Our Chinese Domaining Masterclass series, which is still currently the world’s first and only masterclass designed to assist primarily western domain investors in successfully investing in Chinese IDNs, contains more than just numeric investment tactics and strategies. The masterclass contains over 120 pages of material, and only a few of those pages include numeric investing content. The rest goes over several different topics geared toward providing you with strategies to not only invest successfully in Chinese IDNs, but to also understand the often mysterious and complex Chinese culture, and how it influences consumer behavior online. Understanding the bigger picture of the Chinese culture can contribute to better operating your business to overcome barriers and grow.

Between our Chinese Domaining Masterclass and Top-12 Reasons to Invest in Chinese TLDs, there is a lot of valuable information that you can use to help your business grow in the massive Chinese market. One topic that crosses both of those planes is how Chinese text input works. Remember, one of our Top 12 Reasons is that entering fully-Chinese web addresses on smartphones, tablets and other devices is much easier and faster than typing English web addresses.

Today we’ll go over some different methods, challenges, benefits and deficits of Chinese text input, and how understanding these features of the basic, everyday digital life of Chinese netizens can put you one step ahead of the game in terms of understanding the behaviors of end users and consumers.

Chinese text input is based on the huge number of Chinese characters

With more than 80,000 Chinese characters (many of which are variants of the same character, with different variants used in different communities), the Chinese language beats English’s 26 characters by a wide margin.

All Chinese text input methods achieve the same result, regardless of their differing methods: they all allow a human to input Chinese characters into a computing device. Many use ASCII keyboards, others use special Chinese keyboard layouts, and the most recent class of text input methods allow the direct writing of Chinese characters on touchscreens.

​The Pinyin Keyboard Input Method

The Pinyin text input method uses a standard ASCII-style keyboard to transform typed Pinyin (Romanized Standard Mandarin) into an on-screen pop-up menu of all possible Chinese character equivalents.

For example, to input the two characters required to spell “China” in Chinese characters, the user types the Pinyin equivalent of 中 (z, h, o, n, g) and then the Pinyin equivalent of 国 (g, u, o). Most modern Pinyin text input systems will use built-in predictive text capabilities to guess that the user intends to type “中国,” however other possible character matches for “zhong guo” are also displayed, including 中过, 种过, and 忠国. If the user intends to input one of the non-default possibilities, they can choose the one they wish to input by hitting a number key corresponding to each option, or they can continue to type in the hope that additional context will allow the computer to auto-select the intended characters.

The typical user of Pinyin typing can achieve around 50 characters per minute, with some experts achieving 100 characters per minute, however the speed of input is influenced by how common (or uncommon) the words typed are, as well as requiring a near-perfect grasp of Pinyin pronunciation, which is far from ubiquitous in China’s mainland, let alone around the world.

The Wubi keyboard input method

The Wubizixing Input Method is usually abbreviated to “Wubi” or “Wubi Xing,” and literally means “five strokes character model input method.”

This method was developed in the 1980s, with the first standardized and efficient version appearing in 1986. Unlike the Pinyin method, it is not reliant on how Chinese characters are pronounced, rather empowering the user to “build” characters based on “root” shapes of Chinese characters. Differing from the Cangjie method of applying “roots” to individual keys, Wubi divides the standard ASCII-style keyboard into four different zones.

Wubi is very efficient, allowing a proficient user to type up to 160 characters per minute. This efficiency is achieved by the relatively few keystrokes needed for each character – no Chinese character requires more than 4 keystrokes, with a majority of common characters requiring less.

Direct character input for touchscreen devices

With the explosion in numbers of low-cost touch screen devices manufactured and sold in China, the fingertip has fast become an important Chinese character text input method.

The direct input of Chinese characters by drawing them (including in their fast cursive forms) has empowered hundreds of millions of Chinese to easily enter Chinese into a computing device without the unnatural barrier of an ASCII keyboard. People whose pronunciation of Pinyin is non-standard or non-existent (such as those in the south of China, where Mandarin pronunciation is quite different from Standard Mandarin), the undeveloped regions of China’s west (where education is arguably less rigorous, and more agrarian) and overseas Chinese communities which never learned Pinyin or speak Chinese dialects different from Standard Mandarin have embraced direct character input.

Finally, the Chinese characters that every Chinese person individually knows and uses can be input to a computer without any special or standard spoken language training – they are input as they have been for thousands of years: using the hand and a pen, brush or fingertip.
The wide availability and popularity of direct Chinese character input is a key driver for fully-Chinese IDN domain names. Each direct character input method is slightly different for each device. Android, iOS, and Windows all have its differences, however Android holds the largest piece in the Chinese market share for smart phones.

Voice recognition

The progression of Chinese text input, from the monstrous metal machines of the 19th and 20th centuries, through the adaptation of ASCII keyboards in the 1970s, through to a blossoming of keyboard alternatives in the 1980s and 1990s, and not forgetting rudimentary pen computing input from the mid-90s, into the touchscreen era of the 2010s is now culminating in the ultimate form of Chinese text input – voice.

By completely removing the need for keyboarding and even writing skills, and by the newest Chinese voice typing being adaptable to different regional and cultural pronunciation styles, direct input of Chinese typing using voice is, until a mind-computer interface is invented, the ultimate in convenience.

By aggregating the voices of millions of users into vast cloud-computing databases operated by companies such as Google, Microsoft, Baidu and Apple, a surprisingly excellent quality of voice typing in Chinese is available today. Price of entry: a fast and capable mobile device or PC, and a fast internet connection.

