Not a robot
Established Member
- Impact
- 120
Somehow my comment on the .top discussion thread got ignored...
I don’t understand the Chinese market, and I don’t invest it in Chinese premiums. I can’t advise on how to invest in the market, but I do have some advices as to why you shouldn’t.
Chinese and English have different pronunciation, and Chinese perceive spoken English quite differently. For example, on nic.top’s marketing page, it is stated that “top” sounds like “tu-puo”, or breakthrough. An English speaker would likely disagree with the association. But that’s how many Chinese businesses chose their name. If you went to China, saw a funny English name, and asked the owner why the name was chosen, you might get answer like “because it sounds like <certain English phrase>”. And you’d be like “huh?” This is especially when the intended word contains a short vowel, which Chinese people have trouble with.
If you go to eName Web site and check the domains being sold, you may see some Chinese description of the name. For example, for bietan(.)cn, the description is 别贪 (the pin yin is “bie tan”). So why say the same thing again? Here is the thing, in Mandarin a sound may have up to five different intonation, so “bie tan” has up to 25 variations that could mean different thing. So even though Chinese people use pinyin, they may still have trouble understand it.
But that’s Mandarin. People need to understand Chinese is a family of languages, and many Chinese languages have more than 5 intonations.
When people search for an English name, they check for possible negative connotation. How do you do that with Chinese where people from different region will perceive the same phrase differently?
Same goes with abbreviation. On eName, the description for 007WK is that WK stands for Wu Kong, or Monkey King, which is a deity with special status in Chinese culture. So why the explanation? Because in Chinese, the association between letter/number to the actual Chinese is very subtle, and you need to explain it. If the association registers, then it can get stuck in people’s mind. Think of “F8” and “fate” or “fact”.
But you also need to avoid the negative too. 0748 means “you go to hell” in Mandarin. It might mean something else in another Chinese language too. So what number or letters are good? I don’t know...
In any case, a Chinese premium is special in that you may have to explain it to sell it. And that takes special skill.
I wrote this because I see .top registra people actively promote the domain here. Be very cautious. If you want to invest in Chinese premium, stay with safe bets like 8888. Otherwise, learn some Chinese.
I don’t understand the Chinese market, and I don’t invest it in Chinese premiums. I can’t advise on how to invest in the market, but I do have some advices as to why you shouldn’t.
Chinese and English have different pronunciation, and Chinese perceive spoken English quite differently. For example, on nic.top’s marketing page, it is stated that “top” sounds like “tu-puo”, or breakthrough. An English speaker would likely disagree with the association. But that’s how many Chinese businesses chose their name. If you went to China, saw a funny English name, and asked the owner why the name was chosen, you might get answer like “because it sounds like <certain English phrase>”. And you’d be like “huh?” This is especially when the intended word contains a short vowel, which Chinese people have trouble with.
If you go to eName Web site and check the domains being sold, you may see some Chinese description of the name. For example, for bietan(.)cn, the description is 别贪 (the pin yin is “bie tan”). So why say the same thing again? Here is the thing, in Mandarin a sound may have up to five different intonation, so “bie tan” has up to 25 variations that could mean different thing. So even though Chinese people use pinyin, they may still have trouble understand it.
But that’s Mandarin. People need to understand Chinese is a family of languages, and many Chinese languages have more than 5 intonations.
When people search for an English name, they check for possible negative connotation. How do you do that with Chinese where people from different region will perceive the same phrase differently?
Same goes with abbreviation. On eName, the description for 007WK is that WK stands for Wu Kong, or Monkey King, which is a deity with special status in Chinese culture. So why the explanation? Because in Chinese, the association between letter/number to the actual Chinese is very subtle, and you need to explain it. If the association registers, then it can get stuck in people’s mind. Think of “F8” and “fate” or “fact”.
But you also need to avoid the negative too. 0748 means “you go to hell” in Mandarin. It might mean something else in another Chinese language too. So what number or letters are good? I don’t know...
In any case, a Chinese premium is special in that you may have to explain it to sell it. And that takes special skill.
I wrote this because I see .top registra people actively promote the domain here. Be very cautious. If you want to invest in Chinese premium, stay with safe bets like 8888. Otherwise, learn some Chinese.
Last edited:
