NetEase went public in Hong Kong with a net worth of 151.9 billion Ding Lei:Bring NetEase back to China!

Foreign media reports that both NetEase and JD.com have successfully completed their listing hearings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As of the closing on May 28th, US time, NetEase was trading at $366.25, down 2.88%, with a total market value of $47.3 billion ($366.6 billion HKD). In response to the Hong Kong listing, Ding Lei, for the first time in 20 years since NetEase's listing, released a public letter, saying, "So far, we haven't succeeded, we are still growing."

This time, Ding Lei has returned with NetEase. NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES), founded by Ding Lei, CEO, in Guangzhou in 1997, went public on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in the United States in 2000 and is a leading Chinese internet technology company. NetEase is undoubtedly the number one among Chinese concept stocks, and its stock price since listing has outperformed even the BAT giants. Such a company also owns a robust portfolio of domain names. Let's take a look at some of NetEase's domain names!

163.com

163.com is NetEase's official website domain name, registered in 1997. At that time, Ding Lei, still an engineer at the Ningbo Telecom Bureau in his hometown, registered 163.com/.net in September 1997, believing that numeric domain names were the easiest for Chinese people to remember. He also registered a series of numeric domain names such as 188.com/.net, 166.com/.net, 126.com/.net, and 127.com/.net.

Among them, 188.com was used as the official website domain name for NetEase 188 Wealth Mailbox, while 126.com was used for NetEase's free email service. 166.com and 127.com can also redirect to the NetEase official website. Fortunately, Ding Lei had a high sensitivity to domain names at that time. If this were today, acquiring such meaningful and easy-to-remember numeric domain names would likely require significant effort and cost.

Youdao.com

Youdao.com is the official website domain name for NetEase Youdao and was registered in 2002. Youdao is a subsidiary of NetEase that utilizes big data technology to provide mobile internet applications. In October 2019, NetEase Youdao went public on the NYSE and currently has a market value of $2.511 billion.

Initially, Youdao's domain name was yodao.com, but to enhance its brand, they officially adopted youdao.com in 2008. NetEase Youdao has also protected domain names such as youdao.net, youdaoyun.cn ("Youdao Cloud"), wangyihui.com/.com.cn/.cn/.net ("NetEase Meeting"), and yodao.net/.cn. They even use 163.fm as a non-mainstream domain for short URL services, showcasing comprehensive brand protection.

Kada.com

Kada.com is the official website domain name for NetEase's creative programming community, "Kada," and it was registered in 1996. The Kada project provides a platform for users who enjoy creative programming to freely create, publish, and exchange their works. This domain name was acquired by NetEase in 2017 for a six-figure sum through the domain marketplace Yuming.com.

weiyang.cn

weiyang.cn is the official website domain name for NetEase's agricultural brand, "NetEase Wei Yang," registered in 2008. The combination of "weiyang" corresponds to the brand Wei Yang and also implies "feeding," which aligns with the website's focus on providing high-quality meat production and industry solutions. Since NetEase's founder Ding Lei announced his foray into the pig farming industry in 2009, it gained significant attention and was previously referred to as the "Ding family pigs."

lofter.com

lofter.com was registered in 1997 and was acquired by NetEase. Its name sounds like "乐乎" (yuehu), which means "music" and has been developed into a light blogging platform. In early December 2011, LOFTER officially opened for registration. This platform integrates email, blogs, microblogs, and other products.

tryfun.com

tryfun.com is the official website domain name for "NetEase Chun Feng," NetEase's original brand of adult products. It was registered in 2003, and it appears to be a domain name registered by NetEase itself rather than acquired. NetEase Chun Feng launched in October 2017, and the combination of "TryFun" translates to "try pleasure" in Chinese. Both the website design and brand name reflect subtlety and freshness. Overall, it generates anticipation for Chun Feng's future marketing initiatives.

Xiupin.com

Xiupin.com is the official website domain name for "Xiupin," NetEase's e-commerce platform. It was registered in 2005 and was acquired by NetEase for a six-figure sum. Xiupin, as a quality shopping website under NetEase, covers categories such as clothing, footwear, sports, accessories, and cosmetics. However, the website has not yet been officially launched.

Apart from these domain names, NetEase also sold its kaola.com project, an English domain name it previously held, to Alibaba for $2 billion. Additionally, NetEase uses many subdomains for its various services, such as NetEase Games (game.163.com), NetEase Cloud Music (music.163.com), NetEase Strict Selection (you.163.com), Love Dating (love.163.com), and the photo customization service Impressionist (yxp.163.com), among others.

We can see that NetEase primarily uses domain names that are phonetic and numeric, which are easy for Chinese people to remember. Phonetic domain names are unique to Chinese culture, deep-rooted, and highly brand-targeted in the domestic market. Moreover, Chinese people have a special and straightforward way of pronouncing numbers, making numeric domain names a universally friendly domain type. As companies grow and expand their brand influence, having a domain name that aligns with the habits of the local population is crucial.

In 1997, when NetEase was founded, it had only three people working in a 7-square-meter room, taking their first steps in entrepreneurship. Today, NetEase's market value has reached $47.3 billion. In this era, it attracts numerous top investment professionals and entrepreneurial elites. Ding Lei relied on precise investment vision and astonishing determination, registering domain names early on to assist in his entrepreneurial journey. With Ding Lei bringing NetEase back to China, we hope to see NetEase reach new heights, and we eagerly await their future endeavors!