The authors of this guide believe that voice typing of Chinese is the natural future of Chinese text input. Once the convenience of near-real time typing is experienced, the typical user has no desire to return to clunky keyboards or arcane multi-key input methods.
The megatrend that is voice typing will be, in these authors’ opinion, be the single most influential factor to eliminate the use of English letters and Pinyin in domain names, as when Chinese people speak Chinese, Chinese characters are the natural and normal result.

Wearables

The latest megatrend in personal computing is, of course, wearable technology such as smart watches. The leading platform in China is the Android Wear platform, which features “always on” voice recognition, and which works identically well as Android mobile phone voice recognition, as the Wear device is tethered to and uses the user’s phone as its computing engine.

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As you can see, there are many different methods in which Chinese people can input text into various different devices. So how does this benefit western business owners and domain investors looking to crack into the massive China market? Simple: Chinese scripts and pinyin are far easier for Chinese people to use, whether it’s online or not. Fully Chinese language scripts make sense to a majority of the Chinese consumer base, so by using fully Chinese URLs, you are practically cutting out the roadblock of English and have a much better chance of reaching Chinese consumers.

Not only are Chinese characters and pinyin easier for Chinese consumers to understand, but it’s also much easier for them to type in on devices. Chinese characters may seem complex to a western consumer, but oftentimes Chinese people can input characters much quicker that we can in the western world with English!

In a nutshell, fully Chinese TLDs are better for Chinese consumers to input and understand, so your business should make it easier for them to do so.

Stay tuned for our next blog!

​- ChopChop Domains Team

The new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) program is still very much in its infancy stages. It’s been less than three years since ICANN delegated the first new gTLD extension, and since then hundreds of new domain extensions have emerged on the market and hundreds more will reach general availability in the coming years. As registries, registrars, investors, and all other end-users navigate the uncharted territory of this program, we will continue to see those who envision the future of the internet to be about choice and progression with new gTLDs, and we will also see many skeptics who believe that the “legacy” TLDs will hold an iron-clad position at the top of the market for many years to come.

Whatever you forecast for the future of domain names, it’s not up to us to convince you either way. What we can do, however, is provide you with reasons why new domain extensions, particularly Chinese-specific Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) can work for brands, business and consumers.

TLD Registry Ltd., the owner and operator of two of the world’s highest rated Chinese domain extensions .在线 (Dot Chinese Online) and .中文网 (Dot Chinese Website) and the parent company of ChopChop.domains, has operated its business the last several years with the vision of providing China with a culturally relevant and linguistically correct alternative for a population of nearly 1.4 billion people and the largest e-commerce market in the world. To support this vision, TLD Registry has created a “mantra” in the form of 12 reasons why Chinese TLDs are valuable assets that can work for brands, businesses, and all other end-users.

Today we’ll go over these Top-12 reasons which will hopefully provide you with a sense of Chinese TLDs’ value, and how they can help you succeed. As mentioned before, our reasons are solid, data-backed proof points to show you why we use it as our daily mantra.

Reason #1 – Establishing a website or service with a fully Chinese domain name shows commitment to Chinese audiences — consumers, customers, partners, the media, and government regulators. It tangibly demonstrates your desire to offer a completely Chinese information service.

Because nearly 1.4 billion people (almost a quarter of all humanity) call China home, it only makes sense that they would want to use the internet in their own native language. Fully Chinese domain names provide Chinese audiences a quick, easy, and clear understanding of what the website represents, without having to deal with interpreting different languages. Plus, the branch of the Chinese government that regulates the DNS from within China — The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) — only considers certain domain extensions “legal” to operate from within China. Just 14 new domain extensions are currently legal in China, with nine being Chinese character specific.

Reason #2 – No English whatsoever stands between your brand and the consumer.

Piggy-backing on reason #1, it only makes sense that a quarter of humanity fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese would want to use the internet in their own native language. Chinese domain extensions immediately conveys meaning to Chinese audiences, which other TLDs, including the legacy TLDs, cannot presume.

Reason #3 – Your fully-Chinese web address eliminates the cognitive dissonance between your URL and your localized Chinese brand name.

In China, English brand names must be localized into Chinese for it to completely make sense to Chinese consumers. You cannot simply do a direct translation of English into Chinese —  It’s much more complex than that. Many foreign brands have had great success with Chinese localization, and some have not fared the best. You have to take into account the culture, language, and other Chinese-specific sensitivities in order to successfully localize your brand in China. With that being said, why not complement your newly-localized Chinese brand name with a fully-Chinese domain name? Again, it just makes sense.

Reason #4 – Your URLs will be much, much more memorable.

After going through reasons 1-3, this reason is rather self-explanatory. Selling products and services to consumers, whether it’s in China or anywhere else in the world, is best done by reaching the customer in the most effective way possible. In particular, it would be counter-productive to try and sell to Chinese consumers with roadblocks in place. China can be a complicated market to navigate, so foreign brands and businesses should seriously consider removing as many roadblocks as possible in order to effectively reach consumers.

English is a roadblock to Chinese consumers, Chinese characters and pinyin are not. English words may not make sense and can be difficult to remember, Chinese characters and pinyin are not. Remove the english roadblocks online by providing Chinese consumers a memorable alternative.

Reason #5 – You will enjoy enhanced brand protection for your localized Chinese brand names.

