When entering the Chinese market, the choice of the domain name is often one of the first decisions that will need to be made. It’s a decision that shouldn’t be made lightly. Choose right, and you’ll have a more memorable, easily pronounceable, trustworthy domain name. Choose wrong and you may miss out on type-in traffic or end up with a domain that doesn’t inspire enough trust in the minds of your potential customers.
We recently held a survey to answer a few simple questions about domain name selection for the Chinese market. We received responses from 34 Chinese Internet users.
We asked three questions about 16 different domain pairs. The domain pairs were broken into four groups to test four different variables. The questions are translated as follows.
- Of the following two domain names, which do you believe belongs to a more trustworthy website?
- Of the following two domain names, which do you find easier to remember?
- Of the following two domain names, which do you find easier to pronounce?
.com Strongly Preferred Over .cn
Not only did respondents feel that .com domains were more trustworthy, they also found them to be more memorable and pronounceable. It seems that .com is seen as the international standard in China.
|
.com
|
.cn
|
No Difference
|
|
|
Trustworthy
|
64%
|
29%
|
8%
|
|
Memorable
|
67%
|
20%
|
10%
|
|
Pronounceable
|
68%
|
17%
|
12%
|
Domain variants tested:
- ralano.com/ralano.cn
- lawton.com/lawton.cn
- fengshui.com/fengshui.cn
- liuxue.com/liuxue.cn
For the foreign-sounding domain names, Ralano and Lawton, the results were even further skewed towards a preference for .com. For example, 89% of respondents thought ralano.com was more pronounceable and 75% felt it was more trustworthy.
Interestingly, even for the Chinese practice of Fengshui, the .com was still preferred, although not by quite as much. 53% of respondents felt fengshui.com was more trustworthy, while 33% preferred fengshui.cn.
English Preferred Over Pinyin
Respondents generally preferred English domain names over pinyin domain names.
|
Pinyin
|
English
|
No Difference
|
|
|
Trustworthy
|
22%
|
67%
|
8%
|
|
Memorable
|
32%
|
56%
|
9%
|
|
Pronounceable
|
28%
|
59%
|
17%
|
Domain variants tested:
- ribenfangchan.com/japanrealestate.com
- englishlessons.com/yingyupeixun.com
- luoshanji.com/losangeles.com
- pianyijipiao.com/cheapflights.com
Respondents were split over the Japanese real estate domain names. Although most felt the pinyin version was easier to remember, most also felt that the English version was more trustworthy.
Respondents very strongly preferred the English versions of the English lessons domain and Los Angeles domain, presumably because these are distinctly Western topics.
Hyphenation Preferred For Longer English-Language Domains
Respondents preferred the use of hyphens when used in longer domains written in English.
|
Hyphen
|
No Hyphen
|
No Difference
|
|
|
Trustworthy
|
43%
|
42%
|
10%
|
|
Memorable
|
44%
|
45%
|
6%
|
|
Pronounceable
|
35%
|
44%
|
17%
|
Domain variants tested:
- uk-language-school.com/uklanguageschool.com
- zhongguodaoyou.com/zhongguo-daoyou.com
- cheap-brands.com/cheapbrands.com
- vancouver-hotels.com/vancouverhotels.com
For both the Vancouver hotels and UK language school domains, respondents favoured hyphens. Being especially long, 64% of respondents felt uk-language-school.com was easier to remember than uklanguageschool.com, while only 28% felt the opposite.
Overall, the results were split on this topic. I would recommend using a hyphenated domain name only for English language domains that contain three or more English words, or English words that are longer or more complex.
Singular Preferred Over Plural
Respondents preferred the use of the singular form over the plural.
|
Singular
|
Plural
|
No Difference
|
|
|
Trustworthy
|
48%
|
37%
|
10%
|
|
Memorable
|
58%
|
32%
|
5%
|
|
Pronounceable
|
52%
|
34%
|
9%
|
Domain variants tested:
- russiatour.com/russiatours.com
- dogtoy.com/dogtoys.com
- buyhouses.com/buyhouse.com
- thailand.com/thailands.com
The table above shows the results for three of the domain pairs, not including thailand.com/thailands.com. This was a trick question to see if respondents would prefer an “s” at the end even if it didn’t make sense. They didn’t. Respondents found thailand.com more memorable, easier to pronounce and more trustworthy than thailands.com by 3 to 1.
Respondents were split down the middle for dogtoy.com vs. dogtoys.com.
In my experience watching Chinese people use the Internet, they very often forget the plurality of a domain name, so I always recommend getting both the plural and singular version.
Whether to make the singular or plural version the default domain is a tough choice as Chinese Internet users may not feel the same about plurality as you do.
Summary
Non-Chinese businesses should typically use a .com English-language domain. Although not tested in this survey, I always believe shorter domains are always better. If you use several English words, placing hyphens in between words will make it easier for Chinese Internet users to remember.
Singular words are generally preferred to plural, but it depends on the topic.
Same as with domains for English readers, it’s wise to buy common variants of your domain name. Buying the .cn, non-hyphenated and plural versions of the domain will help you avoid losing type-in traffic.
More?
If you have general questions about domain names, we’re glad to answer.
If you want a killer domain name for your business, we can help you create one as part of our Chinese brand name creation service.
In the future, I’d love to do a test where we actually test respondents’ ability to remember a domain name, rather than just ask them if they feel it’s memorable.