Reportedly another 3 to 5 billion people will soon join the rest of us online, including a lot of people living in China. Domain Mondo's caveat: don't get your hopes up. Domain Mondo hates to spoil the party, but these billions will mostly be impoverished people living at subsistence levels in the developing world, or under totalitarian regimes that really do not believe in a free and open internet. For example, good luck making your pipe-dream fortune selling to the Chinese mass market your new IDN gTLDs that some hucksters in Vegas or elsewhere assured you were a sure pathway to success. Ever hear of the Great Firewall of China? Even Zuckerberg can't make a buck in China, and he speaks the language and is married to a Chinese American who has taught him things you will never know about China and Chinese culture. But you went to some CONference, and paid money to be CONvinced, and now you are invested, and sure you can? LOL!
- Rule #1: Nobody makes money in China unless the Party approves. Even then, it will cost you. Ask Jack Ma.
- Rule #2: The Chinese have been suspicious of outsiders for centuries (mostly for sound reasons--read Chinese history).
- Rule #3: The Party is not a big fan of self-expression, people getting their own websites online, etc. You need a web presence to sell something inside of China? Alibaba and hundreds of others will provide that for you for free--even Amazon uses a virtual storefront on Alibaba's Tmall.com! If there is a problem, with something you are selling, or more likely, saying, the Party only has to make one call to Jack Ma et al. It's a simple system.
- Rule #4: Wealthy Chinese who are domain name investors, like smart wealthy investors everywhere else, want the "gold standard"--the dot COM domain names. Watch the markets. Why dot COM? Look at alibaba.com, jd.com, mi.com, etc. The government in China actively supports and encourages Chinese companies to capture global markets, including online global markets, which means having a dot COM domain name. Anything else is considered inferior--not recognized, breaks stuff, or fails to work across the internet.
Capiche? Or as they say in Beijing, 明白了吗？
Caveat Emptor!
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