Many ill-equipped foreign brands entering China have suffered at the hands of malicious online scammers and phishers. With a fully-Chinese localized brand and corresponding domain name, you are significantly reducing the number of scammers who can take advantage of your business and customers. Why? Because the Chinese language is instantly recognizable, which results in netizens better differentiating between which sites are legitimate and which are fallacious.

Reason #6 – Your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is enhanced, because your URLs will perfectly match your localized Chinese brand names and messages.

Again, clear the roadblocks! SEO is a proven and reliable method of getting people to your site, if done correctly. Emphasis on the “if done correctly” part, especially as it relates to the Chinese language. Fully Chinese URLs and keywords that match to your brand and what your business is trying to sell can significantly increase traffic to your site. More traffic equals more potential sales.

Reason #7 – Fully-Chinese URLs greatly help consumer protections againstphishing attacks. Chinese netizens (and China’s government) favor fully-Chinese web addresses because Chinese netizens are more easily able to spot phishing URLs when they’re in Chinese.

Along the lines of reason #5, scammers try and take advantage of people online especially if URLs are in a different language. Chinese URLs greatly help consumers pick out something that looks “phishy” online as opposed to trusting non-Chinese language sites.

Reason #8 – Fully-Chinese URLs accelerate the uptake of the Chinese web for new netizens, with particularly good ease of use for rural people and cashed-up “silver surfers” (senior citizens).

The rural and elderly Chinese populations are not only growing substantially, but they are beginning to use the internet more and more, especially for online shopping. China’s “silver surfers,” or those above the age of 50, now number over 200 million, and that number will only continue to rise in the next several decades. To put it simply, the majority of the next billion internet users’ primary language will not be English, it will be Chinese. Since a large number of these next billion internet usersare elderly and come from rural parts of China, most will not know english anyway, and it will be key for businesses to cater to this demographic by addressing them, and selling to them, in their native language.

Reason #9 – Entering fully-Chinese web addresses on smartphones, tablets and Windows 8 PCs (using ubiquitous Chinese handwriting recognition) is much easier and faster than typing English web addresses.

The direct input of Chinese characters by drawing them (including in their fast cursive forms) has empowered hundreds of millions of Chinese to easily enter Chinese into a computing device without the unnatural barrier of an ASCII keyboard. People whose pronunciation of Pinyin is non-standard or non-existent (such as those in the south of China, where Mandarin pronunciation is quite different from Standard Mandarin), the undeveloped regions of China’s west (where education is arguably less rigorous, and more agrarian) and overseas Chinese communities which never learned Pinyin or speak Chinese dialects different from Standard Mandarin have embraced direct character input.
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The Chinese characters that every Chinese person individually knows and uses can be input to a computer without any special or standard spoken language training – they are input as they have been for thousands of years: using the hand and a pen, brush or fingertip. The wide availability and popularity of direct Chinese character input is a key driver for fully-Chinese IDN domain names.

Reason #10 – Powerful new promotional opportunities are created with the launch of your fully-Chinese domain names. Publicity opportunities abound for new site launches or re-launches.

Have I mentioned that China is home to nearly a quarter of all humanity and boasts the largest e-commerce market in the world? These incredible statistics have foreign brands and business eager to enter the China market and promote their products and services as effectively as possible. What many of these brands and businesses fail to recognize is the importance of making itself easy to find online for Chinese consumers. Reduce the roadblocks and bridge the gap between your business and the dense Chinese online consumer population with a domain names that make sense.

Reason #11 – Meaningful sentences can be composed in the very compact and concise Chinese language, creating rich URLs which marketers will discover new uses for.

The English language has a relatively low information density compared to hyper-compact languages such as Chinese. To express the same idea, an English speaker needs to use more characters (letters) and hence must type a longer domain name.

Chinese is very compact, and a short Chinese string can communicate a lot of meaning. For example, 北京四中篮球校队, meaning “the school basketball team of Beijing’s 4th Middle School” is eight characters in total, vs. 48 characters in English, not including spaces or punctuation.

Reason #12 – Trademark owners will appreciate our simplified Sunrise period and the robust trademark claims process; easy and fast registrations are enabled via the Trademark Clearinghouse.

Western companies must know that the best way to protect their brand in China is to immediately register a trademark so that counterfeit Chinese companies cannot take advantage of their brand. Get yours via our trademark claims process, and give your business a better opportunity to grow and thrive in the China market.

There are so many reasons that Chinese TLDs are good for brands and businesses, and our Top-12 Reasons seem to ring true for TLD Registry’s54,000+ registrants as well. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs which will dive deeper into each reason and provide you greater context as to why Chinese TLDs can help your brand, business, products, and services succeed in the massive and growing China market.

In the global business world, it isn’t news to anyone that the massive and expanding Chinese e-commerce market is a highly lucrative one for western brands and businesses. After all, China is the largest e-commerce market in the world and boasts a population of nearly 1.4 billion people. What may be news to many however is how several western brands and businesses fail to properly equip themselves with a solid understanding of how business works in China and a go-to-market strategy that will net them the beneficial results they seek.

To put things into perspective, there have been plenty of well-known western brands that have made mistakes or oversights in regards to entering the China market, specifically as it relates to trademarking their brand in China. Take for instance US shoe company New Balance, who had originally branded itself as “Xinbailun” in China, but was forced to pay up in a lawsuit for infringing on an existing trademark of a Guangdong company using the same name.

More examples include Apple losing the rights to “iPhone” in China, as well as both Under Armour and Michael Jordan having to deal with infringement issues from Chinese companies using similar logos and names.

