The New Brave World of the Non-English Internet

[dn-101]

The Brave New World of the Non-English Internet

or
​

The Mad, Mad, Mad Domainer, and he is not into Mobis



A few years ago I stumbled upon a weird domain name underground. Even though I speak 5 or 6 languages, including Esperanto (‘Uncle Joe’ used to call it the language of the “Cosmopolits”), I had a really hard time figuring out what the hell all that brouhaha is all about. Often, their conversations are either completely in Chinese or Japanese, even though most of them don’t speak a word of Chinese! They discuss the fine points of Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana and Rōmaji. They involve the Russian natives to comment on masculine or feminine nouns, the Church Slavonic Language (which Russians don’t know), and the pros and cons of [FONT=&quot]中国话 and [/FONT][FONT=&quot]華語[/FONT].
And at some point I see that some of the folks there who own domain names with the umlaut or accented é sell them at astronomical prices!

To be continued.

 

[phio]

It's not underground anymore, Google and Yahoo will probably make 75% of their ad-sale revenue from non-english speaking countries by 2010.

Not sure what the figure is now, but I've heard more than 50%

Of course this may change if gas prices exceed $10 per gallon in America.
This will force most Americans to do a tremendous amount of shopping online.

 

[Rubber Duck]

Or perhaps force a lot of Americans to stop shopping altogether.

 

[dn-101]

Oh no, Rubber Ducky, don't say this.
We, as a nation, might be able to withstand a nuclear attack. But we will never survive as a nation if we can't go shopping.

 

[Rubber Duck]

Well if Amex results are anything to go by, the plastic spending sprees are dragging to an end. However, we have had some very bouyant Government figures this last couple of days, for those that still believe in Easter Bunny.

 

[dn-101]

Let's stick with the topic. The alternate title was:
The Mad, Mad, Mad Domainer, and he is not into Mobis

[FONT=&quot]What it actually means is that this fella is not really into S&M. mobi is waay too painful. Instead, he might be into something kinky, say, Thai or Japanese language porn.com[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

 

[Rubber Duck]

Why on Earth would an English speaker who doesn't understand any of these languages want to register domain names in such scripts?

 

[draggar]

Or perhaps force a lot of Americans to stop shopping altogether.

That'll never happen. Over the past few years a new "day" has emerged. For as long as I can remember, we've always had "black Friday" which is the day after Thanksgiving (US holiday- it's always on a Thursday late in November). Most of the non-retail world is off that day so everyone starts their Christmas shopping and retailers have huge sales, many from 6am to 10am or noon. It is usually the second busiest shopping day of the year (next to the Saturday before Christmas). (It is called "black Friday" because it is the day that most retailer's financial books go from the red (loss) into the black (profit)).

Black Friday has slowed but not that much and a new day has emerged over the past 3-5 years:
Internet or Web Monday. It is the Monday after Black Friday where online retailers (Amazon.com, retailers online etc..) have huge sales. Many people now are using their internet rights at work to do Christmas shopping (almost proven by the fact that office-like work enviroments report a loss of productivity that day) and online retaielrs report huge sales.

Americans will never stop shopping. We can be in the worst depression ever and we'll still shop (this is enforced by the fact that Walmart reported a boost in profits after the stimulous checks came out).

As for the non-English internet, that is to be expected. Ever since it's conception (meaning the internet as we know it today) the majority of it was English speaking since the nations that developed it either had English as their primary language or was fluent (in general) in English (USA, Canada, western Europe, Japan) and the nations that got added were also English peaking (no a preference thing, just a technology barrier for many nations). But, now we habe the internet sprouting up all over the place and in places it wasn't a few years ago and is also becoming more available to their citizens. (If I'm wrong, please tell me).

I think the biggest boost to this is "modernization" of China" (no offence meant towards our members from China) where a billion non-English speaking clients, and USA outsourcing to countries like India and some in the Middle-East (again, non speaking English) which is forcing a demand on non-English sites, which any entenepuer would see this is one of the best opprotunities ever to invest and make money.

