When you mention domain names, I don’t know what will come to your mind?

I asked a friend of mine who is not a practitioner in the Internet field, and his answer surprised me, "Domain name? Is it just a 3W point that doesn't trick you, who points to COM?" At that time, I Just laugh out your abs and give a thumbs up. That's good, at least he knows something. I believe if you ask your friends around you, not many people know what the hell is a "domain name"? Although he uses it every day and even has it printed on his business card.

1

What exactly is a domain name?

Let’s listen to the more official explanation, as follows:

Domain Name (Domain Name) is a computer or domain name on the Internet consisting of a string of characters separated by "dots". The name of a computer group used to identify the electronic location of computers during data transmission (sometimes also referred to geographical location, a geographical domain name, referring to a local area with administrative autonomy). A domain name is a "mask" on an IP address.

For more development history, you can take a look at "Baidu Encyclopedia"

"Domain names are still used quite a lot in China.

I can't say it here. Not to mention that as "artificial intelligence" (English Artificial Intelligence, abbreviated as AI) becomes more and more popular recently, the ".AI" domain name has also become popular, although this was originally the domain name of a small country in the West Indian Ocean Islands. suffix, but as the popularity of artificial intelligence continues to rise, the meaning has now become completely different. Let’s take a look at which companies have registered .AI domain names, as follows:

Let’s list these first, there are too many. , but as for the domain name circle, many people have been saying, "Will the .AI domain name be the next .com domain name?" ”, I personally think this is completely different.

4

What is the meaning of the domain name?

As mentioned above, the meaning of the existence of the domain name or The original intention was to "facilitate memory". Originally, an address on the Internet that you wanted to access might be a string of numbers, such as an IP address (111.13.101.208 Baidu's IP address, you can also access Baidu by directly accessing this string of numbers), or even It may be more complicated... The purpose of domain names is to identify them. Now you only need to visit this baidu.com "domain name"

To put it more casually, a person's first name is "Qiao." I. Alexander Biki Kalisler Duff Elliot Fox Iwerumo Marni Myers Patterson Thompson Wallace Preston" ( Note that this is really a person’s name, not the name of a team player). If you can remember such a long name, I think it is a true friendship. So, this person has a nickname called "Goudan'er" ", then isn't it convenient for you to choose to call him a nickname? You see, this "nickname" is like a "domain name", the function is the same, and the domain name in a sense indirectly hides the real IP address and port, etc. Information also ensures website security to a certain extent, which is of great significance.

5

Where can I register a domain name?

Domestic domain name services? There are still many providers, let me list a few for you:

These three are the "BAT" that we are familiar with. They are engaged in cloud services themselves, and they also introduce domain name registration business into them. Alibaba Cloud said that it acquired "Wanwang ()" at that time. In addition to these three, there are of course many others, and domain names can also be traded on them.

6

The value of domain names

There are so many things mentioned above about "domain names", but do domain names have value? If so, what is its value? When you see this, do you feel like you can finally get the title? It seems that if you think about it, a domain name only costs tens of dollars a year. What value can it have? But is this really the case?

First of all, domain names have collection value.

We all know that anything that is scarce has value and is collectible.

Because "scarcity" determines that its resources are limited and will only become less and less, not more and more, so it will intensify its "scarcity" as time goes by. ”, thus allowing it to continue to increase in value. Speaking of which, have you remembered your QQ number? Do you know how much a good 5-digit QQ number is worth now? There are also better mobile phone numbers, etc., but these are not worth mentioning in front of the world-class toy of "domain name". We will talk about some examples below that will leave you stunned.

Secondly, domain names can enhance the market competitiveness of corporate brands.

This seems to be difficult for many people to understand. In fact, it means that a good domain name can enhance the differentiated competition of an enterprise or brand in the market, and increase the ability to obtain user traffic to varying degrees. This is very important so that the project can be run well.

In fact, this goes back to the domain name itself. The original intention of the domain name itself is to facilitate users to remember and better reach the "network address" pointed to by the domain name (which can be an enterprise website, brand website, platform, etc.). Therefore, a good domain name can be convenient for users to remember, facilitate users to spread, and facilitate users to input. This domain name will invisibly increase the possibility of users and potential users accessing and using it. This is the intangible value that distinguishes it from other competitors. .

Again, domain names have strategic value.

