Value of Letters in Chinese Domains 2015-11-24

The domain market in China has exploded. Short domains, mostly 2 to 5 numeric domains and 2 to 4 letter .COM domains have skyrocketed in a few short years due to the growing demand of investors and companies in China. Although short domains have always been in demand worldwide, the emergence of China’s economy in the technology sector has added even more fuel to the fire. You should understand that the Chinese view and value letters differently than we do. This is also true for how the Chinese view numbers — especially numbers. In China, each number has a specific meaning. We are still far from being an expert of the Chinese market because we don’t know much about the language, but by reading discussions on domain forums and blogs, you can learn a bit. Here is what member, DotCN, shares with us via some posts on NamePros forum:

CCCC .COMs with no vowels (A, E, I, O, U) or V are generally the most valuable in China.

But ‘Z’ is really welcome here in China, because “ZhongGuo” is China in Chinese PinYin. And Chinese like “Middle” very much, “Zhong” means “middle” in Chinese PinYin. Many many Chinse company name has “Zhong”…

The other most popular letter might be X, Y, S, C, …

We Chinese like to divide the 4L into two parts, the first two letters and the last two letters. If the first two is Big city of China, it will be very welcome, Such as: BJ(BeiJing), SH(ShangHai), GD(GuangDong)… If the last two letters is some kind of business, such as: LC(LiCai, finance), ZX(online), KJ(Tech), SJ(Data), which would be very welcome.

And also “CN” is very popular in China so my ID is DotCN

No Chinese “words(PinYin)” starts from U, V, O and I, but there ARE some words start from A & E, so A, E is not very bad for Chinese market.

According to DotCN, “The lowest price of Chinese premium LLLL.com (without a,e,i,o,u,V) is about $300USD now.” He is probably in the right ballpark… and in recent times, I’m seeing higher sales numbers for short .COMs all across the board. Here’s a few current examples from domain auctions: ZJGS.com is currently at $1,580 with 15 bids. QSBB.com is currently at $,1525 with 13 bids. WSZX.com is currently at $830 with 31 bids. As you can see by American standards, these would not be considered premium. But by Chinese standards, these domains could have greater meaning. This double standard is a good thing. It brings up the value and demand for all short .COM domains regardless of the letters.

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