Finally saw a mention of IE7 and "chinese language" domains mentioned on local TV.

[touchring]

Well, this evening, i finally had a chance to come across a mention of Microsoft's new IE7 supporting Chinese domains (.cn though) on local mandarin news. You can imagine how surprised i am, especially with the acro and Zippadadoo threads around. :p

This is the first time i heard anything about IDNs in the "real world" - as in without searching for it specifically on the net (or links from domain forums).

Until now, i can't even be bothered to explain to non-domain people, "normal" people around me, what IDNs are.

Any psychologist here? Care to explain why such a simple concept can be so difficult to explain?

[markits]

帅哥你在厦门呀？

[touchring]

No, Singapore TV evening news - though i think the must be taken from Chinese news agencies as it showed .cn examples.

Ok, i just upgraded to XP, have not figured out how to activate Quanyin.

[zibin]

Singapore's news actually mentioned IDN? nice!

How bout news in china? I asked some chinese friends about the prospect of using IDN and they were baffled by the idea. I have stocked about 50 odd chinese IDNs, and somehow the launch of IE7 has not created much of a craze as we hoped. Dun u guys think so?

[touchring]

Currently, from what i see, there seem to be 3 broad categories of IDN speculators:

Group 1 - Opportunistic flippers

Seeing that IE7 is being launched, they are cashing out on their portfolio, especially .net - willing to sell even just above reg fee (or cut loss), after sensing that the craze didn't turn out as we all hoped for. They are not willing to wait more than a few months. The typical reasons to sell are - need money, want to setup new business, need to buy that laptop, etc. :)

Group 2 - Premium flippers.

This group want to flip, but have higher expectations, so they are still "hoping for the craze" to come. They will not flip if their $xxx to $xxxx price cannot be met.

Group 3 - True believers (or Diehards. :p)

This group of people seek out generic terms, and are willing to hold, they already expect a lull period after IE7, and probably an opportunity to acquire more names along the way as flippers cash out, or drop their names.


Now the question is - if the craze still has not come by March, what are the flippers going to do? As in some flippers believe that if the craze for IDN resell market doesn't come soon, it will never come. I think there's a unspoken consensus on this stand, so the next few months ahead will truly be critical for flippers.

My own position is, if the craze comes, i might want to flip a few names, but if it doesn't come, i'll just dig in, pay 3-years upfront for my top names, go into hibernation mode, and maybe renew average names along the way, dropping the lousier 5 to 10%.

[Rubber Duck]

Singapore's news actually mentioned IDN? nice!

How bout news in china? I asked some chinese friends about the prospect of using IDN and they were baffled by the idea. I have stocked about 50 odd chinese IDNs, and somehow the launch of IE7 has not created much of a craze as we hoped. Dun u guys think so?

I have posted articles from the Xinhua their official News Outlet at DNlocal. Chinese Government is very keen to get IDN local. CNNIC is already making twice as much from IDN as they are ASCII.

[Clotho]

I've already waited 6 going on 7 years. What do I have to show for it?

-Domains that resolve! (They didn't even work when I started regging.)

-Browsers that support the technology! (All of them)

-Traffic from people in the native countries these were meant for!

-Parking companies that support IDN's

-Forums full of people that 'get it' as opposed to the 'not worth reg fee crowd' that dominated forums in years past

-An active and viable secondary market

-Tools that allow me to verify the accuracy and quality of my names instead of the 'use dictionary, cross fingers' method I started with

-Easy access to native speaker input

-Regular stream of news on IDN's

... I could keep going.

Put me in category 3. :)

[touchring]

Put me in category 3. :)


Well done. 6 years of hardship, you're definitely in cat 3. :)

[Fka200]

I'm not very experienced in IDNs, but I've always thought about native languages used as domain names. I remember the day I found out about IDNs --- I was at godaddy trying to reg some arabic domains** and they would show up as numbers or something with exclamation marks.... and I wondered if people actually typed the arabic phrase .com if it would resolve to these weird numbers I was reg'in. I didn't take the chance at GoDaddy, but then researched and found out it was possible using an IDN enabled registrar.... reg'd around 15 my first time.... now I'm hoping my portfolio is worth something ;) I'm way confident about IDNs... you should see how many people try to go on websites in the Mid East but can't spell the english term. I wondered what the future was in the mid east --- and i think it's IDNs. Sign me up for Cat3, i'm not flipping anything for a while. I'm holding onto even the crap names and mispellings ;) Since i found out about IDNs I've been telling everyone i know and no one had any clue about it and were really excited when they found out. Just give it 1-2 years. I'm just hoping they use the DNAME alias.

[Prodigy]

No matter how noble it might seem to be to believe in IDNs through and through, I think a cross between cat 2 and cat 3 are needed for any business whatsoever, blind faith is just religion. Confidence in your investments but an eye out for opportunity is business sense.

[touchring]

No matter how noble it might seem to be to believe in IDNs through and through, I think a cross between cat 2 and cat 3 are needed for any business whatsoever, blind faith is just religion. Confidence in your investments but an eye out for opportunity is business sense.


Possible, but i think there are more people in cat 3 than cat 2. More hoarders than resellers - many more hoarders if you consider that many do not even post on this forum.

[Rubber Duck]

Possible, but i think there are more people in cat 3 than cat 2. More hoarders than resellers - many more hoarders if you consider that many do not even post on this forum.

At the moment there are not enough CAT 3 to even consider CAT 2.

If there were a lot of serious die-hards out there there would be more of an after market than there is at present.

Most people seem to want to buy lots of mediocre to poor quality domains that are going to cost a fortune to renew rather than acquire some serioiusly valuable assets that are going to be easy to sell later and are going to serious revenue earners. Very few people have got past the New Reg mentality.

Flippers on the other hand are trying to shift the shit from the bottom of the heap, probably holding onto anything they have that is likely to be valuable later.

The message that is being missed by the vast majority is that QUALITY MATTERS. To make serious money from this you should be going after Top Quality Dot Coms, dot JP and possibly dot CN.

If Microsoft had delivered the goods on time, it would already be too late to get any real bargains. As it is buyers probably have repreive of a month or so to get there ducks in a row.