域名|Chinese Perspective

[Kassey Lee]

I believe only short and easy-to-remember domain names are sustainable, regardless of where in the world you live and which cultural background you come from.

Now that the Chinese domain market has become a hot topic, I myself want to understand this trend too. Is there any real meaning behind each domain name sold in China? Here, I'd like to share with you what I've found as I read the Chinese news everyday.

GZX.com
GZX can stand for 更自信 (even more self-confident) which can be used in many fields such as education, self-help, and even consumer products to raise your self image.

XLY.com
XLY can stand for 夏令营 (summer camp) or 新领域 (new field) which can be used in recreation and high-tech products.

New: Follow my blog posts on NamePros for updates.

 

[Kassey Lee]

can someone direct me to a good translator

I use Google Translate regularly. It's not precise, but good enough if you only want to get a rough idea of what the text means. I have even used it to translate from Chinese to Chinese (silly, right?) just to take advantage of its text reading ability. Sort of text-to-voice function, in a crude way.

 

[En]

KTV (Karaoke) is popular all over China:
http://gochina.about.com/od/nightlife/p/A-Guide-To-Singing-Ktv-In-China.htm

Are there any other letter "V" common abbreviations?

 

[Kassey Lee]

Sold (in RMB)
231.com 1m+ (爱上你 or Fallen In Love With You)
FQ.cc 189k (夫妻 or husband & wife)

 

[Kachi]

Sold (in RMB)
231.com 1m+ (爱上你 or Fallen In Love With You)
FQ.cc 189k (夫妻 or husband & wife)

which marketplace?

 

[cocaseco]

Can you settle the "4" and "0" issues once and for all? I think everyone knows and accepts that a 4 or a 0 by themselves is bad.

But with the 4, as I understand it, when proceeded by an 8 or a 5, it becomes acceptable. Here are a few quotes I collected from various online resources:

1. Other numbers that are considered to be lucky are 8, 17, 28, 38, 48, 54, 68, 80, 84, 88, 99, 168 & 108.
2. 84 sounds the same as “forever prosperous”.
   
3. 4 is considered auspicious when it is used with the 5 or number 8. 54 means “shall live forever and will not die”
   
4. In Feng Shui this is a very positive number for business meaning “very prosperous forever”.
   
5. 48—This is a Feng Shui lucky number meaning “sure to prosper”.
   
6. 54—In Feng Shui this is “shall live forever and will not die”. This is a lucky number.
   
7. 314—A universally lucky number, pi, it is considered a magical number since it’s digits go out to infinity.
   
8. The only time 4 is considered auspicious is when it is used with a 5 or an 8
   
9. 54 sounds the same as “shall live forever and will not die”
   
10. Forty-eight sounds the same as “sure to prosper”
    
11. 84 sounds the same as “forever prosperous” and hence they are acceptable to the Chinese.
    
12. 54 means "no death"

For the 0, it also appears to be less desirable, but there are exceptions. Again a few quotes from online sources:

1. 0 is perfection, nothing, harmony and completion.
2. 100—In Feng Shui it means longevity.
3. 0: Zero is basically our neutral number. We don’t like or dislike it. That is, we don’t mind whether or not we get numbers like these.
4. 5201314 五二零一三一四 / 我爱你一生一世 I love you for a lifetime
5. 520, means I love you(我爱你)
6. The numbers 0, 6, 8, and 9 are believed to have auspicious meanings because their names sound similar to words that have positive meanings.

Are these all just BS, its confusing. Honestly, in my reading I would have expected 7 to be much less desirable than a 0.

 

[Kassey Lee]

which marketplace?

From Chinese news I read yesterday

 

[Kassey Lee]

According to IDCPS report published on Nov 10 on the top 16 registrars in world, Godaddy maintains its #1 position with more than 52m of domain names (com, net, org, info, biz, us) under its management. The interesting bit is the rapid rise of Chinese registrars. At #7 is HiChina and #11 Ename. Both of them have higher monthly growth than Godaddy. HiChina had 328k increase, Ename 1.1m, and Godaddy 241k only. Ename's growth is really spectacular. If such growth continues, the largest registrars in the world will all be in China.

Chinese source

 

[thebutler]

I thought 521 sounds like I love you? I hope so.

Can you settle the "4" and "0" issues once and for all? I think everyone knows and accepts that a 4 or a 0 by themselves is bad.

But with the 4, as I understand it, when proceeded by an 8 or a 5, it becomes acceptable. Here are a few quotes I collected from various online resources:

1. Other numbers that are considered to be lucky are 8, 17, 28, 38, 48, 54, 68, 80, 84, 88, 99, 168 & 108.
2. 84 sounds the same as “forever prosperous”.
   
3. 4 is considered auspicious when it is used with the 5 or number 8. 54 means “shall live forever and will not die”
   
4. In Feng Shui this is a very positive number for business meaning “very prosperous forever”.
   
5. 48—This is a Feng Shui lucky number meaning “sure to prosper”.
   
6. 54—In Feng Shui this is “shall live forever and will not die”. This is a lucky number.
   
7. 314—A universally lucky number, pi, it is considered a magical number since it’s digits go out to infinity.
   
8. The only time 4 is considered auspicious is when it is used with a 5 or an 8
   
9. 54 sounds the same as “shall live forever and will not die”
   
10. Forty-eight sounds the same as “sure to prosper”
    
11. 84 sounds the same as “forever prosperous” and hence they are acceptable to the Chinese.
    
