To check domain sales in China — Use Benmi
This service allows English speakers to search for domain sales in China (and worldwide).
Even though China has a sizable digital economy driving demand for domains, the language barrier makes it difficult for investors in the west to understand China’s domain market. Fortunately, some firms are trying their best to help English speakers, and one of them is Benmi.
Across the top of the home page are quick functions that you can use to check a specific domain.
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
| Sold Record: | Sales history of the domain |
| Whois: | Whois record of the domain |
| DN Reverse: | Reverse Whois lookup |
| DN History: | Change history of Whois record of the domain |
| Domain Sale: | Similar domains for sale now* |
| Expire DN: | Check expired domain |
*Does not seem to give the correct result when compared with the Chinese page.
Below the quick functions are the following sections.
Domain Ranking in China lists the top 10 domains sold in China in the previous month.
Domain Ranking Non-China lists the top 10 domains sold outside China in the previous month.
Nearly ten days gives you the total amount and total volume of domain sold in the last 10 days.
Domain Transaction Price is the best part of the website in my opinion, since it has very detailed information on various types of domains sold and over different periods of time to enable you to study trends.
This article gives you only an overview of Benmi, and I plan to write again to go deeper into the various functions. It’s worth noting that Benmi appears to show some domain transactions that were noted but may not have actually closed.
By the way, BenMi (笨米) literally means “stupid rice” but the actual meaning ought to be “stupid domains” since Mi (rice) rhymes with (yu)Ming (domains). Still, what Benmi is providing is not stupid at all. It’s a smart service that can help us understand the prices of domain sold in China.
