CRI听力:Domain Names Become New Investment Tool

DotClub, the Registry behind one of the world's most popular new domain extensions, is offering a total of 25 domains in a public auction format, including C. Club and twenty-four 2-character dot CLUB domain names.

Simon Cousins, spokesman of dot CLUB in China, is in charge of the marketing of the Chinese domain name registry. He's also monitoring the ongoing auction process in China.

"This is an auction not only run in China, but also publicized for the entire world. China is a very hot market for premium domain names. Premium domain names in China are increasingly been seen as tradable assets with an ability to hold the value very well, because they are rare. For instance, once someone buys C. Club, no one else can create that domain name. That's one asset, like a rare painting."

This auction takes place on the Chinese EachNic.com platform and opens to both business corporations and private investors. The auction platform is available in both Chinese and English.

JD.CLUB is seen as a domain name with vast business potential, since in Chinese, JD may be the two-character abbreviated form for hotel, classics and etc. Simon Cousins has disclosed the largest B2C online retailer in China, Jingdong Mall, showed an interest in obtaining "JD.CLUB".

The popular usage of 2-character domains can find many examples such as YP.com on behalf of Yellow Pages, HP.com on behalf of Hewlett Packard and QQ.com, which represents Tencent QQ