forum, Chinese commentary on their own investment proclivities -- which numbers, letters, patterns, etc, are best -- has not been exactly clear and consistent. There are reports of Chinese domainers sitting in a bar laughing at Western domainers buying up so-called meaningful phrases in 4L and 5L niches, while whois reports show that 80% of these same domains are registered by Chinese investors. Etc. We've all heard these stories.

It is easy to fall into the abyss of trying to read the tea leaves of what these comments might mean, and how to extrapolate from them to a meaningful investment strategy.

As a general rule, I find it better to base your judgment on what people do, not what they say.

I have a friend on this forum who has not invested in the 5L.com buyout. So he's an uninterested party. Even before the buyout began he mentioned a Chinese friend of his who had bought 100,000 5L.coms a couple months back -- and registered them all for 2 years. There have been multiple other reports of this in other short domain niches, Chinese investors buying in bulk and registering for 2 or 3 years.

I'm not sure what exactly Mr Xu's comments might mean, but I'm going to continue to base my buying and selling on what the market is doing, not what one or the other famous investor is saying. Who knows what agenda lay beneath these comments? Also, I doubt Chinese domainers are any more unified in their views then we are. For them, like us, the right hand doesn't always know what the left hand is doing -- or why. There is also a generational component, from what I've read, with more of the younger money going into digital assets, while the older money might not quite "get it".

I don't know Mr Xu and I'm sure his comments were well intended. But at the end of the day they are just that -- comments. Talk is cheap. Watch the market.
 
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Thanks for the post. Seems to me that, much like here in the US, smaller investors in the chinese market are following trends they are seeing based on the investments and sales of larger chinese investors. I know for me that much of the market data I read actually does influence my buying patterns. This data influences me even though I am what would be considered a small domain investor. I hope the excitement and investment in the Chinese domain market continues because even a small US investor like myself is selling more domains now than ever before over the past 15 years.
 
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IMO domain market is easier to manipulate for those big investors than stock market.
It's normal that there will be fluctuation in the market some days. No need worry about that.
These big investors will make some decisions and take actions to protect the market if there is a big fluctuation. The domains they owned more than us. When the market collapsed, they will have a heavy lost even bankrupt but us small investors only have lost out several months salary.
With this in mind, I'll still keep a positive mindset to invest in domains.:roll:
 
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Take a deep breath and relax -- perhaps place that cc in the freezer.

My own investing behavior has been a bit scary lately, so...
 
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Thanks. Its just like the stock market, no one knows for sure, money management and risk/reward as usual are key.

That's the reasoning that will absolutely lead domainers into trouble imo. It's poor rationalizing and an indolent assessment (I'm not critiquing you @Theydon just the current state of things). When you start comparing the domain industry to the stock market and go a step further to treating/attempting to treat domains as securities you hit a massive wall of fallacies in that line. Just saying. Anyways, I absolutely agree with Mr. Xu's take on things. If you weren't on the boat when it left shore... don't swim against the wave... wait for the next one. My 2 cents.
 
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So the big money investors grab up the premiums in all TLDs while others are gun shy to invest due to such news reported by a domainer and site owner who seemingly manipulates domain sales according to a few np domainers.

So basically scare off the little fish while the sharks eat up the bait.

Its the oldest ploy in capitalism mixed in with socialistic strategies.

Don't believe a word of it is my opinion!!

:xf.confused:
 
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i think both LLLL chips and regular LLLL will go up
 
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Did we read the same article?
They specifically warn not to go into long numericals, 5L buyouts etc., but comments are more around what the prices for 4L and shorter would be, if price is too high etc.

Basically the men justly stress out that there is no rational usage and real market for 5L acronyms and long numericals and it is the "tulip market".

This is reseller forum and I understand that many have made money on this and congrats with it, just make sure you don't have too many of those or haven't diversified to much away from real assets. If crash for those does happen, it will be swift and no one will be able to dump anything.
 
