The agenda for all three days has been posted, although you won’t find too much detail. The main event IMHO, as at any domain conference, is the opportunity to network. You either plonk down your cash for a ticket (cheap by western standards), book your long-haul flights, and prioritize your time to be in Xiamen and meet people to possibly do business with in China, or you don’t. It’s that simple.
Here’s a screen shot of the ticket prices. You can slum it with a “Common Ticket” for 19 bucks. Or go all out with the bling-bling “Diamond Ticket” for $399.
The website states that the 2017 event is being co-organized by Go Daddy, AliCloud, Baidu Cloud, eName and Bizcn. Since their “Cooperation” page is still up, it also appears they are actively looking for additional sponsors to pony up anywhere from $3,000 for a Bronze sponsorship on up to $100,000 for a Diamond Sponsorship.
For three grand you can cover the reception car with your company’s advertisement and logo tags. Or for $15,000 you can sponsor a “closed-door meeting” and “organizing propaganda.”
Shell out $50,000 or more and you get a “High Class” stand. Anything less and you get an “Ordinary” stand.
There’s still no further information about the auctions as I had mentioned in my previous post. That page remains in a “coming soon…” status. The clock ticks as I think many are interested in this, and it is unfortunate so little information is available to date.
Lots of “guests” photos and names are posted. It’s a wish list, not a confirmed attendee list. This is typical with domain conferences held in China.
I have to chuckle just a bit at the English translation. I see the same mistakes being made from Chinese to English by some of my good Chinese colleagues as I see from English to Chinese by western companies. One cannot simply rely on Google Translate or that intern who understands a bit of Chinese or English. A professional interpreter who understands DNS industry lingo and marketing can add so much more value and benefit.
With the above stated, I do recommend that you consider attending if you are serious about making connections in China. It’s easy to get there via Hong Kong or Beijing.
You don’t need me to tell you that China is a massive country. It is so much larger in scale and complexity than the USA or Europe. It is impossible to describe or even communicate with pictures or words. You have to see it for yourself and meet the people. There are not too many chances to meet a lot of China domain industry movers and shakers in one spot this year. This event in July is a splendid chance.
UPDATE: The conference website seems to be only in Chinese at the moment. However according to English documentation that I have obtained, the conference will be held at the Swiss Grand Hotel. It will feature multi-platform real-time auctions. They are stating “Ten platforms: 10,000+ bidders…” Auction items will include “user submitted quality domains and reserved quality domains from registries.” Besides new gTLD auctions, they are indicating domain names will be on auction for “Double Pinyin, NN, NNN, LL, LLL.”
Ticket prices range from an incredible $19 for a “Common Ticket,” which gets you in the door to the entire meeting and even the “closed-door” sessions, plus the chance to network and get invited to non-published events by sponsors and such. However if you’re looking to attend the lunches, welcome wine party, round-table dinner and want your 4 or 5 star room included in the deal, it will set you back anywhere from $199 for a “Silver Ticket” to $299 for a “Gold Ticket,” or $399 for a “Diamond Ticket.” That’s a steal by western standards.
Xiamen is a lovely metropolis with fabulous outdoor markets and attractions. It’s known as China’s “domain island” where several domain name registrars and domain investors are located.
It’s on the coast and about an hour and a half flight NE from Hong Kong, or about three from Beijing. Last I checked, it will take you 1 or 2 connections to get there from the USA or Europe. You lose a day when traveling there from overseas, so for USA folks that means you can still enjoy the 4th of July, leave on the 5th or 6th, and get there in time for the start, although you may have to deal with the jet lag.
I’ve been to Xiamen several times in the summer and it can be rather warm and sticky, even for someone like me that’s originally from Houston. But don’t worry, they have A/C.
I have to say that everything seemed well-organized last year for a conference with over 1,000 attendees, at least from an attendee point of view.
So last year, on behalf of ChopChop.domains, I put together a video summary of the first event held in Hangzhou that will give you a little taste on what a Chinese domain name conference is all about. I also had all of about 7 minutes to grab the person that ran the entire conference on behalf of the main organizer, BizCN.com, and do a quick video interview with her. It sheds some light on the increasing role of women in the China domain name industry.
The site for this year’s conference is at www.GDSday.com
Back home in Austin after 39 days, 7 countries/territories, 13 flights, 7 hotels, 2 rental cars, countless meetings, Ubers and taxis—and 1 carry on for the whole shootin’ match.
