Presented on March 8, 2016 at ICANN 55 Marrakech at the APAC Space meeting by Kurt Pritz, Allegravita Director of Strategic Planning & Policy. The slidedeck provides an overview of new investment in domain names from the Chinese market, including new services, investment vehicles, and price changes.

1. DOMAIN INVESTMENT IN CHINA
EXPANDING SERVICES, INVESTMENT VEHICLES, AND PRICE MATURITY
PREPARED IN NEW YORK CITY & BEIJING
2016-MAR-07
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
COPYRIGHT © 2016, ALLEGRAVITA LLC

2. AGENCY OVERVIEW
Allegravita is a multi-disciplinary strategic communications and public relations agency.
One of our core competences is to help technology and engineering enterprises to
communicate their products, services and benefits to diverse audiences.
For more than 12 years, Allegravita has achieved and continues to maintain an excellent track record of bringing foreign business to
market in China through the knowledge and expertise of
the Chinese government, media, business practices, culture, and language.
We have achieved exceptional results for a number of companies in the domain industry.
Established in Beijing in 2003 (as Illuminant Partners, rebranded as Allegravita 2013)
Incorporated in Hong Kong (Allegravita Ltd) & New York City (Allegravita LLC)
Headcount (March 2016): 25

3. OUR CREDENTIALS: PROJECT SPECIFICS ON REQUEST
INTERNET INTERNET (CONTINUED) PARKING SYSTEMS
Australian Internet Industry Association Minds + Machines Magnetic Automation
CentralNic Rightside PETCARE
.CEO Registry Radix Registry Pedigree & Whiskas
.CLUB Domains .Luxury PR, ADVERTISING & MARKETING SERVICES
.CO Registry .Build Acquity Group
DOMAINfest.Asia NGOs Blue Planet Public Relations
The Domain Name Association (The DNA) Aust. Chamber of Commerce Beijing & Shanghai Glue
Dumpling Domains Canberra Business Council Mindshare
.FANS Registry China Exploration & Research Society Real Brand & Business
.GLOBAL Registry Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (Australia) Rice Communications
HostingCon China OPTICS Sunshine Sachs
.LA Registry Global Bionic Optics (GBO) & InfinityOptix The Campos Agency
Neustar Warp Optics Walker Sands
Sedo
TLD Registry (Dot Chinese Online/Website)

4. DUE TO MARKET AND GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES, CHINESE DOMAIN INVESTORS ARE MULTIPLYING AND PRICES APPRECIATED
SUBSTANTIALLY IN THE PAST YEAR.
Internet real-estate is an exciting new market for Chinese. Domainers come from all walks of life (men, women, old, young) and all with
enthusiasm and energy for the market.
Their market is the 688 million Internet users in China now and the thousands of young entrepreneurs that are being supported by the Chinese
government’s “Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship” and “Internet+” initiatives. These startups need good websites and domains.
DOMAINS NOW TAKE THE FORM OF LOANS AND SECURITIES.
It is now possible to take out collateralized, peer-to-peer loans based on the market price of your domains on loan platforms such as Midai.com
and Mingyou.com. These are the most famous ones, and others have sprung up recently. Midai is associated with 4.CN and Mingyou is
associated with 22.CN, two of China’s largest registrars.
NEW TRENDS IN THE CHINESE MARKET

5. DOMAINS IN .COM AND .CN HAVE APPRECIATED
CONSIDERABLY FROM DEC 2014 to DEC 2015.
The chart on the right was recently shared at a meeting of top
investors in Beijing, showing the average change of prices for many
types of domains.
4-letter CN domains increased from 60CNY to 2000CNY ($9 to
$306 USD) a 3333% increase.
4-letter COM domains increased from 500CNY to 13,000CNY ($76
to $1994 USD), a 2600% increase.
.COM and .CN three-letter and four-number domain prices
increased 800% in 2015.
THE PRICE OF TRADITIONAL DOMAINS
Type Q42014 Q42015 % Change Type Q42014 Q42015 %
Change
COM 3-letter 100,000 300,000 300% CN 3-letter 10,000 60,000 600%
COM 4-
number
50,000 200,000 400% CN 4-number 10,000 20,000 200%
COM.CN 3-letter 2,000 10,000 500%
NET 3-letter 4000 25,000 625%
NET 4-number 1500 10,000 667%
Source: China.vc

6. THE PROSPECT OF NEW GTLDS
CHINA IS THE LARGEST MARKET FOR NEW GTLDS.
More than 8.4 million new gTLDs have been sold by Chinese registrars. There are 125+ registrars in China in every major city
with thousands of resellers and aftermarkets and more springing up. There are 31.01 million domains officially registered in
China according to CNNIC. There are 38 million domains in China overall when calculated to add non-officially registered TLDs
(MIIT approval still needed). So new gTLDs take about 22% of the Chinese market.

7. DOMAINER PROFILE IN CHINA
DOMAINERS ARE TECH ENTREPRENEURS DEEPLY INGRAINED IN THE ECOSYSTEM.
Domainers are savvy entrepreneurs. One example is Cai Wensheng, who basically started domaining in China, and who is now
also the CEO of a popular photo filter app and smartphone manufacturer for women called Meitu. He is closely associated with
the registrar eName in China and has invested in them.

8. LINE OF CREDIT FOR .COM, .CN, and .WANG
POPULAR PLATFORMS PROVIDE LOANS BASED ON AS MUCH AS 30-50% OF THE
AFTERMARKET VALUE OF A DOMAIN.
Since late 2013, platforms for peer-to-peer domain loans have sprung up all over China, feeding the
investment market. They became hot in 2014 and multiplied in 2015.
• Many platforms in China provide loans on high-valued domain names in .COM, .CN, and in
some cases .WANG.
• Loans usually are short-term for 1 to 3 months with a high interest rate.
• A .COM one-number can receive a line of credit of as much as 10 million CNY ($1,535,496
USD) on Mingyou.
• For .COM two-number names without 0’s or 4’s in the domain, a 5 million CNY ($767,130
USD) line of credit can be extended on Mingyou.
A table of credit line information on Mingyou.

9. NOTABLE SALES OF DOMAINS
DOMAINS SALES IN CHINA IN THE PAST YEAR HAVE OFTEN BEEN LARGE PORTFOLIO BUYS.
• All of .COMs 6 number domains were bought in September by investor Xie Yipeng for 1.65 million CNY ($250,689 USD).
Within two days he acquired 33,000 names.
• 688.com was sold at eName’s conference in early December 2015 for 9.58 million CNY ($1,455,517 USD).
• Some new gTLD sales in China in 2015 include 888.wang at 19,000 CNY ($3000), 8.co ($115,000), and 8.xyz ($81,919).
• These prices are likely to increase for new gTLDs in the short to medium term as MIIT (Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology) approvals are rolled out.

10. WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE YOU
THANK YOU!
PREPARED IN NEW YORK CITY & BEIJING, 2016-MAR-03
HELLO@ALLEGRAVITA.COM (ENGLISH) NIHAO@ALLEGRAVITA.COM (MANDARIN)
ALLEGRAVITA.COM (MULTILINGUAL WEB)
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
COPYRIGHT © 2016, ALLEGRAVITA LLC