Why on Earth would an English speaker who doesn't understand any of these languages want to register domain names in such scripts?

That can be summed up in two words:

Demand and investment

I own about 15 domains that are not in English and even about 5-10 that are not in English or Spanish (I am a little fluent in Spanish). I have some in German, French, even a set in Chinese, these all fit my niche and some are rather nice, including prime keyword.com domains.

 

[bwhhisc]

Why on Earth would an English speaker who doesn't understand any of these languages want to register domain names in such scripts?

So you have finally caught on.
Domains for people that don't speak English...gosh what a novel idea.

 

[Rubber Duck]

Actually, I have to agree with most of what you have said, apart from the shopping. Everyone stops when the credit supply finally dries up, and despite what George has told you, it is far from over, unless he is going to start running the printing press 24x7.

Must also apologise as there has been a bit of ribbing going on here. I am heavily invested in non-Latin domain names. And it is astonishing how long it has taken for people to catch on, but the explosion is probably still a few months away. Guess too many of the real guru's got distracted by dot Mobi, Asia and Me. :cheesy:

If you need to find out more about IDN, there are a few forums listed at DNJ under resources.

That'll never happen. Over the past few years a new "day" has emerged. For as long as I can remember, we've always had "black Friday" which is the day after Thanksgiving (US holiday- it's always on a Thursday late in November). Most of the non-retail world is off that day so everyone starts their Christmas shopping and retailers have huge sales, many from 6am to 10am or noon. It is usually the second busiest shopping day of the year (next to the Saturday before Christmas). (It is called "black Friday" because it is the day that most retailer's financial books go from the red (loss) into the black (profit)).

Black Friday has slowed but not that much and a new day has emerged over the past 3-5 years:
Internet or Web Monday. It is the Monday after Black Friday where online retailers (Amazon.com, retailers online etc..) have huge sales. Many people now are using their internet rights at work to do Christmas shopping (almost proven by the fact that office-like work enviroments report a loss of productivity that day) and online retaielrs report huge sales.

Americans will never stop shopping. We can be in the worst depression ever and we'll still shop (this is enforced by the fact that Walmart reported a boost in profits after the stimulous checks came out).

As for the non-English internet, that is to be expected. Ever since it's conception (meaning the internet as we know it today) the majority of it was English speaking since the nations that developed it either had English as their primary language or was fluent (in general) in English (USA, Canada, western Europe, Japan) and the nations that got added were also English peaking (no a preference thing, just a technology barrier for many nations). But, now we habe the internet sprouting up all over the place and in places it wasn't a few years ago and is also becoming more available to their citizens. (If I'm wrong, please tell me).

I think the biggest boost to this is "modernization" of China" (no offence meant towards our members from China) where a billion non-English speaking clients, and USA outsourcing to countries like India and some in the Middle-East (again, non speaking English) which is forcing a demand on non-English sites, which any entenepuer would see this is one of the best opprotunities ever to invest and make money.



That can be summed up in two words:

Demand and investment

I own about 15 domains that are not in English and even about 5-10 that are not in English or Spanish (I am a little fluent in Spanish). I have some in German, French, even a set in Chinese, these all fit my niche and some are rather nice, including prime keyword.com domains.

 

[HarveyJ]

Some of the programs on my affiliate network are in Spanish & German.

The Spanish stuff is doing surprisingly well, but from South American sources.
The Espanole layer of the internet is booming, and China's already overtaken the USA for raw numbers of people that use the internet at least once per week.

I'm thinking about getting a few of my asian mates to help me start a bit of domain hording...

 

[phio]

Hey Harvey, you may want to put a button on your sites to DOWNLOAD FireFox 3

That will ensure greater web stability and a better click thru rate/purchase rate on your affiliate sites!

 

[bwhhisc]

I'm thinking about getting a few of my asian mates to help me start a bit of domain hording...

