What are the techniques and principles that choose domain names?

Do you notice that in the market, there are thousands of companies, and more than 80% of them have their own domain names? How many of these domain names can people actually remember? Their memorability is closely related to the branding choices made by the companies. For example, "Douyin" uses the domain name douyin.com, and "Huawei" uses huawei.com. Are you curious about the techniques and principles for selecting domain names?

1. Internationalization Principle of .com

In recent years, due to interests and demand, there have been over 100 domain name extensions like .mobi, .asia, .cc, .co, etc. However, the more diverse domain name extensions become, the more .com domain names stand out. .com is internationally recognized as the most valuable, universal, and highly accepted domain extension. It surpasses both .net, .org, and country-code domain extensions like .cn, .us, .fr, etc. For internationalization, having a .com domain is a necessity, especially with the rise of internet finance.

2. Principle of Simplicity and Memorability

In a non-English-speaking country like China, the simplicity and memorability of domain names are crucial. For example, the domain name for Bank of China is boc.cn, which is concise and memorable. Short domain names also reduce the chances of misspelling and improve brand recognition, leading to a better user experience.

3. Brand Identity Principle

What is a domain name brand? Taking Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) as an example, ICBC is the domain name brand of the bank. It emphasizes the four letters "ICBC" and then expands its business scope, such as icbcleasing.com for ICBC Leasing, icbcfund.com for ICBC Fund, icbcme.ae for ICBC Middle East, and so on. All businesses and regions can be extended around the four letters "ICBC" to maintain consistency.

4. Strategic Protection Principle

The pace of internationalization in the banking industry is accelerating, requiring banks to have a global perspective to deal with various markets. Directly related to the bank's website and its domain name brand, strategic planning and protection are required, similar to intangible assets like trade names and trademarks.

- Registering Country Code Domain Names: For example, hsbc.com.cn for HSBC (China), citibank.com.cn for Citibank (China), icbc.co.jp for ICBC (Japan), etc.

- Protecting Keywords: Companies should register domain names with essential keywords in advance. For example, Alibaba registered alibank, and "bank" is a critical keyword. Similarly, in the era of payment systems, "pay" became a critical keyword, and it was essential to capitalize on trends and universality.

- Business Expansion and Extension: As businesses expand, banks will venture into more areas. Domain name brands like icbcleasing.com for ICBC Leasing and ccbfund.com for China Construction Bank Fund are gradually expanding with business development and should be proactively protected.

5. Security and Precaution Principle

- Registering All Relevant Domains: Secure domain names comprehensively. For example, ICBC should have registered icbci.com, icbci.com.hk, icbci.cn, icbci.net, etc. By doing so, you ensure the integrity of your domain name brand and effectively guard against potential threats like phishing websites and counterfeits.

- Confusion Prevention: Prevent confusion by registering domain names that are similar to your brand but contain easily confused characters. For example, icbc.org.cn, 1cbc.com.cn, where "1" is used instead of "i," are classic examples of phishing websites. By preemptively registering such domains, you can avoid the negative impact, economic losses, brand image damage, and user experience issues caused by malicious websites.

Remember, easily memorable domain names like qq.com, ccb.com, baidu.com, taobao.com allow users to directly access the websites. Longer domain names force users to rely on search engines. While search engines continue to improve, the importance of having the right domain name brand remains. Just like phone numbers and trade names, domain names are here to stay, and domain name branding should always be a priority.