Last week, we brought you details of domain names used by companies funded by Sequoia Capital. In a study of over 200 domains, we found that close to 98% of companies used .COM domains. This week, we're taking a look at a list of 200 Chinese startups that Sequoia Capital has invested in. Will the results be different this time round?
The list comes from Sequoia Capital's website, and while it's not a definitive list of their investments in Chinese companies, I think it gives a good indication of what type of domains Chinese companies are using.
The TLD
In US based Sequoia Capital startups, we found that close to 98% of the companies used a .COM. In China, we've found that this figure is lower. 78.5% of companies we looked at are using a .COM. This is mainly due to the fact that in China, the .CN extension is far more popular.
10% of companies on our list are using a .CN name, with a further 6% using a .COM.CN. Interestingly, a number of .CN users are using generic one or two-word Western terms, instead of using a Pinyin name. For example, a company called 链农 is using farmlink.cn. According to Yabla, the Pinyin term for this would be Liàn Nóng. LianNong.cn is unregistered.
There are also four companies using a .COM.HK or a .HK extension, two using a .CC and one using a .ME. There are four of our companies using a .NET domain. In our previous Sequoia Capital analysis or US companies, we found no companies using a .NET.
Length
We've been told that when it comes to China, the shorter the name, the better. Is that really true? I'm not so sure, if we're going on this data set alone. The average length of the domains on show here is 7 characters. That is lower than the US equivalent of 8 characters.
Just 8% of all domains on the list are four characters or less, but 13% of all names are five characters in length and a further 23% are six characters.
The shortest two domain names are 56.com and JD.com. JD.com has been well documented within the Chinese domain community, having acquired the name for a reported $3 million after upgrading from JingDong.com.
There are two companies using three-number .COMs; 500.com and 360.com. According to reports, 360.com was acquired by this company for $17 million a couple of years ago.
There are three companies using three-letter .COMs; dji.com, mia.com and vip.com. DJI.com was acquired by this company for $300,000 in 2013.
Age
Does the age of domain names matter in China? In the US companies we analysed, we saw that 20% of all domains were aged 20 years or over. Here, it's just 2.5%.
The average age of domains in this list is 8 years, versus 13 years on the US list. Is this because the majority of Chinese companies funded have been created relatively recently, or because Chinese companies aren't as interested in grabbing the best domains possible at the moment?
Most Common Letters
In Chinese domain investing, consonants are typically seen as more desirable. This is because of the fact that the concept of Pinyin initials are popular as investments.
We've also seen a rise in the number of one, two and three-Pinyin domains that are being acquired as investments due to their popularity amongst end users. I've found here that there are a large number of domains that are one, two or three-Pinyin names (such as gengmei.cc), so the vowel count will be higher than some of you may think.
As you can see, the most popular letter is
Letters and Numbers
I found it interesting to see that a few of the domains in our list are using a combination of letters and numbers in their domains. Currently, these type of names aren't seen as popular by investors, but a few companies seem to have adopted them.
7% of all domains are using a combination of letters and numbers, these include 24tidy.com, hk970.com and wm18.com.
There is one company that uses an "88" suffix, which is considered lucky in China; loho88.com.
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This is a part of an ongoing series. If you have any types of domains, or data that you'd like us to analyse, please post a comment below!
The list comes from Sequoia Capital's website, and while it's not a definitive list of their investments in Chinese companies, I think it gives a good indication of what type of domains Chinese companies are using.
In US based Sequoia Capital startups, we found that close to 98% of the companies used a .COM. In China, we've found that this figure is lower. 78.5% of companies we looked at are using a .COM. This is mainly due to the fact that in China, the .CN extension is far more popular.
10% of companies on our list are using a .CN name, with a further 6% using a .COM.CN. Interestingly, a number of .CN users are using generic one or two-word Western terms, instead of using a Pinyin name. For example, a company called 链农 is using farmlink.cn. According to Yabla, the Pinyin term for this would be Liàn Nóng. LianNong.cn is unregistered.
There are also four companies using a .COM.HK or a .HK extension, two using a .CC and one using a .ME. There are four of our companies using a .NET domain. In our previous Sequoia Capital analysis or US companies, we found no companies using a .NET.
Length
We've been told that when it comes to China, the shorter the name, the better. Is that really true? I'm not so sure, if we're going on this data set alone. The average length of the domains on show here is 7 characters. That is lower than the US equivalent of 8 characters.
Just 8% of all domains on the list are four characters or less, but 13% of all names are five characters in length and a further 23% are six characters.
The shortest two domain names are 56.com and JD.com. JD.com has been well documented within the Chinese domain community, having acquired the name for a reported $3 million after upgrading from JingDong.com.
There are two companies using three-number .COMs; 500.com and 360.com. According to reports, 360.com was acquired by this company for $17 million a couple of years ago.
There are three companies using three-letter .COMs; dji.com, mia.com and vip.com. DJI.com was acquired by this company for $300,000 in 2013.
Age
Does the age of domain names matter in China? In the US companies we analysed, we saw that 20% of all domains were aged 20 years or over. Here, it's just 2.5%.
The average age of domains in this list is 8 years, versus 13 years on the US list. Is this because the majority of Chinese companies funded have been created relatively recently, or because Chinese companies aren't as interested in grabbing the best domains possible at the moment?
Most Common Letters
In Chinese domain investing, consonants are typically seen as more desirable. This is because of the fact that the concept of Pinyin initials are popular as investments.
We've also seen a rise in the number of one, two and three-Pinyin domains that are being acquired as investments due to their popularity amongst end users. I've found here that there are a large number of domains that are one, two or three-Pinyin names (such as gengmei.cc), so the vowel count will be higher than some of you may think.
I, followed by A. Unlike the US, however, the third most popular letter is not a vowel - it's an N.Letters and Numbers
I found it interesting to see that a few of the domains in our list are using a combination of letters and numbers in their domains. Currently, these type of names aren't seen as popular by investors, but a few companies seem to have adopted them.
7% of all domains are using a combination of letters and numbers, these include 24tidy.com, hk970.com and wm18.com.
There is one company that uses an "88" suffix, which is considered lucky in China; loho88.com.
--
This is a part of an ongoing series. If you have any types of domains, or data that you'd like us to analyse, please post a comment below!