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I do think there are some fundamentals driving this market. It is not only hype.
1. Chinese are willing to pay a premium for lucky numbers. For example, "lucky" cell phone numbers (e.g. containing many 8's) are sold at a premium. I saw one forum comment saying that when someone's Chinese relative bought a house in Canada, a factor was that the house was at number 38 in the street. The street number of apartment complexes in China often ends in 88 or 99.
2. There are Chinese domainers selling 4L.com CHIPs to end users for over 60kCNY ($10k plus). 4 characters it a good length for the name of something in Chinese. (5 characters is less good) So there is an end user market there.
3. There may be a market in China for domains simply as trophy assets--the jury is currently out on that one.

The question is how far can the land-rush go before we are over-extended--and I think no-one knows the answer to this. The more niche the buyouts get (longer domains, less well-known tlds), the greater the risk that your handregs will not be worth the renewal fee. If bulk registering, I recommend taking advantage of promotions to reduce your acquisition price to below the normal registration cost (check domcomp.com for the lowest prices). When a new TLD suddenly becomes popular in China it is also often related to registrar promotions.

Also take a look at the fixed price (一口价) domain sales at 22.cn. Some CHIPS 5L.com domains are currently for sale at 50cny, which is just below reg fee--and the advantage will be that you will have the domain registered at 22.cn, which is a popular registrar in China that has its own sales platform with commissions of only 4% when you sell.

BTW: A word about this idea of using google translate to find the "meaning" of 5L domains. Most of the time this is inaccurate--don't google translate to judge the value or meaning of a 5L domain.
 
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So what is the hype and false reports?
 
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Domain Investors in Numberic domains should stick to quality and rare names.
NN NNN , same with LL and LLL and maybe LLLL and only focus on .COM.
Quality will always be quality.

Here are some examples of quality NNN.com domains that are for sale.
708.com
983.com
380.com
397.com
487.com
542.com
652.com
 
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maybe i hav ebeen preoccupied with othe domaining issues but what the hell is a CHIP ???
 
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Mr Xu also expects domain names to eventually be "reasonably allocated" to all investors.
I have no idea what "reasonably allocated" means here.
 
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I have no idea what "reasonably allocated" means here.

reasonably allocated means a few get the money the others the domains.
 
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Just from my limited Whois research, I'm seeing Chinese registrants registering domains with "0" and "4," -- as long as there is a pattern and combinations, such as 248, 848, 48, 54, 44, 444, and 84.

Very confusing.

Perhaps we have all drunk the Kool Aid -- that Westerners are perceiving a certain market parameter and the Chinese seeing what Westerners are registering and jumping on the bandwagon.

In other words, we are all playing off of each other.

Guilty!!!

:)
 
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As a general rule, I find it better to base your judgment on what people do, not what they say.

Pure gold comment.
 
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Just from my limited Whois research, I'm seeing Chinese registrants registering domains with "0" and "4," -- as long as there is a pattern and combinations, such as 248, 848, 48, 54, 44, 444, and 84.

Very confusing.

4 - what happens if you own a Zombie business in China, is it a bad number.
 
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The sale of 699.com for $1m is BIG NEWS !!!

Any guesses how much 277.com sold for ?
 
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When Chinese domain investors realise what domains sell in other countries to end users, they may buy non-CHIPs also....curious events are happening...interesting times.
 
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Anyone here hear of a "Market Maker"? In the investment world companies like Goldman Sachs have been feeding information for years to manipulate markets so that they can take advantage of the weak hands.

well I think it's jusst called the stock market lol

but I don't really see the link betwen that and domaining.

cars.com has value or other reasons... and 4l.com are rare enough given the global demand and growing number of people gtting on net, to retain good stable value in future too.

that being said, just about everything else that is not com and not 4l.. well.. you do what you want, but I'm being careful
 
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Thank you for posting. As far as the Chinese investors confusion is concern, they are right in thinking because the speed of price increase is fast. The problem is not the product or market, but the speed of price increase on daily basis. But couple of years ago the same situation was created with 3 letter domains and now 3 letter domains have steady market value.
 
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