It’s the longest I’ve been away from home in years, although some of that time was spent working from my “second” home in Ireland, where I was a resident for five years.
All told I’ve spent nearly three months total in China alone in the past year. It’s been rewarding learning so much from my Chinese colleagues and friends.
Here are a few pics from various meetings and events with registrars and others in the domain biz in China over the past few months. Some of the friendliest and hardest working people you’ll ever meet in the domain name industry.
*The following is a courtesy republishing of an original blog post by TLD Registry Ltd.
Just a few weeks ago, on January 10th, TLD Registry was a proud sponsor and invited speaker at the 2nd annual China Domain Name Development Conference held at the Beijing New World Hotel.
Attendance was reported to be over 300 (triple vs. last year), consisting of registry operators, registrars, domain investors, the media and representatives from MIIT, CAICT, ISC and ICANN.
There were plenty of content and networking opportunities to keep one busy the entire day. This is just a partial list of some of the topics that were covered:
Domain Name Industry Regulation. Review of 2016 and outlook for 2017.
Internet development trends in China
Domain industry development trends in China
UASG: Where are we now.
Report on Chinese IDN Universal Acceptance
Roundtable: Domain names in the new era
TLD entry license and review
Evolution of DNS structure and security practices at China Telecom
Trends of new gTLDs in the China Market
Analysis of the Digital Assets ecosystem and its future
Our CEO, Mr. Arto Isokoski, presented on “Providing innovation to the Chinese domain name marketplace.” He offered comments on the China opportunity, the importance of the digital economy, and upcoming Chinese IDN email initiatives.
Our VP, Mr. Pinky Brand, participated in an extensive roundtable discussion: “Domain Name Market: The Next Step” with representatives from CONAC, Rightside, GMO, 190.com, West.cn, Yuwei, Domain.cn, RITT, and Afilias.
As at any domain name conference, one of the best benefits of attending is the opportunity to network! There was no shortage of opportunities to do so in Beijing, especially at dinner, where many of the “who’s who” of the China domain name industry were on hand to talk shop and visit with old and new friends.
In addition to the photos posted above, we’ve also created a short 3 1/2 minute video and photo montage to give you a taste of our day at the conference. We look forward to participating again! Enjoy.
*The above is a courtesy republishing of an original blog post by TLD Registry Ltd.
*The following is a courtesy republishing of an original blog post at ChopChop.news
With an entirely new year ahead of us, a lot of speculation, strategizing, and planning will be an integral role for domain investors while looking forward to the attractiveness and potential held by the Chinese e-commerce market.
So what sort of strategies do domain investors apply when forecasting the domain market in China or otherwise?
Well, there are several methods to employ when determining the value of a domain name, and many prominent domain investors make their money by applying these various methods and investing in domains that fit the criteria of what makes a domain name valuable. The ins-and-outs of how to value a domain name would require a blog post of its own, so I won’t go into detail here, however I will go over one key indicator of determining the value of domain name: keyword search volume.
Specific keywords or key phrases that receive, say, millions of exact-match searches per month will almost always be more valuable than a different keyword or key phrase that only receives, say a few thousand exact-match searches per month among the bevy of search engines, including Baidu, which is the most popular search engine used in China.Exact-match and generic keywords derive value from simple supply and demand– there is only a limited supply of meaningful, relevant, and powerful keywords and key phrases in the human vocabulary, therefore the more “exact” or “generic” it is, the more likely people are to search for it (demand) on Google or Baidu, increasing its value.
In other words, website owners generally want to see a high volume of traffic to their site, and if their domain name contains a valuable keyword or key phrase to the left of the dot, the more likely someone will search for it on a search engine, or by directly typing it in as a URL, resulting in a higher number of people visiting the website about the exact thing they may be looking for.
Unfortunately, most, if not all valuable exact-match and generic keywords and key phrases used to the left of the .COM extension are likely registered, and probably have been for many years. Typically, in today’s overly-saturated .COM domain market, the only way to acquire meaningful exact-match and generic keyword domain names is to pay an exorbitant amount of money to the domain owner. That is not an option for everyone. Thankfully, the expansion of over 1,500 new domain extensions and counting have helped to mitigate the high costs of generic and exact-match .COM domain names. Now, business owners large and small, domain investors, and everyday internet users can register meaningful exact-match and generic keyword domains that end in something other than the “legacy” domain extensions, at a cost that is comparatively miniscule.
