A mysterious domain name sale
Even following researching it, this domain sale doesn’t make sense.
It all started when I read that XPJ44.COM sold for $4,105 last month as stated by Namebio. Even though I look at a lot of domains everyday, I must confess that I don’t understand this domain.
First, I went to Wayback Machine but found not much activity on XPJ44.COM during the last few years. That means the domain does not carry any traffic or backlinks which may be worth something.
Still, Wayback Machine did point me to 0567.net where XPJ44.COM is still listed for sale. It also has many domains beginning with XPJ or ending with 44. Entering ‘xpj’ into Baidu search showed many sites related to entertainment or gambling but I did not notice any domain beginning with XPJ followed by a number in the first 10 pages of the search results.
One search result that caught my attention is GrandLisboaHotels.com, which is owned by Grand Lisboa, a Macau-based hotel that has a casino and an entertainment venue. Its name in Chinese is Xin Pu Jing (新葡京)=fresh Portugal capital. Macau was a colony of Portugal). So, it seems to me that the acronym XJP is associated with gambling.
Then I did a search on eName’s domain marketplace to find hundreds of domains based on the letter+number pattern ending with ’44’. This shows there are investors trading this kind of domain.
Yes, XPJ can be an acronym for many Pinyin phrases such as Xian Pi Jiu (鲜啤酒=draft beer), Xin Ping Jing (心平静=a tranquil mind), and Xiao Pei Jian (销配件=sell parts). 44 also rhymes with many Pinyin phrases such as Shi Shi (世世=generations), Shi Shi (市市=markets), and Si Shi (思世=think of the world). Still, creating a meaningful and easy to remember Chinese brand from XPJ44.com is not easy. Actually, I have not come across any sizable Chinese firm with domains similar to such a pattern.
Overall, my impression is that XJP44.com is associated with gambling and similar domains containing 44 may be limited to being traded among investors only. I fail to see how it can be used by a corporate buyer.
