The "three-point world" pattern of instant delivery has been determined?It is still missing to sit firmly at the top!

Due to the impact of the pandemic, this year may be the most challenging for the entire logistics industry. However, when we focus on the realm of instant delivery, this year holds special significance.

On one hand, after experiencing the unique circumstances of the early pandemic, there has been significant improvement in user education and digitalization in the instant delivery sector. On the other hand, there have been profound changes within the instant delivery field in 2020, making the market more competitive than ever.

The competition in the instant delivery sector is fierce, and cross-industry players are eager to get a piece of the pie.

In the food delivery market, the landscape is mostly dominated by two giants: Ele.me and Meituan. On July 10th, Ele.me announced a comprehensive upgrade, transforming from a food delivery platform into a lifestyle service platform, expanding its business into the entire local life sector. Meituan-Dianping has been continuously upgrading its same-city retail services and has seen its stock price reach record highs this year, surpassing a market capitalization of 1.19 trillion Hong Kong dollars in June.

Furthermore, major players in other sectors have also been active. Since March this year, giants like Didi, Hello TransTech, and SF Express have ventured into the instant delivery business by launching "errand" services. In June, "the first stock of instant delivery," Dada Group, successfully went public on the NASDAQ with a current market value of 5.929 billion USD. These developments have triggered a new wave of competition, pushing the instant delivery industry into the second half of the game.

While it may seem that the instant delivery sector has a defined landscape after surviving the turbulent times, there are still undercurrents that suggest new challenges may arise at any moment.

Has the "three-way split" in the instant delivery landscape been set in stone? Are the second-level domains too "conservative"?

With the rise of the O2O concept in recent years and the emergence of food delivery services, the "errand" track has attracted numerous entrepreneurs. Companies like UU Errands, Dianwoda, FlashEx, and Linqu have entered the scene. Dada Group, which merged with JD Daojia, has successfully gone public. Food delivery giants have also established their own instant delivery teams, including Meituan Delivery, Ele.me's Fengniao, and Dada Express from Dada Group.

The internet plays an indispensable role in the "errand" business, and the first gateway to the internet is domain names.

Meituan Delivery:

During the pandemic, Meituan Waimai (Meituan Food Delivery) was the first to introduce "contactless delivery" on January 26, 2020, and quickly achieved nationwide coverage. Meituan's official website domain is meituan.com, while Meituan Delivery uses the second-level domain peisong.meituan.com. Meituan also holds dianping.com, ensuring the protection of brand-related domain names.

Fengniao (Ele.me's Instant Delivery):

Ele.me's official website domain is creatively chosen with a .me extension, becoming ele.me. This is a non-mainstream domain, unlike .com domains that are common and universal. It might face some challenges if it aims for international expansion. The official website domain for Fengniao Instant Delivery, a subsidiary of Ele.me, is the second-level domain fengniao.ele.me.

Dada Express:

Dada Group has two core business platforms: Dada Express and JD Daojia, which operate independently. Dada Group's official website domain is imdada.cn and includes protection for imdada.com and imdada.com.cn. Among them, Dada Express's official website domain is kuai.imdada.cn.

I can't help but comment on Dada Group's official website domain, imdada.cn. It's a creative domain that means "I am dada." However, compared to Meituan and Ele.me's official website domains, it's somewhat complex and less innovative, making it difficult for users to understand and remember.

If Dada Group could secure the two-letter domain "快递" (Express) KD.com, domain names like these have inherent traffic advantages. The target audience for such domain names can naturally visit them without the need for extensive promotion, making them irreplaceable and valuable. Combined with resources from their partnership with JD, the top spot in the express delivery industry is within reach!

From the perspective of the domain names of these three "errand" businesses, they have all chosen second-level domains, despite being Pinyin domains. Although second-level domains can leverage established brand advantages, they are generally longer and more complicated, inconvenient for input and memory, and not conducive to search engine optimization.

To stand out in the highly competitive "instant delivery" industry, a concise and clear Pinyin domain is essential. A single-letter domain like "kuai.com" is a high-quality premium Pinyin domain that directly corresponds to "快" (fast). It aligns perfectly with the message of "speed, precision, and efficiency" that the instant delivery industry wants to convey. It not only accurately communicates the brand's meaning but also aligns with Chinese users' habits, making it highly recognizable and easy to input and remember. Furthermore, search engines favor Pinyin domains, giving them a higher ranking weight.

Many large Chinese enterprises also prefer to use short single-letter domains. For example, Fang.com (acquired for millions of USD), Jia.com (acquired for eight figures), Xin.com (acquired for hundreds of thousands), Mi.com (acquired for 22.43 million), Mei.com (acquired for tens of millions), and others.

In my opinion, in the case of Dada Express using the second-level domain kuai.imdada.cn, it could completely abandon the lengthy suffix and choose the more concise and clear kuai.com as an independent brand domain. As a partner of JD, it should have the ambition to acquire KD.com, a two-letter domain related to express delivery. Such industry-specific domain names have inherent traffic advantages, as the target audience is likely to visit the domain naturally, without the need for extensive promotion. This makes the value of such domains self-evident.

In the process of growing and strengthening a company, having a domain name that aligns with Chinese users' habits as an entry point is crucial. Just as the prosperity of e-commerce brought about the golden decade of express delivery, the market size and potential for instant delivery could be even greater. With the strategic moves of industry giants and the evolution of new retail models, who knows who will be the first to grasp the true essence of domain names, secure "kuai.com," and take their brand and domain to the next level, leaving their competition behind?