After taking a look at a nice infographic about 2016’s top-searched keywords and key phrases from Baidu, we found that these most searched terms have received hundreds of millions of views over the last 12 months, and many of these terms are still available to register in both .在线 and .中文网!
See below for a breakdown of the keyword or key phrase, how many hits it receives in Baidu every month, and its price. DO NOT miss out on the opportunity to register these domain names!
Domain: 房价.在线
Translation: House Price
Price: USD $588
Buy: SEDO
Baidu Hits: 100 Million
Context: “Soaring House Prices” keyphrase was #2 in the Top 10 overall for most searched on Baidu in 2016.
Domain: 疫苗.在线
Translation: Vaccine
Price: USD $588
Buy: SEDO
Baidu Hits: 100 Million
Context: “Vaccine Safety” keyphrase was #5 in the Top 10 overall for most searched on Baidu in 2016.
Domain: 人工智能.在线
Translation: Artificial Intelligence
Price: USD $588
Buy: SEDO
Baidu Hits: 40 Million
Context: “Artificial Intelligence” keyphrase was #7 in the Top 10 overall for most searched on Baidu in 2016.
Domain: 财务.在线
Translation: Finance
Price: USD $588
Buy: SEDO
Baidu Hits: 100 Million
Context: “Internet Finance” keyphrase was #8 in the Top 10 overall for most searched on Baidu in 2016.
Domain: 民间借贷.在线
Translation: Micro-Finance
Price: USD $588
Buy: SEDO
Baidu Hits: 50 Million
Context: The same key phrase as before, “Internet Finance” was #8 in the Top 10 overall for most searched on Baidu in 2016.
Some other top-searched keywords and phrases in 2016 coming from Baidu, costing even less than the premium domains above, include:
Domain: 虚拟现实技术.在线
Translation: Virtual Reality Technology
Price: USD $90 minimum (Make An Offer)
Buy: SEDO
Baidu Hits: 4 Million
Context: “Virtual Reality” was a among the most-searched tech terms on Baidu in 2016.
Domain: 阿特拉斯.在线
Translation: Atlas
Price: USD $9.88/year
Buy: ChopChop.domains
Baidu Hits: Unreachable
Context: “Atlas” was a among the most-searched tech terms on Baidu in 2016.
All of the above domain names are available, cost-effective, and extremely powerful exact-match keywords and phrases that millions to hundreds of millions of searches in Baidu, thus making them very valuable digital commodities.
These domain names are sound investments for the sole reason that the search volume is in the top-tier, and people are simply searching for these words in Baidu at an extraordinarily high rate. People clearly want to find websites about the keywords they are searching for, so make your business stand out above the rest with an exact-match, fully Chinese domain name!
– ChopChop Domains Team
*The above is a courtesy republishing of an original blog post at ChopChop.news
According to a Wikipedia entry: “EAI enables users to have a localized [email] address in a native language script or character set, as well as an ASCII form for communicating with legacy systems or for script-independent use. Applications that recognize internationalized domain names and mail addresses must have facilities to convert these representations.
Significant demand for such addresses is expected in China, Japan, Russia, and other markets that have large user bases in a non-Latin-based writing system.”
My long-term favorable view on IDNs and in general being long on investment in this area remains.
It’s a bit of a schlep from the Haidian district of Beijing, where I usually stay, to the Xinnet offices waaaay out on the opposite south side.
I don’t mind the one-way 90 minute drive (in normal traffic) because there is so much to absorb and take in as you make your way through this gigantic metropolis. It’s *always* a feast for the eyes, and hard to explain unless you see it for yourself.
The drive is also worth it because I get to meet with domain industry long-timer Daniel Zhang, whom I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for 10 years. Every time we meet I always learn something new from him about the China domain name market! I also learn something new about him. For example, he’s an avid cyclist who has a sharp collection of jerseys!
Daniel runs Xinnet’s domain business unit. Xinnet, in business 23 years, is among the 20 domain name registrars by volume in the world, and one of the largest in China. They claim over 16,000 channel partners and more than 1 million enterprise/SMB customers.
On our most recent trip to Beijing earlier this month, Daniel was gracious to spend 10 minutes with us on camera chatting about the business, aftermarket price trends, and why their enterprise/SMB customers are increasing their appetite for aftermarket domain names and IDNs (fully Chinese character domain names).