Western companies must know that the best way to protect their brand in China is to immediately register a trademark so that counterfeit Chinese companies cannot take advantage of their brand. Western companies should also be cautious of trademark “agents” in China, as they have been known to take the money and run instead of registering a trademark for you.

Now, these examples are not by any means meant to alarm you, or try and paint China out to be a malicious market, but rather to contextualize the business differences in China compared to the familiarity of the western world. Aside from western businesses taking the necessary steps to trademark both their English and Chinese brand names in China, there are a number of other measures and strategies that should be considered in order to protect their brand and business presence in China, especially online.

What else can be done?

We won’t get into the nitty gritty China market entry methods and strategies in this article (that can be handled by agencies such asChinaMarket.Consulting), however we will go over an important and often overlooked method for western businesses to protect their brand’s online strategy: using Chinese domain extensions to further protect itself while simultaneously widening visibility of the brand and opening up more potential sales channels.

Businesses should consider looking into registering all relevant domain endings for the company (out of hundreds to choose from), which can greatly reduce counterfeiters, scammers, and phishing attacks coming from Chinese companies and individuals looking to take advantage of ill-equipped western brands. By registering relevant domain endings and redirecting them to your main website unambiguously conveys to Chinese consumers, and the world, that you have complete ownership of your brand online.

The amazing thing about the influx of these new domain extensions is the opportunity and choice it provides to brands, businesses, and other end-users. However, this new landscape of the internet and domain names certainly brings a responsibility for businesses to protect their brand by using relevant domain extensions. This becomes even more important with Chinese Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), which can be an additional and specific protection for brands in a language spoken by nearly a quarter of all humanity.

​One of ChopChop Domains’ top reasons for brands and businesses to register and utilize Chinese domains is that it presents an important opportunity for brand protection in China. By using a Chinese domain extension for your business’s trademarked brand in China not only protects your company from being taken advantage of, but it also shows an intelligent commitment to China-facing consumers who can trust your brand by using a domain extension that makes sense to them.

Don’t wait any longer! A relevant and useful Chinese domain extension in your English and Chinese trademarked brand(s), can help negate fraudsters, phishers, and trademark squatters in China from taking advantage of you. It also shows commitment and trust to the massive Chinese market online.

​ChopChop.domains, a Chinese domain name marketplace, was created in order to help businesses, investors, and individuals find and buy Chinese domains easily so that they can reach the world’s largest market and protect their brand. If you would like to find out more about the power and possibility of owning and using Chinese domains, reach out to us at contact@chopchop.domains to speak with our Chinese domain experts about how your brand can succeed in China.

ChopChop.domains team

Our next Chinese Domaining Masterclass numeric article is here! By reviewing numbers 0 – 9, we’ve had the opportunity to educate domain investors and the industry as a whole about numeric domains and their respective meaning in the Chinese context.

The main purpose of putting together the masterclass is to effectively show western domain investors the importance of understanding the what and why questions when it comes to the domain market in China. The domain industry is constantly changing and evolving on a global scale, and we’re trying to bridge the gap between the seemingly arcane Chinese domain investing community and the western world. Part of effectively bridging this gap is to encourage western domain investors to look beyond current the market trends in China and to think more in terms of human behavior. Why do certain numbers sell better than others in China? What are Chinese investors looking for when buying domains? Understanding those questions are pertinent to your success in the Chinese domain space.

In this industry, it’s vital to understand, and at least be aware of, the motives of others. Knowing what people are thinking, how they’re feeling, and what makes them tick is a strategy employed by many in this industry, which can ultimately result in closing more sales. This is no different in China. Although a completely different culture, the truth remains that there are specific motivations for why people want certain things, and what they are willing to pay in order to appease that “want.” Our Chinese domaining masterclass is meant to give you, the western domain investors, some knowledge and insight into what makes Chinese consumers and other investors “tick.”

Our numerics series pushes onward, and with only a couple of numbers left, we will begin transitioning into other facets of the domain investing industry in China that can help you succeed in the west. For now, let’s go over today’s number (and our second-to-last in this series):

2: 二; Pinyin: Èr

The number two generally symbolizes someone or something that is “paired,” which makes it a very positive number. This is because Chinese people often find loneliness to be very undesirable. Additionally, the number is employed as an adjective or a verb in northern Chinese provinces to mean “stupid” and/or “silly.”

The Mandarin spelling and pronunciation for the number two is “er,” and the Cantonese version is “ji.” The most common sound-alike for the number two is “love,” which makes sense, because of the Chinese attraction to things that are paired.

• The noun sound-alike for the number two is: son, ear, emu, thus, pearl, caviar, and aunt (in Cantonese).
• The conjunctive sound-alike for the number two is: and (in Cantonese).

References

233: This interesting string of numbers (including our number 2 at the beginning) is a reference in China meaning something similar to “LMAO” or “ROFL” in English. When 233 is used in China, it basically means that one is “laughing uncontrollably to the point where I fall down and pound the ground with my fists.” This number combination is also used as a noun (“You can hear my 233”), a verb (“This is so hilarious! I am going to 233!”), or a fixed expression (“I just spilled water all over myself. 233!!!”) Oftentimes, 233 is extended with an indefinite number 3’s (233333, or 23333333333333333333333) to indicate the level of hilarity, much like we would do in the west, for example, with LOL (lolololololol) or LMAO (LMAOOOOOOO), etc. This numeric reference is still very popular today, with tens of millions of results on Sina Weibo. Many teenagers are 233’ing while having no clue where this expression originated.