12. 54 means "no death"

For the 0, it also appears to be less desirable, but there are exceptions. Again a few quotes from online sources:

1. 0 is perfection, nothing, harmony and completion.
2. 100—In Feng Shui it means longevity.
3. 0: Zero is basically our neutral number. We don’t like or dislike it. That is, we don’t mind whether or not we get numbers like these.
4. 5201314 五二零一三一四 / 我爱你一生一世 I love you for a lifetime
5. 520, means I love you(我爱你)
6. The numbers 0, 6, 8, and 9 are believed to have auspicious meanings because their names sound similar to words that have positive meanings.

Are these all just BS, its confusing. Honestly, in my reading I would have expected 7 to be much less desirable than a 0.

 

[chen wenyu]

米很好

 

[fuzzy]

I thought 521 sounds like I love you? I hope so.

You're all good.

 

[Kachi]

米很好

You are good?

 

[pmax]

You are good?

He meant good domains.

 

[Kachi]

He meant good domains.

Oh. Thanks.

 

[Kassey Lee]

Is .mobi really hot in China?

Just came across this piece of old news. It was published on June 17 this year on Sina.com. Here's the part I love most.

=====
随着移动互联网的高速发展，“.mobi” 域名也越来越凸显其重要性。继2014年龙江银行80万收购lj-bank.mobi ，魅族150万收购meizu.mobi等高价域名陆续成交后， “.mobi”域名交易市场行情大涨。各个业界大佬、制造终端厂商纷纷出动，银行、餐饮、酒店、旅游等类别的域名交易火爆。
=====

Roughly translated:
=====
With the rapid development of the mobile Internet, .mobi domain names are becoming increasingly important. Following the 2014 acquisition of lj-bank.mobi at 800k RMB by Longjiang Bank and then meizu.mobi at an even higher price of 1.5m RMB by Meizu, the .mobi domain market prices have risen sharply. Various industry leaders and manufacturers are coming out in large numbers, making a red hot market of .mobi domain names in banking, restaurants, hotels, and tourism.
=====

If you do not know the history of .mobi and just read this article, will you not just want to jump in and register as many .mobi domain names as you can?

Here are the problems.
1. lj-bank.mobi is a terrible name for the 800k RMB purchase, and it does not resolve.
2. meizu.mobi does not resolve either, so the 1.5m RMB purchase is a waste of investment.
3. Read the daily stats provided by http://registrarstats.com/TLDDomainCounts.aspx and you can see while .com and other gTLDs are rising rapidly, .mobi remains extermely low -- for example at only 318 new registrations today.

Chinese source

 

[Kassey Lee]

"A good domain name can save 90% of advertising costs, so be sure to get one that is easy to remember." (一个好的域名可以省下90%的广告费，所以一定要弄一个一想就可以想到的)

This statement carries a lot of weight, because it comes from Mr. Hong Feng HAO, Board Chairman of Jiu Xian Wang, the largest wine ecommerce site in China. So far, he has invested 1b RMB in this ecommerce business via seven rounds of funding. His main site is JiuXian.com

I've heard of a similar statement about the US$ 3m purchase of JD.com saving $20m in search engine placement and advertising costs. This explain why Chinese Internet companies are willing to pay big money to acquire the best domain names.

Chinese source

 

[Kachi]

"A good domain name can save 90% of advertising costs, so be sure to get one that is easy to remember." (一个好的域名可以省下90%的广告费，所以一定要弄一个一想就可以想到的)

This statement carries a lot of weight, because it comes from Mr. Hong Feng HAO, Board Chairman of Jiu Xian Wang, the largest wine ecommerce site in China. So far, he has invested 1b RMB in this ecommerce business via seven rounds of funding. His main site is JiuXian.com

I've heard of a similar statement about the US$ 3m purchase of JD.com saving $20m in search engine placement and advertising costs. This explain why Chinese Internet companies are willing to pay big money to acquire the best domain names.

Chinese source

I am curious. It is said that a,e,i,o,u,v are not desirable, but some of the powerful company domain names you have shown here have these letters

 

[Kassey Lee]

I am curious. It is said that a,e,i,o,u,v are not desirable, but some of the powerful company domain names you have shown here have these letters

I'm with you. I don't understand the Chinese premium thing either. A domain name is fine as long as it makes sense (Chinese or otherwise) to me as a foundation to build a business and easy for its customers to remember the address.

 

[RU]

@ChinaMobi how to remove a domain from 4.cn ?

 

[Kachi]

I'm with you. I don't understand the Chinese premium thing either. A domain name is fine as long as it makes sense (Chinese or otherwise) to me as a foundation to build a business and easy for its customers to remember the address.

I think so too. From what I observed, if the domain is made up of just letters, then a,e,i,o,u,v is not desirable. but if the name is a full pinyin name, then anything goes.

 

[En]

Apart from KTV (meaning karaoke) I've found OTV is online video:
https://www.warc.com/Content/News/C...nt?ID=cc231589-8218-45f5-b4e4-64e43da6be02&q=
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2374443/video-in-china-mobile-and-beyond
http://www.digitalmarket.asia/2015/...v-content-outside-of-otv-platforms-omd-study/
http://www.mediabusinessasia.com/article.php?id=683

It also seems that MTV is used to describe a music video:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mtv+china