.cn.com and .com.cn names — Investing in
Know what you’re getting, and that .cn is the most popular choice.
Recently, a domain investor asked me to comment on the differences between .cn.com and .com.cn names, their marketability, sales potential, and trends.
Note that I use the term “names” here to avoid the confusion between domain and subdomain. For example, cn.com is a domain but Alibaba.cn.com is a subdomain or third level domain.
CentralNic runs .Cn.com and its home page indicates that .cn.com names can be registered via registrars such as Network Solutions, eNom, Key Systems, 123Reg, and ResellerClub.
It’s essential to understand what’s going on here. The owner of the domain name cn.com is selling domain names at the third level. This is an unregulated practice, and these domains ought to not be confused with China’s country code domains under .cn. CentralNic has closed down similar extensions in the past, resulting in registrants having to switch their web addresses.
A Baidu search on “site:.cn.com” returned 33 million search results, showing Chinese firms such as BZT.cn.com, Huber.cn.com, and Xurui.cn.com. Google returns over 1 million results for this search.
.com.cn, on the other hand, is a subdomain of China’s country code .cn. .Com.cn was introduced in 1990 and .cn in 2003. The following table clearly shows that .cn is the leader of the two
| Year | .cn names | .com.cn names | cn/com.cn ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11,729,750 | 2,405,969 | 4.88 |
| 2016 | 15,044,749 | 2,803,714 | 5.37 |
| 2017 | 16,727,922 | 2,360,535 | 7.07 |
| 2018 | 18,569,565 | 2,135,978 | 8.69 |
| 2019 | 19,668,268 | 2,188,326 | 8.99 |
Between the two, it seems wise to bet on .cn over .com.cn. And ahead of you think regarding registering example.cn.com, understand what you are getting.