233 is a perfect example of how understanding the Chinese culture and trends can help us successfully invest in domains in the west. To put things into even greater context, in the west, a domain name such as “LMAO.com” would hold much greater meaning beyond the fact that it’s a LLLL.com, because as we all know it also provides a practical application in the online world, which significantly increases its value. If we completely removed value from the equation, it is almost without question that 233.com would be much more valuable than, say, LOL.com in China, based on meaning, context, behavior, and culture alone.

253: This combination of numbers indicates kneeling and worshipping, which is very similar in demonstrative power as the old “Wayne’s World” joke of “I’m not worthy, i’m not worthy!” The number combination is also used as a verb, as in “You’re so awesome. I can’t help but 253.”

Other Meanings

Celebrities are even known in China by numeric puns. One example includes German soccer star Mesut Ozil being referred to in China as 272 (pronounced “er-qi-er”) by his Chinese fans, because it sounds like the Chinese transliteration of his name 厄齐尔 (“er-qi-er”).

Domain Sales

Some top-selling numeric sales over the past several years that include the number two:

Available Domain Names

There are plenty of available domain names for sale in for both general availability and premium name prices that include the number two. Some examples include:

Any of the above domain names can be purchased directly and hassle-free from ChopChop.domains, or from any of these registrars.

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Thank you for visiting us and following our numeric domaining blog series! There are only a couple more numerics to cover, so stay tuned so that you can receive the best advice and tips on specific numbers and what they mean in the Chinese context.

If you have any further questions that relate to the number one, please don’t hesitate to contact us and our team of experts, and we will do our best to help you answer any questions you may have.

It’s no surprise that China holds a large slice of the global economic pie. With nearly 1.4 billion people living inside China’s borders, and another 50 million Chinese living in other different parts of the world, the opportunities to win the business of Chinese consumers is seemingly endless. From travel and tourism, to sports, food, and fashion, China is proving that it’s a major force that drives the global economic system.
China’s growth is positively impacting the economy on a global scale, which spells even greater news for businesses online, whether international or Chinese-specific. That’s what’s so amazing about the internet: consumers from every corner the world can buy products from any other part of the world, boosting the global economy. China is also the number one global powerhouse when it comes to e-commerce, generating nearly $590 billion dollars worth of sales through the internet in 2015.

With the influx of new domain extensions, which will number over 1,300 in the next few years, big corporations, SMB’s, investors, and all other end-users alike selling goods and services should be champing at the bit to significantly increase sales channels for their online customers in China and around the world.

Greater visibility of products equals more potential sales.

Think of it this way, if you own a brick and mortar music shop and want to expand your customer base, a savvy businessperson might think to open up a couple of different locations if the business was doing well. The concept remains similar for an online business strategy. The availability of new domain extensions provides businesses a way to expand their online presence, protect their brand, creatively reach more consumers, and ultimately drive more sales.

If the hypothetical music shop I mentioned earlier owns, say, TheMusicShop.com, which is a great domain and would certainly command a decent amount of traffic resulting in some sales online, however it would be beneficial for the business to look into other extensions as well to expand its sales channels and increase visibility for its products. As an example, the music shop’s online retail site could also register .shop, .guitars, .online, .sale, .tunes, .song, .store, and a whole slew of other domain extensions in order to enhance its visibility online.

To tie this in with China and its world-leading massive online customer base, let’s say there’s an exciting new music-related trend that occurs within the Chinese communities around the world, resulting in people taking to the internet to spend their dollars on some awesome trendy products. Going back to our example, the website URL “TheMusicShop.com” would probably have decent SEO and would get some traffic, but a Chinese consumer searching for the phrase “音乐商店在线” (Music Shop Online) in, as you can see, simplified Chinese characters, may not show the website within the SERPs, or possibly at all. The consumer doesn’t speak English, has no idea how to search for a western e-commerce music shop via any search engine, but really wants to buy some music gear that the shop specifically sells online.

Now, if the music shop saw the value and purchased a Chinese IDN domain ending, let’s say .在线 (Dot Chinese Online), set up the URL 音乐商店.在线 (MusicShop.Online), redirected it to the English site where the consumer had the ability to convert the English text to Chinese, the chances of that consumer finding and purchasing a product from the site increases exponentially. Keep in mind, this is just one consumer. China leads the globe in online consumer sales.

As China’s economy continues to grow and the internet and domain names continue to evolve, businesses that rely on online sales should seriously consider making it easier for their Chinese consumer base to find them online. What better way to do so than to invest in a Chinese domain extension, which eliminates the language barrier and makes it easier for the largest e-commerce market in the world to find and buy products from anywhere in the world.

This logic becomes even more relevant when you consider the fact that the rural and elderly Chinese populations are not only growing substantially, but they are beginning to use the internet more and more, especially for online shopping. China’s “silver surfers,” or those above the age of 50, now number over 200 million, and that number will only continue to rise in the next several decades. To put it simply, the majority of the next billion internet users’ primary language will not be English, it will be Chinese. Since a large number of these next billion internet users are elderly and come from rural parts of China, most will not know english anyway, and it will be key for businesses to cater to this demographic by addressing them, and selling to them, in their native language.

ChopChop.domains, a Chinese domain name marketplace, was created in order to help businesses, investors, and individuals find and buy Chinese domains easily so that they can reach the world’s largest market. If you would like to find out more about the power and possibility of owning and using Chinese domains, reach out to us at contact@chopchop.domains to speak with our Chinese domain experts about how your brand can succeed in China.

