TIKTOK domain name "Popular King":Against Google,the monthly traffic reaches 1 billion!

According to the ranking of the top ten domains based on access traffic published by the cloud services company Cloudflare, TikTok.com, the overseas version of TikTok, was the most popular and most visited domain in 2021, surpassing the previous leader, Google.com.

It is reported that TikTok had 1 billion monthly active users in September of this year, making it the undisputed "king of popularity." Today, let's take a look at what makes these top ten domains of 2021 globally popular.

1. TikTok.com

TikTok is a short video social platform owned by ByteDance. It was launched overseas in May 2017, and in November of the same year, the overseas version of TikTok and the independent brand musical.ly merged into one, collectively known as TikTok, capturing the international market. The official website domain for the international version of TikTok is tiktok.com.

The domestic version of the short video platform, known as Douyin, was launched in September 2016, initially under the name A.me, with the official website using amemv.com. In 2017, it was renamed Douyin, and the official website started using the acquired two-character domain douyin.com.

2. Google.com

Google is widely recognized as the world's largest search engine company and a veteran player in the domain industry. They own the official website domain Google.com, as well as a collection of related domains. In addition, they hold thousands of domains, including significant acquisitions like Google.cn and google.com.cn in 2005, the 265.com bundle acquired for $200 million, g.cn, gmail.com, the $100 million purchase of visual search engine service like.com, and premium domains like disco.com, crr.com, yt.com, g.co, and g.me. Currently, Google's market value stands at $1.95 trillion.

3. Facebook.com

Facebook was founded in 2004, and in 2005, they spent $200,000 (approximately 1.62 million RMB) to acquire the brand domain facebook.com. They also invested $8.5 million to acquire the two-letter domain FB.com.

It is known that Facebook owns hundreds of brand-related domains. In 2014, they acquired the domain Messenger.com (Messages), and in 2017, they acquired a two-character domain, f8.com, which is now used as the official website for their F8 developer conference. The current market value of Facebook is $931.685 billion.

4. Microsoft.com

Microsoft is the world's largest software company, and they own a vast number of domains, totaling 4,643. Their official website domain is Microsoft.com, and they have protected domains like microsoft.cn, .com.cn, .net, and many others, ensuring all potential misspellings are covered.

Well-known Microsoft products have matching brand domains: the instant messaging product "MSN," msn.com/.cn; the live platform-related domains live.com/.cn; the search engine bing.com. They also possess premium domains such as gps.com, windows.com, zone.com, start.com, jump.com, office.com, and more. Microsoft's current market value has reached $2.5 trillion.

5. Apple.com

Apple owns the valuable complete set of brand domains, including Apple.com, .cn, and .com.cn. Domains starting with "i" make up a significant portion, like ipod.com, imac.com, ibook.com, and others. In 2011, they spent $5.2 million to acquire the cloud computing domain iCloud.com, and in 2017, they spent $1.5 million to acquire iCloud.net, completing their ownership of all iCloud-related domains.

Apple also owns domains like siri.com, lala.com, mac.com, me.com, and other premium domains related to their brand. Currently, Apple's market value stands at an astonishing $2.88 trillion.

6. Amazon.com

Amazon is one of the earliest e-commerce companies on the internet. Their official website domain is Amazon.com, while the domain for Amazon China is z.cn. They also hold brand-related domains like A9.com, aws.com, and others.

Amazon has acquired many premium domains. In 1999, they spent $110 million to acquire Accept.com, gaining ownership of Accept.com. In 2010, Amazon acquired Quidsi for $540 million, which included domains like Look.com, Diapers.com, YoYo.com, Soap.com, and Wag.com. Today, Amazon's market value is $1.73 trillion.

7. Netflix.com

Netflix, the American streaming platform, acquired its official website domain Netflix.com for millions of dollars. The company also spent millions to acquire the single-word domain fast.com and holds the premium three-letter domain DVD.com. The current market value of Netflix is $272.079 billion.

8. YouTube.com

YouTube is a video-sharing website that was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, and it operates as a subsidiary. Their official website domain is YouTube.com, and they have also made significant investments in domains like YT.com.

9. Twitter.com

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service based in the United States. Their official website domain is Twitter.com, and they have protected nearly a hundred brand-related domains, including Twitter.co, .com.cn, .cn, and T.co. The current market value of Twitter is $35.103 billion.

10. WhatsApp.com

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform messaging application, and its official website domain is WhatsApp.com. In 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion and secured WhatsApp.net, .org, .me, .info, and other brand-related domains.

From these globally popular domains, we can observe several commonalities:

- They all use mainstream .com domains.

- Their domains perfectly match their brand names.

- They protect many brand-related domains.

A concise, memorable domain name that aligns with the brand is easier for users to recognize and remember, facilitating brand dissemination. It can also significantly reduce search engine traffic costs and marketing expenses, making it a critical step in brand promotion.

Most importantly, domain names provide companies with independent traffic gateways, allowing them to fully integrate users into their independent websites, mini-programs, and apps, forming a closed-loop traffic system where user data is entirely under their control. This helps in harnessing private traffic and avoids being subject to third-party exploitation.

While there are increasingly diverse traffic entry points today, domain names remain the largest traffic gateway on the internet. They bring substantial traffic to websites and should not be underestimated. In summary, domain names are the foundation of a company's presence on the internet and a crucial intangible asset for its growth. For forward-thinking companies, having a premium domain name is an indispensable factor in becoming bigger and stronger in the online world.