You better go fast cause the pickings are getting thin. Still some deals from the flippers on the 3 or 4 various IDN Forums.

 

[Rubber Duck]

I haven't fresh regged anything for a couple of years.

I pick up the odd irresistible bargain in the aftermarket and that is about it.

The daft thing is that often it make more sense to let the flippers pick them up and then buy off them, rather than bidding them up in auction at source.

 

[dn-101]

Leap of Faith - '1031' exchange
A friend of mine just traded a couple of his old ascii names for 30+ Asian premium one-word names

 

[Rubber Duck]

He was lucky to be able to do the swap.

Most IDNers are name rich but cash poor. Generally they will only accept cash. Trading for ASCII names just dilutes their investment without solving their problem.

 

[memmst]

To be continued.

It will definitely be continued.
I wish we would know how it ends but as pessimistic as i am trying to be and as objective as i can be i am extremely happy with the decision to buy idns when i knew they exist (Jan. 2006)

 

[dn-101]

IDN -- Time frame & investment horizon

In every business folks try to estimate when the cash flow changes from red to black.
In .com it took from 5 years to 13 years for some niches to get a 'full value'.

Our resident IDN messiah Rubber Ducky sits on on some of the best IDN portfolio and he's obviously looking for a payday.
And just like the red chinese were issuing monthly 'final demand to capitulate' to taiwan for the last 50 years RD was telling his followers that the Kingdom of IDN is coming. If not today, then next month.
What we need is not the wishful pronouncements but rather a time estimate based on some precedents.
Any takers?

p.s. I will pay $100 via PayPal to the first person who sells his/her IDN for $1 mil

 

[bwhhisc]

p.s. I will pay $100 via PayPal to the first person who sells his/her IDN for $1 mil. What we need is not the wishful pronouncements but rather a time estimate based on some precedents. Any takers?

Well, we got report of an xxx,xxx sale last week from a (known and credible) buyer.

In terms of timeline, the bigger sales will follow once IDNs are finally into the mainstream. The facts indicated that this will begin to happen in a big way beginning 2009.
1) ICANN meeting minutes from Delhi, Paris, as well as GNSO reports etc.
2) ICANN 2009 Budget full of IDN costs for startup in various languages etc.
3) Information coming from JPRS, CCNIC, and the recent Russian Government Press Releases, as well as those from various Arabic countries about their idn plans, DNAME aliasing, etc. The Russian government has made the implementation of their .idn almost a national priority.

Add it all up and you will see IDN.IDN coming in 2009 for the first major languages coupled with some nice media budgets and support from ICANN, which will be coupled with marketing and rollout by the various registries. Also clear from GNSO and ICANN, .com, .net, .jp, .cn may alias to their equivalent .idn if they so choose. I personally think they will offer a choice OR both ascii version AND .idn version to existing .cc and .tld holders. This is already happening for idn.cn, and .jp is ramping up to appharently do so as well. You can read their technical paper if you google: JPRS DNAME. Should be easy to find, their writings on aliasing .jp is only a month or two old.

 

[Rubber Duck]

Bottom line is you will probably never know.

I for one have given up on the ASCII market for IDN. They won't invest until we have traffic. Once we have traffic why should we sell.

One person in this thread came out and announce that he had bought an IDN for $xxx,xxx. Actually, I knew that for a while and he has been buying from me as well.

But all this is to miss the point. The idea is to live off the traffic not domain sales. There is already a fair bit of traffic on the better domains but unfortunately, not enough to retire on. You will probably know that has happened when the forum threads go cold.

Yes, a little bit of hype will tend to progress things a long a bit. But we are going to be getting a lot of IDN hype from ICANN on global scale come October. The message will be going out in dozens of scripts. So yes we are all a bit impatient, but frankly nothing we say or do here is going to greatly influence things. Those that listen have probably acted, those that don't will not react until it is too late. Any then they will run around buying 4 random character sequences or better still 3 characters with hyphens.