question CHIPs and End User Need

[VRdommy]

We have all seen the sales of CHIPs. (Chinese premium names)
While I can see the need for short names like 3/4 & some 5 letter .com's, and some of the number plays, but how long can anyone keep buying names that have no hope of having a end-user need in 8 years or less !

After all, most of the 3L .com's that have changed hands in the last year were not used in 20 years.
So I become confused as to why a 5L .com or any TLD can have a serious value when the letters do not spell a word in any language or represent abbreviations for anything presently known to man.

Since there has to be a end to it sometime, the question comes when will they begin to pay attention to end-user need for a value placement on the name.

Chinese and English do not very often translate simply and accurately with only one/two words and can be a problem and "possibly" the reason for what they are "not buying".

And of course I hope we don't see this as a bubble bursting but as a transition. But when is the question ?

 

[Kassey Lee]

I can't comment on chips as I don't read much about them. Regarding short letter names, 2L .com domain names have a lot of potential end users in China, and as more letters are added the lesser number of potential end users you get. When you get to 5L, there will be very few companies that can use them because 5-pin (Pinyin) words are quite long for the consumers to remember. Currently there is a lot of interest in so-called chip 5L. It's possible that the domain names never go to the end users but remain being traded among investors, just like the 95% of currencies traded everyday in the world.

 

[nvdomains]

It is a part of learning cycle. They also learn about real domaining.

 

[VRdommy]

Trading between investors is just fine.
But at some point, there has to be a end user need or want for a name.
Otherwise good (888...LOL) luck to the last high purchase.
It's like collecting snowflakes.

 

[Mr Dobalina]

I think the Pinyin keyboard has the Latin Alphabet on the keys. Words are spelled using sounds I believe. So what looks like a random sequence of letters might sound like a Chinese word when sounded out.

chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php

I really can't say for sure but maybe this will help some of you!

 

[HUKU]

I cant vote on this poll because where they have a potential to sell to Chinese end user need not just because of the meanings but those domains are in use or will be. Overall Dot Com is still king and for letters 2L, 3L, 4L are viable. The CHIPs are already in use by end users and where they are not, many either will be in the fullness of time or are being held in strong hands by investors. On the numeric side, 2N, 3N, 4N, 5N and even 6N could work for end users.

In CHIP form there are far fewer attractive combinations available in 6N than in 4L so I consider both to be viable from a relative scarcity point of view. Although numerics are more popular in China than anywhere else (that limits the saleability), there are many websites on numeric dot coms within China. It's impossible to predict the future but I'm much less optimistic about 5L CHIPs where the combinations are 3.2 million in total. I seriously doubt that many of these will find end users even a few years from now.

However, I think the bigger story going forward is how CVCV dot coms and LLLL.com (non CHIPs) could potentially perform much better in terms of price growth. Too many people are hitching their wagon to the CHIPs without realising that LLLL.com and CHIP LLLL.com are both in end use and have completely different functions in the market place.

For example, ICBC is the largest bank in China (indeed, it is the largest bank in the whole world) and its website is ICBC.com

They are using a regular non-CHIP LLLL Dot Com.