DNSPod十问Toby Hall: 中美域名投资市场的若干差异

问答时间：2020年7月16日

嘉宾简介：

Toby Hall: Minds + Machines Group Limited（MMX）的首席执行官。Minds+Machines Group Limited是一家以销售新通用顶级域名为主的注册局。他成功领导了公司业务的国际化增长及创新战略，使域名注册量由30万增加至250万，公司2019年的年收入达到了1,890万美元。

Toby Hall  was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the London listed Minds + Machines Group limited (MMX). Minds + Machines Group Limited is a sales and marketing led owner of new generic top-level domains. He has successfully led the business’s international growth and Innovation strategies which have resulted in registrations growing from 300,000 to 2.5m, and annual revenues reaching $18.9m in 2019.

主持人简介：

吴洪声（人称:奶罩）：腾讯云中小企业产品中心总经理，DNSPod创始人，洋葱令牌创始人，网络安全专家，域名及DNS技术专家，知名个人站长，中欧国际工商学院校友。

Hongsheng Wu(Well known as Bra in domain industry), General Manager of Tencent Cloud SMB Product Center, Founder of DNSPod, Inc., Founder of Yangcong.com, expert in cybersecurity, domain and DNS, well-known personal webmaster, alumni of China Europe International Business School.

以下为对话原文整理：

第一问

吴洪声：介绍一下Minds + Machines Group Limited注册局。

Toby Hall：Minds + Machines Group Limited，即大家所熟知的MMX, 是一家全球领先的注册局，专注于快速增长的新顶级域市场。我们拥有并运营32个顶级域名，其中9个获得了工信部批复。MMX在伦敦证券交易所挂牌上市。

Hongsheng Wu：Introduce the Minds + Machines Group Limited Registry.

Toby Hall：Minds + Machines Group Limited – better known as MMX - is a leading global registry focused on the rapidly growing new gTLD market. We own and operate 32 top level domains – nine of which are MIIT approved. The Company is quoted on the London Stock Exchange.

第二问

吴洪声：请介绍一下你自己，你是怎么进入域名这个行业的呢？

Toby Hall：我进入域名行业以后遇到的人基本整个职业生涯都是在这个行业里，但我自己就不一样了——我来自一个以创新为主导、快速增长的行业。我真正接触域名行业是在四年前，我正式接任成为MMX的CEO。此后就像过山车一样，我们从一个只有30万注册量且亏损的企业，到如今拥有300万注册量且高盈利的企业。而中国一直是我们转型故事的关键部分。

Hongsheng Wu：Please introduce yourself, how did you enter Domain Industry?

Toby Hall：Everyone I meet in the domain industry in the US, Europe or China has typically spent their whole professional career in the domain industry. I am very different – I come from the world of innovation-led, fast growth businesses. My first real experiences of the domain industry was when I took over as CEO of MMX four years ago. It has been a roller-coaster ride taking a loss-making business with just 300,000 registrations to a highly profitable business with some 3million registrations today. China has been a key part of our transformation story.

第三问

吴洪声：除了.com，个人最喜欢的域名后缀有哪些？

Toby Hall：我对我所有的孩子都一视同仁，不过.vip、.work、.fit、.law在我心里都有特别的位置。简短、明确的含义，所有这些都反映了任何个人或企业都应该追求的核心品质。

Hongsheng Wu：Besides .com, what are your favorite TLDs?

Toby Hall：I love all my children equally but .vip, .work, .fit and .law all have very special places in my heart. Short, clearly defined and all reflect core qualities that any individual or business should aspire to.

第四问

吴洪声：见过最有趣的域名故事是什么，有没有难忘的小故事可以分享一下？

Toby Hall：有太多了——不过我最喜欢的是一个中国朋友的故事。他告诉我他在很小的时候就开始用烙铁修理收音机。每天放学后，他都会去当地的一家电器商店帮忙。通过辛勤且专注的工作，他开始赚钱了，甚至比他父亲赚得都多。他父亲曾经还担心他这么小是从哪里赚到的钱。这个年轻人后来成长成为中国互联网行业最知名的人物之一。我有幸在一年前认识他，他现在负责运营腾讯云的域名业务。

Hongsheng Wu：What is the most interesting domain name story you have experienced? Are there any unforgettable stories to share with?

Toby Hall：There are too many - but my favorite relates to a certain gentleman in China who as a young child started fixing radios with a soldering iron. Every day, after school, he would go and help at a local electronics shop. He started making money from his hard work and dedication. More than his father who was worried where his young child’s money was coming from. That young boy grew into one of China’s best-known individuals in the China Internet industry. It was a great honour to first meet him some a year ago and I am delighted that he is now running Tencent’s domain activities.

第五问

吴洪声：众所周知，中国的域名行业曾经大起大落，全球范围内是非常特殊的市场，你怎么看待中国域名市场过去十年来的发展情况，用你个人的角度点评一下？

Toby Hall：作为一家上市公司的首席执行官，我花了大量时间分析数据。对我来说，更重要的是市场的趋势。市场正继续朝着正确的方向前进，并且是爆发式地增长。举实例来说，即使是最具挑战的这段时间，我们通过注册商渠道在中国的销售额也增长了40%以上。

Hongsheng Wu：As we all know, domain industry here in China has experienced ups and downs, and it is a very special market on a global scale. What do you think of the development of the Chinese domain name market in the past ten years, from your personal point of view?

Toby Hall：As the CEO of a public company, I spend a lot of time analysing numbers. What is always more important to me is the direction of the trend. And the trend line is continuing to go in the right direction. Explosively so. To put that into context, even in the most challenging of years – our China sales through the registrar channel have grown by over 40%.