In fact, this should be easy to understand after reading the above article. It is different from other market competitors, better than competitors in gaining traffic customers, and convenient for customers to remember... These are already very important in a sense. A good corporate brand can be implanted in people's hearts and well differentiated from other market brands. This is very similar to the meaning of a trademark. There are many domestic companies that use domain names that are in line with the corporate brand image at high prices when they set out to expand their market competitive advantages. We can talk about a few classic ones, such as:

There are many more typical examples. In the circle, there are buys and sells every day, and the amount of transactions is unimaginable.

You may say, now that everyone is using APP or WeChat official accounts, etc., do domain names still have such a strong advantage?

First of all, you must know that APP is not the future development trend of the Internet, but a current transitional product. It is not a good or ideal entrance because it occupies "physical space";

The only global entrance to the Second Internet has not changed to this day. It is still a domain name and can be easily accessed through a browser. With the development of H5, the advantages of this entrance will become more and more obvious in the future.

It can be seen that domain names play an important and positive role in corporate brand development strategies.

Finally, the domain name is an important intangible asset of the enterprise.

Above we talked about the uniqueness and global scarcity of the domain name, so it has collection value. Similarly, because of its scarcity and uniqueness, coupled with the above-mentioned "value", it makes it even more "valuable" and becomes an "important asset" of the enterprise.

Having said that, if you think about it carefully, you will find that "domain name" and "trademark" have a certain similarity (Alibaba Cloud has already started to remind you to apply for domain name-related trademarks when registering domain names). Broadly speaking, they are both It's just a symbol of reference. From a business perspective, a domain name can be regarded as an "Internet trademark" of a company because of its uniqueness. Especially in this era of eyeball economy, as a company, of course, you want its physical trademark and Internet trademark (here, the "domain name") to be highly consistent, so that users can find the company or the brand no matter which way they come. . Therefore, no matter what level or meaning it is, the domain name is undoubtedly an important intangible asset of the enterprise!

7

Having said so much about the importance and value of domain names, what kind of domain names are valuable?

First of all, the domain name you choose must be suitable.

Suitability here has many meanings. It should be suitable for the main name or brand name of your site, it should be suitable for your users' access or input habits, it should be suitable for users' better memory, it should be suitable for communication, etc. . Because the right one is the best. Domain names are designed by foreigners. If we use them in China, we don’t necessarily have to refer to foreigners’ naming methods, because they grew up in English, and the letters we learn from childhood are all Pinyin. From the spelling habits and combinations, Big difference, unless you want to connect with the international market and the world, or it has a certain relationship with your brand name.

In addition, I suggest that you refer to the Chinese people’s spelling habits to choose the “domain name”. For example, the common one is “single spelling” (if you can register it now, you are considered awesome, I mean. com), followed by "double spelling" (such as baidu Baidu), and then "three spellings", "four spellings" (Alibaba Alibaba), etc., which are very in line with the spelling and input habits of Chinese people, and are very A good one is associated with the brand and easy to remember.

Secondly, it should be short.

After reading the first one, I can actually think of this one. There should be very few domain names with less than 6 digits now. Shortness is for easy memorization, shortness is also for convenience of input, and shortness is better. The spread of... This is easy to understand, and this is where its scarcity lies.

Again, give priority to top-level domain names.

This is also easy to understand, because these top-level domain names themselves have a "halo" and are known to many people, such as ".com domain name". Everyone knows that the website address is "3W points" since the beginning of the Internet. If I don’t cheat you, who will click COM?” This is why top-level domain names are preferred. Of course, it’s not all about relying on it, it also needs to be considered in conjunction with your brand positioning, etc. For example, as we mentioned above, those applying for “.AI domain names” should be considered from the perspective of their corporate development direction.

Finally, domain name extension protection.

This is an extension application for some large enterprises. For example, when we applied for a ".com" domain name, we took down similar ".cn" domain names to prevent them from being applied for by others. This is extended protection, because after all, the annual service fee for a domain name is not very expensive, it may be the price of a pack of cigarettes. Therefore, many companies, especially those with long-term strategic vision, generally include relevant information when applying for a domain name. All extension domain names have been applied for. You may only use one of them when using it, but it has been fully protected.

In short, when registering a domain name, you must think carefully before applying for registration, because it is valuable and because it is an important entrance for users to find you.

Finally, I hope everyone can register a domain name that suits them.