Domain name business in Japan

[mkellerman]

I looked around some Japanese language web-sites about domains and I found that there is a focus on SEO. In other words, names that are many years old, have good PR or have many back links are in demand. Keyword domains such as those people in the US and other countries value highly do not seem to be in demand in Japan. In addition, according to stats from JPNIC (http://jprs.co.jp/en/stat/domains.html) the number of .jp IDNs is actually declining.

It is puzzling to me why in Japan there is little interest in generic keyword domains and also, why interest in IDNs appears to be declining.

Does anyone have any ideas about this?

Another question I have for people living in Japan:

do ISPs in Japan block parked domains (at Sedo, Namedrive etc)?

[rhys]

Originally Posted by mkellerman

I looked around some Japanese language web-sites about domains and I found that there is a focus on SEO. In other words, names that are many years old, have good PR or have many back links are in demand. Keyword domains such as those people in the US and other countries value highly do not seem to be in demand in Japan. In addition, according to stats from JPNIC (http://jprs.co.jp/en/stat/domains.html) the number of .jp IDNs is actually declining.

It is puzzling to me why in Japan there is little interest in generic keyword domains and also, why interest in IDNs appears to be declining.

Does anyone have any ideas about this?

Understanding of SEO is still relatively primative in Japan. The Japanese didn't really encounter much keyword match in the past - think about it - everyone held keywords in english and the japanese searched in Japanese so they never saw firsthand the value of keyword match. Additionally, there is no type-in culture yet in Japan. Therefore the two key pillars for generic domain value is not apparent to them yet: type-ins and the SEO value of keyword match. Of course, some SEOs in Japan do understand this, mostly though I find their knowledge is pretty basic at this stage.

As to why .JP is on the decline, it's only been apparent for 2 months, so I would hesitate to even confirm that it is really a trend at this stage. However, if you pushed me for a guess, I would say that the Japanese might be betting against an aliased .JP and .日本 extension with the recent news that it launches next year some time. In other words, Japanese are saving their money to invest in .日本 when it comes out. However, if the indications we have from JPRS are correct that they are leaning towards aliasing, all of those guys are going to be sh** out of luck.

[Rubber Duck]

Getting lucky is a three stage process.

First you work out which way the wind is blowing.
Second you take a punt.
Third you get lucky.

These guys are not getting to the first stage. They have no chance of getting lucky.

[Ryu]

In last autumn, Yahoo Japan pretty much nullified the advantage of keyword match with Japanese IDNs. And a lot of people lost interest.

[bwhhisc]

Originally Posted by Ryu

In last autumn, Yahoo Japan pretty much nullified the advantage of keyword match with Japanese IDNs. And a lot of people lost interest.

Once there is full browser support and a substantial amount of the market has that capability, you should see advertisers begin to start utilizing Japanese IDNs and things take off pretty quick from there.

[Rubber Duck]

Yes, that is the Vibe I have been getting.

Can anyone confirm that Google is now the most used search engine in Japan?

[rhys]

Google has about half the market now.

Originally Posted by Ryu

In last autumn, Yahoo Japan pretty much nullified the advantage of keyword match with Japanese IDNs. And a lot of people lost interest.

Yes and a sad day that was for me. But given the level of exploitation, I don't blame Yahoo for taking drastic measures. The question is if they will restore it as a strong factor in their algorithm. Besides most of my traffic these days is coming in from google and keywords still helps me there.

[thegenius1]

Originally Posted by rhys

Google has about half the market now.



Yes and a sad day that was for me. But given the level of exploitation, I don't blame Yahoo for taking drastic measures. The question is if they will restore it as a strong factor in their algorithm. Besides most of my traffic these days is coming in from google and keywords still helps me there.

Ugggh sure was for a bunch of us. But from what Craig was hearing in Japan it was the fact that the spammers were using the Free Blogs and then using "IDN" subdomains so that they could rank well. And supposedly they were flooding yahoo with these sites at a unfathomable rate.

I cant wait untill they start approving IDN in adwords so that we can use our great generics to do some good Affiliate Marketing.

[Rubber Duck]

Exactly, Yahoo mis-diagnosed the problem and applied the wrong medicine. But seeing as they will soon be Toast, does it really matter?

If they are going to make out against Google and Baidu in Japan, they are going to have to start doing better with their Search relevance, it would seem.

Originally Posted by thegenius1

Ugggh sure was for a bunch of us. But from what Craig was hearing in Japan it was the fact that the spammers were using the Free Blogs and then using "IDN" subdomains so that they could rank well. And supposedly they were flooding yahoo with these sites at a unfathomable rate.

I cant wait untill they start approving IDN in adwords so that we can use our great generics to do some good Affiliate Marketing.

[Ryu]

Originally Posted by bwhhisc

Once there is full browser support and a substantial amount of the market has that capability, you should see advertisers begin to start utilizing Japanese IDNs and things take off pretty quick from there.

i am sure quite a few japanese advertisers are in for waiting... just like we are waiting

Originally Posted by rhys

The question is if they will restore it as a strong factor in their algorithm.

I bet they will, at least to some extent, once proper websites start using Japanese domains. Yahoo Japan hinted it in their official blog.

Originally Posted by thegenius1

..... the spammers were using the Free Blogs and then using "IDN" subdomains so that they could rank well. And supposedly they were flooding yahoo with these sites at a unfathomable rate.

And so were IDNers... spamming Yahoo with wikisites and next-to-zero contents sites.