ChopChop.domains team

So far, we’ve covered numbers 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3, which leaves us with a few numerics left. Today’s topic will be all about the number one (1):

1: 一; Pinyin: Yī

The number one is non-divisible, and much like an apple, it cannot be broken down into two pieces without first cutting it open. This analogy denotes the fact that the number one is strong and cannot be moved without breaking it down. Throughout Chinese history, the number one continues to stand as a symbol of unity, wholeness, and concentration.

The Mandarin spelling and pronunciation for the number one is “yi,” or “yao” and the Cantonese spelling and pronunciation for the number one is “jat.” There are actually two ways of pronouncing “one,” which creates many different sound-alikes. The most common are “want,” “invite,” “to come,” and “you (in the familiar form).”

• The noun sound-a-likes for the number one are: rumor, and goblin
• The verb sound-a-likes for the number one are: shout, demand, scoop, bite, and shake
• The adjective sound-a-likes for the number one are: small, gentle, distant, important

References

11: Two “single” figures standing next to each other, not making any contact. This refers to the demographic group that are called 光棍 (“single sticks”) in China, who are the ones that don’t have a husband or wife, or even a girlfriend or boyfriend.

1111: November 11, the day in the year that has the most “single sticks” in it. This day is annually marked as the “single sticks festival,” or “Singles Day.” Online vendors like Taobao often have discounted shopping prices on this particular day, giving single people an exciting shopping experience. One can compare this day to Black Friday shopping in the United States.

Puns

1314: This string of numbers containing two number one’s is pronounced “yi san yi si.” This sounds like the old slogan “一生一世” (yi sheng yi shi), which means “through life and death” or “forever.”

1920: This string of numbers containing two number one’s is pronounced “yi jiu er ling.” This phrase reminds people of “依旧爱您” (yi jiu ai nin), which means “I still love you.”

1925: This string of numbers containing two number one’s is pronounced “yi jiu er wu.” This is a companion phrase to the above 1920, which reminds people of the phrase “依旧爱我” (yi jiu ai wo) which means “do you still love me?”

17173: This string of numbers containing two number one’s is pronounced “yao qi yao qi san.” This maps easily to “一起一起上” (yi qi yi qi shang). The repeated “一起一起” (yi qi yi qi) means “together,” while the last character in the mapped phrase “上” commonly means “on,” “upper,” or “better,” and is a powerfully omnipotent verb that signifies “go,” “do it,” and “come on.” A direct translation to English sounds clumsy (as much directly-translated Chinese does), so a semantically accurate interpretation for “together go do it!” would be “share the fun” or “play together” which are the slogans of 17173.com.

If you’re paying close attention to linguistically correct Chinese, note that in the case of 17173, the expression “一起一起” (yi qi yi qi, or “together together”) is not normal. Chinese people don’t usually speak like that. The syntactically correct expression should be “一起上” (using a single “yi qi” or “together”), which would be “173” translated into a numeric pun.

Why did this gaming portal choose 17173? Well, we speculate that the founders probably originally wanted 173, but found that NNN.com domains, as we all know, are very expensive, so they settled on 17173 and used some left over funds to popularize the modified pun.

Domain Sales

Some top-selling numeric sales over the past several years that include the number one:

Available Domain Names

There are plenty of available domain names for sale in for both general availability and premium name prices that include the number one. Some examples include:

Any of the above domain names can be purchased directly and hassle-free from ChopChop.domains.

The above domains are just a few great examples that are readily available for purchase in the .在线 (Dot Chinese Online) and .中文网 (Dot Chinese Website) domain extensions. Remember, Chinese people account for over a quarter of all humanity, with nearly 1.4 billion in total. Many of whom use the Internet in their own language every single day. What better way to reach these people than to invest in Chinese-character domain names? It just makes sense.

Thank you for visiting us and following our numeric domaining blog series! With only a couple more numerics to cover, stay tuned so that you can receive the best advice and tips on specific numbers and what they mean in the Chinese context.

As a reminder, there are hundreds of meaningful, premium-sounding, and readily available Chinese domain suggestions over at ChineseLandrush.com. Find your perfect Chinese domain names, and then head over to ChopChop.domains to register them directly!

If you have any further questions that relate to the number one, please don’t hesitate to contact us and our team of experts, and we will do our best to help you answer any questions you may have.

If you’ve asked yourself those questions and don’t know what to do next, don’t worry! We’re here to help.

With our Chinese Domaining Masterclass presented by ChineseLandrush.com, we strive to provide the best tips, tricks, and advice on each individual number and how it relates to the Chinese context of domain investing. In the past several months we’ve covered numbers 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, and 3, and today we’ll be going over another number to continue our coverage of numerics in Chinese domaining. Without further adieu, we present today’s number:

6: 六; Pinyin: Liù

In the past, we’ve usually listed the number, it’s simplified Chinese character variation, and the pinyin spelling (all shown above), however there is a lot more to the number six than you think! You see, the best way to describe the number six in the Chinese context is that it is a very lucky number, and it has the meaning of being “auspicious” in Chinese culture.

The most formal type of writing for the number six is the character 陆, which has multiple pronunciations, and can either be pronounced as “liù,” meaning “six,” or “lù,” meaning “land.” When pronounced as the latter, it sounds the same as the character 路, again spelled “lù,” however this particular character and pronunciation means “path.”

