4 AI dragons’ domain choices tells us — What the
These firms typify modern Chinese firms and the domains they choose.
There are the four firms in China referred to as “AI dragons”. These artificial intelligence firms provide critical components to build a smart economy in the digital world. Most importantly, for domain investors, modern firms like these serve as a guidepost to what domains will sell in China.
The dragons are SenseTime, Megvii, Yitu, and Yuncong. They are the fresh generation in corporate China, yet their domain preferences have not changed much from other firms, as shown in the following table.
| English | com | cn | Chinese (Pinyin) | com | cn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SenseTime | Owned | N.R. | 商汤 (Shang Tang) | For sale | N.R. |
| Megvii | Owned | For sale | 旷视 (Kuang Shi) | N.R. | For sale |
| – | – | – | 依图 (Yi Tu) | YituTech.com | 3rd party |
| CloudWalk | Owned | Forward | 云从 (Yun Cong) | N.R. | For sale |
Clearly, the English brand is more notable than the Chinese brand. All except Yitu (which does not have an English brand) have chosen to launch their business using their respective English brand.
All four prefer .com domains: SenseTime.com, Megvii.com, YituTech.com. and CloudWalk.com. Also, all except for YiTu use a domain that exactly matches their brand
.cn domains are not very notable to the dragons. You can see that SenseTime .cn does not resolve (N.R. = not registered); Megvii .cn is for sale; and CloudWalk .cn forwards to CloudWalk.com. .Com is best used for the global market and .cn for the domestic Chinese market.
As a comprehensive domain strategy, Chinese firms ought to own all relevant domains matching their English and Chinese brands in both the .com and .cn extensions. The reasons are (1) brand protection and (2) as a backup to .com domains.
For domain investors, this means you can sell English-based .com domains to China. Just make sure they are listed at a marketplace such as Afternic that has retail outlets in China.