第六问

吴洪声：喜欢或准备应用的域名已经被注册，注册者该如何看待这个问题？

Toby Hall：新gTLD的优点之一是选择比较多，所以我们很少遇到这个问题。新通用顶级域名在搜索引擎上的表现和传统的顶级域一样好。而且我们也很高兴看到有些初创企业在他们使用.work域名的项目上募集到了大量的投资。

Hongsheng Wu：How do registrants react to this issue that if a domain name someone likes or plans to use has already been registered?

Toby Hall：The advantage of the new gTLD program is that there is so much choice so it is an issue that we rarely encounter. New gTLDs also have the ability to perform just as well as traditional extensions on search engines. What is also exciting to see is early stage businesses raising significant investment for their projects using new extensions such as .work.

第七问

吴洪声：Minds+Machines旗下的9个顶级域域名如何让中国用户更好的应用起来？

Toby Hall：首先，我们通过中国本地优秀的合作伙伴，如腾讯云，向中国用户提供了9个顶级域名后缀服务。同时我们也有自己的社交媒体频道如微信，向中国用户介绍我们的顶级域名后缀以及优秀的使用案例。我们的后缀在百度上的收录有超过三百万个网页。我们还跟一些垂直行业的合作伙伴进行合作，方便客户更好地了解我们的顶级域名以及它们是如何应用于某些特定行业的。

Hongsheng Wu：How can the 9 TLDs of your Registry enable Chinese users to better apply ?

Toby Hall：We have been working with our amazing local partners like Tencent Cloud to offer our 9 TLDs to Chinese users. We also have our own social media channel on WeChat to introduce our TLDs and great usage cases to Chinese users with over 3 million web pages showing on Baidu across our TLDs. We are also working hard with partners from vertical industries, so customers have a better sense about our TLDs and how they apply to their specific industry.

第八问

吴洪声：近几年，随着移动互联网和二维码移动支付的发展，在中国有一种声音：认为域名的投资价值会归零，对此，你怎么看？你支持这种看法吗？

Toby Hall：每回我听到这个观点，我总是建议大家看注册量趋势，看注册量趋势的话就不会这样认为了。DNS是技术基础架构的关键部分，而保护你的电子ID至关重要。我们的创新活动是十分令人兴奋的，实现从DNS到区块链，到社交媒体，到移动设备的无缝连接。我们正生活在一个激动人心的时代。

Hongsheng Wu：In recent years, with the development of mobile Internet and QR code mobile payment, there is a voice in China: that the investment value of domain names will return to zero. How do you think about this ?

Toby Hall：Every time I hear this argument raised – I always point people to the registration trends and we simply see no evidence of it. The DNS is a critical piece of technology infrastructure and protecting your electronic ID is of fundamental importance. What we are excited about in our innovation activity, is making the move from DNS, to blockchain, to social media, to mobile, seamless. We live in exciting time.

第九问

吴洪声：与腾讯云合作了这么久，对我们有哪些建议？

Toby Hall：继续秉持腾讯“通过互联网增值服务提升生活品质”的愿景。

Hongsheng Wu：After working with Tencent Cloud for so long, what are your suggestions for us, so that we can cooperate better?

Toby Hall：Continue keeping to the Tencent vision of “improving the quality of life through internet value-added services”.

第十问

吴洪声：对域名爱好者和爱好者们在2020年的域名投资之路，给出一些建议？

Toby Hall：今年我们看到的一个大趋势是，人们购买与他们当前或者利益相关行业或者业务的域相关，而不是单纯选择他们认为未来可能有价值的域名。我认为这是合乎逻辑的一大进步，因为人们可能对他们已经熟悉的东西有了更好的认识，从而更有可能发现隐藏的瑰宝。

Hongsheng Wu：Do you have any suggestions for domain name enthusiasts and enthusiasts on the road of domain name investment in 2020?

Toby Hall：The big trend we’ve seen this year is people buying domain names that relate to the industry or business they are currently in or their own interests rather than just selecting names that they think might have future value. I think it is logical progression as people are likely to have better knowledge in something they are already familiar with and, as a result, might more likely discover hidden gems.

栏目介绍：

大家好，我是吴洪声。

不知不觉，DNSPod十问这个栏目，已经做了第九期。本来这个栏目叫洪声十问，一期十个问题。然而细心的读者可以发现，问题逐渐变为十一问，十二问。因为在实际采访过程中我发现，十个问题的答案不足以将嘉宾思考上的高度展示给大众。

此外，这个栏目受邀嘉宾的领域也在逐渐的扩大，从域名圈，站长圈到程序员圈，创业者圈。作为有着丰富行业经验的大拿们，他们在这个栏目留下了他们的真知灼见。大家可以比如易名中国金小刚说的：“别想着持有对社会有不良影响的域名，这是一个底线。”比如CSDN创始人蒋涛说的：“对于一个技术驱动的公司而言，不断更换新人并不是好事，技术要有一个积累的过程，应该鼓励这些技术人去提升，对技术人员的回报或薪酬、等级要相应地跟管理平行。”

未来我们希望这个栏目的影响力会覆盖更加多元的受众。把更多正确的理念去对外传递。所以也欢迎各位在评论区留下你想看到我对话哪位嘉宾，还有你想问的问题，我们邀请你共同成为“吴洪声十问”栏目的提问者，发声者。（栏目统筹：赵九州 责任编辑：张洁 张琪瑶 杨佳屹）

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