Consequently, there are two characters in the traditional idiom of “wishing you well,” which in Chinese characters is displayed as 路路大顺, and in pinyin is spelled “lu lu da shun,” meaning “every path cleared.” This saying was then replaced with the number six, thus becoming 六六大顺, which is “lù lù dà shùn” in pinyin, meaning “everything comes in a smooth way.”

Still with us? We weren’t joking about the vastness of this number!

Based on the linguistic history of the number six described in detail above, many people today regard six as a great omen for “getting what you seek,” “achieving what you want,” “smooth progress,” and most generically “good luck.” With that being said, it’s good to have another number in which you can derive important meaning and the all-conquering “lucky number” in the Chinese context.

Moving on, the most common sound-a-likes for the number six is “stay,” and “to wander.”

• The noun sound-a-likes for the number six are: tumor, land (Cantonese), and look (Cantonese).
• The verb sound-a-likes for the number six are: to flow, to spread, to preserve, to kill, to stroll.
• The adverb sound-a-likes for the number six are: successfully, and smoothly.

References and Unit of Innate Meaning

As stated before, the number six is commonly referred to as a lucky and auspicious number, and holds the meaning of everything going smoothly, well-off, and prosperous. Additionally, the number six has had a wide usage in China’s history. For example, the Chinese Classical Six Arts refers to etiquette, music, archery, riding, writing, and mathematics. Six Kinfolks refers to father, mother, brother, sister, wife, and children.

More references include Chinese people specifically choosing a telephone numbers or a vehicle identification number that includes the number six in order to obtain luck, and Chinese people will also hold a very grand party to celebrate the 60th birthday of the elderly.

The word “six” also sounds very much like the word that means “flow” in Mandarin, suggesting that everything will go very smoothly. Therefore, the number six is considered particularly lucky in China, especially where it occurs in multiples.

Speaking of the importance of multiples, “6666666,” which as you can see contains several multiples of the number (but doesn’t necessarily have a limit), is becoming very popular in China, especially online, meaning “awesome/nice job/super cool.”

Another interesting fact about the number six and its pinyin spelling and pronunciation “liù” is that it is usually always mispronounced by people from southern China for the word 牛 or “niu,” meaning “cow.” For example, when someone in southern China says “牛,” it is similar to how people in the western world would say the phrase “holy cow!”

Overall, the innate meaning behind the number six is that it is very lucky, and Chinese people value the number six so much that they are willing to pay high prices for the good luck associated with it.

Some top-selling numeric sales over the past several years that include the number six:

Thank you for visiting ChineseLandrush.com and following our numeric domaining blog series! We wish you the best of luck as you continue your journey of cracking into the Chinese domain space, and taking advantage of the many opportunities as it relates to numeric domains.

As a reminder, there are hundreds of meaningful, premium-sounding, and readily available Chinese domain suggestions to register on ChineseLandrush.com!

Also, If you have a portfolio of English names that you would like translated properly  into Chinese, let us know! We help domain investors translate English names into Chinese the right way (not the Google way), to get them going on their journey of IDN investing. Not to mention this service is completely free as well!

If you have any further questions that relate to the number six, please don’t hesitate to contact us and our team of experts, and we will do our best to help you answer any questions you may have.

We hope that you’ve had an excellent start to 2016, and we’re sending “luck” your way as you continue to invest in the Chinese domain market. Speaking of the Chinese market, the domain industry has seen quite the boom lately as it relates to China and the buying and selling of domain names. At this point, it’s no surprise to those involved in the domain industry that China is a hot market right now — and there are no signs pointing toward this slowing down any time soon. If you’re looking to break into the China domaining environment, continue to follow our blog for the latest tips, tricks, and advice on how to get the most out of your domaining experience.

With that being said, we’re well on our way covering numbers 1-10 and what they mean in the Chinese context as it relates to investing in numeric strings. So far we’ve covered numbers 7, 3, 4, 8, and 9. Today, we will be going over the number five (5).

5: 五; Pinyin: Wǔ

In terms of understanding the meaning of numbers in the Chinese context, the number five is one of the least ambiguous numbers for westerners to understand. Its meaning is fairly straightforward and doesn’t present the same kind of confusion or ambiguity that other numbers seem to carry, like eight or seven.

The best way to describe the number five’s meaning in the Chinese context would be with one word: balance. In ancient Chinese tai chi, the number five lies in the middle of all numbers. In the masculine principle of Yang, five being in the middle symbolizes perpetual balance.

The Mandarin spelling of the number five, as outlined above, is “wǔ.” The Cantonese spelling of the number five is “ng.” The most common, and also one of the most important sound-a-like’s for the number five is “me,” “myself,” and “I.”

• The noun [n.] sound-a-like’s for the number five is: a room, dirt
• The verb [v.] sound-a-like’s for the number five is: to lack, to accuse falsely, to dance, the sound of crying
• The adjective [adj.] sound-a-like’s for the number five is: not to have, none, my, to associate with, disobedient, martial

Puns

The number five is part of several well-known numerical puns in China. To give you a better idea of this I’ve listed a few of them below.

520: Pronounced “wu-er-ling,” these numbers sound very similar to 我爱您 (wo-ai-nin), or “I love you,” with the word “you” presented in honorific form. 520 is used quite often by couples and family members messaging other “520” across various forms of social media and other various forms of popular technology. 

521: Pronounced “wu-er-yi,” these numbers sound similar to 我爱你 (wo-ai-ni), which also means “I love you,” however this is presented in the more familiar form.

