Choosing a Domain Name for Chinese Websites: Part 2
Foreign brands can take tips from popular local Chinese companies when choosing a domain name for their China strategy.
In my last column, I talked about the importance of having a good domain name in China. Today I will look at how some of the most popular websites in China chose their domain names, and what foreign brands can learn from this.
I have grouped these popular Chinese websites into the following categories:
- Web Mail Services
- Video Sharing Websites
- Digital Electronics and Home Appliances
- Online Games
- Online Dating Sites
- Group Buy
- Vertical Portals on Digital Electronics
- Job Application Websites
- Property Comparison Websites
- Classifieds Websites Web Mail Services
- mail.qq.com
- mail.163.com
- mail.126.com
Tencent’s web mail service uses a sub domain under its QQ instant messaging tool: mail.qq.com, while 163 and 126 are located under the sub domains of mail.163.com and mail.126.com.
163’s brand name is known in China as Wang Yi – “Wang” the Chinese word for Internet and “Yi” meaning ease.
It’s worth noting that in the early days, the numbers 163 became synonymous with the Internet – the first three numbers for dial-up modems in China at that time.
Video Sharing
- youku.com
- letv.com
Youku uses its pinyin name as its domain name. Pinyin is the standardized system for the Romanized spelling of Chinese characters.
Letv.com on the other hand, uses a mix of pinyin and English for its domain name. It combines the Chinese “Le” – meaning happy – and the English word TV as its domain name. Its Chinese brand name is Le Shi – “shi” being the second character for the Chinese word for television “dianshi”.
Digital Electronics and Home Appliances
- suning.com
- gome.com.cn
Suning’s domain name reflects its Chinese pinyin name and has a .com domain extension. Gome is a more difficult name to remember and does not reflect its Chinese brand name Guo Mei directly. It uses a .com.cn domain extension.
Online Games
- 4399.com
- 17173.com
- 7k7k.com
These three online game sites are all using numbers in their domain names. The use of numerals in domain names is not uncommon in China.
Online Dating Sites
- zhenai.com
- baihe.com
Both of these online dating sites are using their Chinese pinyin names in their domain names.
Group Buy
- meituan.com
- nuomi.com
These group buy websites are also using their Chinese pinyin company names in their domain names.
Vertical Portals on Digital Electronics
- pconline.com.cn
- zol.com.cn
Neither of these domain names incorporate their Chinese pinyin brand names. pconline.com.cn comes from the brand’s English translation – Pacific Computer, while zol.com.cn’s brand name is Zhong Guan Chun.
Job Application Websites
- 51job.com
- zhaopin.com
- liepin.com
The job application site zhaopin.com reflects its Chinese pinyin name, meaning “recruitment.” 51job.com has a domain name that combines numbers and English wording. liepin.com is the combination of two Chinese words in which “Lie” means “hunt” and “Pin” means “recruit.”
Property Comparison Websites
- fang.com
- anjuke.com
anjuke.com uses its Chinese pinyin in the domain name. fang.com uses a single word in the domain name in which “fang” means “properties” in Chinese.
Classifieds Websites
- 58.com
- ganji.com
The popular Chinese classifieds site 58.com has an extremely short domain name “58,” consisting of only numbers and has a .com domain extension.
Best Practices
Coming up with good domain names for Chinese websites should follow the key objective of being easy for users to remember.
Other tips include:
- the shorter the domain name the better
- the use of Chinese pinyin (in full) is preferable
- abbreviations are OK but should be made up of the first English letters of each Chinese word of the brand’s name
- the use of numerals in Chinese website domain names isn’t uncommon at all in China
- the use of a .com domain name extension is preferable
- in the case when a .com domain extension is not available, a .cn domain extension is the next best option
