The biggest domain name purchase this year was just completed by Xiaomi, who purchased Mi.com for a cool $3.6 million USD. Prior to this, the most expensive domain sale of the year was for Whisky.com, which went for $3.1 million USD, according to DN Journal.
Xiaomi is a smartphone manufacturer based in China with at least $360 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
Their 2014 plan includes significant international expansions; however Xiaomi had a significant obstacle which was its very name. Not everyone can pronounce it and even fewer can remember how to spell it. For the record, it’s pronounced “shao-mi”, where the “shao” rhymes with “cow.” Xaomi appears to have dropped the “Xiao-” from its English-language branding altogether and has simplified the brand to “Mi”, hence the acquisition of Mi.com.
Xiaomi will face multi-fold competition from international phone makers, including Samsung, Apple and Sony, home-bred companies such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava, besides other Chinese brands Gionee, Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo that are aggressively marketing their products to consumers.
“The new domain is simpler and more accessible to an international audience,” the company said. It added that the newly launched domain also gives a more succinct meaning to the “Mi” brand, which stands for Mobile Internet.
Co-founder and VP, Li Wanqiang, also noted that the new Web domain will contribute to the company’s e-commerce business, which accounts for about 70 percent of its total sales volume. “When it comes to e-commerce, a short domain name helps obtain higher user traffic because it is easy to remember,” Li said in a press statement.
It makes sense for Xiaomi to make such a move, even at such a high price tag. Having a simple, catchy and internationally understood brand name and domain name could just give Xiaomi the edge they need to surpass the competition.