Unit of Innate Meaning

As mentioned above, the easiest meaning of the number five for westerners to understand is balance. The number five is the middle number of numbers 1-10, so naturally this refers to and symbolizes balance in all things.

Available Domain Names 

There are plenty of available, unregistered domain names for sale in for both general availability and premium name prices that include the number 5. Some examples include:

• 五粮液 is the 2nd best baijiu in China, and is a premium name that is available to register in both Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) from Sedo’s platform here and here. The pinyin for this name is “WuLiangYe,” which means “5 crops liquid,” or “quality baijiu made by many crops.”
• 五福 means “5 bliss” and is a premium name that is available to register in both Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网). To inquire on this particular name, please inquire at premium@internetregistry.info.
• 五彩城 means “5 Color City” which is the name of a shopping mall in China, and is available to register in both Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) at general availability prices from any of our 50+ registrars.
• 北京五中 means “Beijing Number 5 Middle School” which is one of the best middle school’s in Beijing. In fact, almost every single city in China has a ‘number 5 middle school,’ so the city name +五中 would be an excellent domain name choice for many people. This name is also available to register in both Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) at general availability prices from any of our 50+ registrars.

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Thank you again for stopping by to learn more about numeric domains and the important roles they play in the Chinese domain investment space. Numerics are proven assets in China, and you should know how to properly invest in them with the Chinese context in mind, especially since the Chinese domain investing market is showing to be very lucrative and hot right now.

If you have any further questions that relate to the number five, please don’t hesitate to contact us and our team of experts, and we will do our best to help you answer any questions you may have.

In the meantime, head over to ChineseLandrush.com and take a look at our list of hundreds of meaningful, premium-sounding, and readily available Chinese domain suggestions! If you have a portfolio of English names that you want translated properly into Chinese, let us know! We help domain investors translate English names into Chinese the right way (not the Google way), to get them going on their journey of IDN investing. Not to mention this service is completely free as well!

As several industry thought leaders, journalists, and domain investors have highlighted the importance of the booming domain market in China lately, we aim to continue this effort in educating and assisting western domain investors navigate the highly lucrative, yet somewhat “foreign” Chinese domain space.

If you have any particular questions or need advice concerning the Chinese domain name space, please do not hesitate to contact our expert team of consultants at info@chineselandrush.com.

Continuing on our coverage of numeric domains and China, this blog article we’ll be going over the number nine (9):

9: 九; Pinyin: Jiǔ

The number nine in Chinese culture is said to symbolize limitations, however that does not necessarily give it a negative meaning. Contrarily, the number nine represents the farthest possible reach of mortal effort. It’s the largest possible single-digit number, which actually represents power and prestige. In Chinese ancient culture, a king would be referred to as “the noble body of 9 & 5.”  At the same time, Chinese people in the past would regard odd numbers within 10 as Yang (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) and regard even numbers within 10 as Yin (2, 4, 6, 8). This means that the number nine is the biggest number for Yang, making it a very important number for Chinese people. 

The Mandarin spelling and pronunciation of the number nine is “jiǔ,” and the Cantonese spelling and pronunciation is “gau.” The most common sound-a-like for the number nine is “a long time.”

• The noun [n.] sound-alikes for the number nine is: uncle, liquor, long duration of time, and dog (Cantonese)
• The adjective [adj.] sound-alikes for the number nine is: after all, at once, then, right away, old
• The adverb [adv.] sound-alike for the number nine is: enough (Cantonese)

It’s now time to go over the three specific categories that western domainers should keep in mind when investing in numeric domains in the Chinese domain market space: references, puns, and the unit of innate meaning.

References

There are thousands of sayings and idioms that frequently find reference to the number nine. In figurative terms, some instances of these references mean “extremely large in number,” “the largest,” and even “countless.”

9999: Beijing’s old Imperial Palace, also known as the Forbidden City, consists of 9,999 rooms.

95555: The customer service number of the prestigious China Merchant Bank, which is favored by China’s wealthy and ultra-wealthy.

Puns

94: is pronounced “jiu shi.” These are the exact syllables as 就是, meaning “exactly!” or “precisely!”; 酒失, meaning “mistakes made while drunk,”; 旧式, meaning “old style,”; 久视, meaning “immortality,”;  就世, meaning “save the world,” and 18 other phrases with the exact same pronunciation.

Unit of Innate Meaning

95: In ancient Tai Chi, the number nine is the largest number of the masculine principle of Yang. More evidence of the power of nine is the concept that heaven, in the Chinese context, has nine layers. For thousands of years, the number 95 has been the number for emperors, because nine is the topmost number of “unmatched majesty,” and five is in the middle of the numbers of Yang (balance), which means that the Emperor is the very model of the divine, total majesty, and wisdom.

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Thank you for stopping by to learn more about numeric domains and its extremely important role in the Chinese domain investment space. Numerics are proven assets in China, and you should know how to properly invest in them with the Chinese context in mind.

If you have any further questions that relate to the number nine, please don’t hesitate to contact us and our team of experts, and we will do our best to help you answer any questions you may have.

In the meantime, head over to ChineseLandrush.com and take a look at our list of hundreds of meaningful, premium-sounding, and readily available Chinese domain suggestions! If you have a portfolio of English names that you want translated properly into Chinese, let us know! We help domain investors translate English names into Chinese the right way (not the Google way), to get them going on their journey of IDN investing. Not to mention this service is completely free as well!