Geographic Location IDNs

[mwbseiso]

From your experience, what is considered a good benchmark to determine whether or not to buy a geographic location IDN? Specifically, I am interested to know several things:

(1) What is considered a good population count? 100,000? 200,000? 1,000,000? Something else?

(2) I am most interested in knowing the answer to the above question provided that it is written in one of the official or commonly used languages in the region where this geographic location is actually located.

Of course, this cannot be set as a rule, but rather as a guideline... I am also making an assumption that the lan

Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated greatly.

[jacksonm]

I personally will not buy "rome" written in Japanese or "tokyo" written in hebrew, even if others do consider it valuable, but that's just me.

In the local language, I'd say any city with above 50k population and .com is good.

.

[mwbseiso]

jaakcsonm, thanks for the feedback. I actually tend to agree with you regarding the language of the IDN being the same as the one used in the location of the place (e.g. Tokyo in Japanese, Moscow in Russian, Cairo in Arabic, etc.) Perhaps English would be an exception.

As far as population - I have been buying up town names with 200k+, so perhaps I should set my threshold to a little less... 100k or even 50k that you suggest.

Thanks at any rate.

Anyone else have feedback on this? I'm really very curious.

[yanni]

I don't have a rule, but I would buy Rome in Japanese (and so forth) as I would assume that some Japanese travel to Rome sometimes.

Major tourist cities and capitals should be good in most any language, more so of neighbouring countries.

[domainstosell]

I don't really have a rule either, but I grabbed some combos like LosAngelesHotels and RomeHotels in Japanese (and a couple of others that Olney must have mercifully overlooked :) ), because I thought along the same lines as Yanni, that they are good tourist spots, and I liked the industry-targeted nature, especially of hotel domains...

Good luck!

[mwbseiso]

Many thanks for your valuable feedback, folks!

[Olney]

I understand your logic Jackson but I do own Rome in Japanese.
It's actually a big destination for Europe for Japanese travel companies airlines, & travel agencies.
I own quite few geo domains.
Look to get in country geo domains
& locations that people of that country frequent.
If you have a friend in travel related business just ask them.
That's what I did...

[rhys]

Rome in Japanese? Yes, definitely, any day.

[domainguru]

It's easy. If people search for it, reg it !!

[Rubber Duck]

It's easy. If people search for it, reg it !!

Even if they don't, but advertisers subscribe for the Keyword, then still reg it!

[Neptune]

agreed.

I disagree with the fact that the value of IDN geodomains in a language are be limited to that respective country / region

Tourism and Business are conducted worldwide and searches for those places are conducted worldwide. Poplularity of places obviously varies, however major cities and countries are known throughout the world and will always be searched.

[Rubber Duck]

agreed.

I disagree with the fact that the value of IDN geodomains in a language are be limited to that respective country / region

Tourism and Business are conducted worldwide and searches for those places are conducted worldwide. Poplularity of places obviously varies, however major cities and countries are known throughout the world and will always be searched.

Yes and No. Google Trends indicates that for all but the most popular destinations, the overwhelming number of searches are local searches in the local language. That does not mean they don't have valuable, but they are not comparable to names in the local language.

[Neptune]

im simply stating that the major cities and destinations hold value, im not comparing them to local names which i agree are worth more.

My point is there will always be searches for major destinations such as Rome. Therefore imo the name has value.

[Rubber Duck]

im simply stating that the major cities and destinations hold value, im not comparing them to local names which i agree are worth more.

My point is there will always be searches for major destinations such as Rome. Therefore imo the name has value.

Agreed.

[touchring]

From your experience, what is considered a good benchmark to determine whether or not to buy a geographic location IDN? Specifically, I am interested to know several things:

(1) What is considered a good population count? 100,000? 200,000? 1,000,000? Something else?

(2) I am most interested in knowing the answer to the above question provided that it is written in one of the official or commonly used languages in the region where this geographic location is actually located.

Of course, this cannot be set as a rule, but rather as a guideline... I am also making an assumption that the lan

Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated greatly.


I go only for cities in native language. Chinese or Japanese cities. For Japanese, city must have more than 200,000 people. For Chinese cities, the urban population (note: urban, a city with 10 million farmers is no use) must be at least 2 million.

[mwbseiso]

That's a lot of very valuable feedback! I appreciate everyone's input. Many thanks!

[seamo]

For Chinese cities, the urban population (note: urban, a city with 10 million farmers is no use) must be at least 2 million.
Shortsighted? What about when all those farmers get broadband :)
For Japanese, city must have more than 200,000 people
Correct me if I'm wrong, but due to the density of population of Japan, km2 is just as an important indicator of value when combing with population? (these are obviouly the thoughts of a third-level domainer!)

Just curious on your thoughts Touch!

[touchring]

Shortsighted?


Maybe, but the way China classifies city or shi is quite different from elsewhere. Cities often include countryside and villages. Some cities are basically towns with many villages around them.


We can take the following 2 examples:


Shenzhen City, Guangdong province: 8.27 million

(Source: wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen - note, most chinese will dispute their stats, nonetheless)


Weifang City, Shandong province: 8.5 million - i own this idn i think. ;-)

(Source: wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weifang)











2007 Street scene in downtown Weifang:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1003/881882221_be220cc877.jpg




VS





2007 Street scene in downturn shenzhen:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/217/468373257_bee6a00c26.jpg


This 2 examples might be quite extreme, but just to illustrate my point.