Chinese Naming for Online Brands: How to Stand Out from Competitors

Chinese Naming for Online Brands

Chinese Naming for Online Brands: How to Stand Out from Competitors

ContentsIntroduction

What You Need to Know – about brand naming

Local Social Networking and E-Commerce Naming Practices

Foreign Online Brands and Chinese Names

Conclusion

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Introduction

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Internet User in China: 450 Million > Population of USA

92% of internet user in China use social network

72% of internet user in USA use social network

＞＞

Figures imply that there are great opportunities for on-line brands. But only those that manage to connect with the majority of users remain successful


What You Need to Know – about brand naming

Brand name represents your company’s culture or personality. If your brand name does not:

• sounds good• looks good• localized – get people familiar with you brand, means the

brand should be rooted into the local culture. One way to do so is get a brand name in local language.

then the target audience may not like your brand or are not familiar with it. For example: in China.

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http://www.linkedin.com/company/labbrand


Local Social Networking and E-Commerce Naming Practices

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Generally, there are 4 ways of local social networks naming:

• hanyu pinyin (the official system to transcribe

Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet),

such as and

• numbers, such as

• word repetition, renren.com

• hidden underlying meanings into their brand names


Foreign Online Brands and Chinese Names 1/3

There are three types of translations for foreign brand names: phonetic, semantic, or a mixture of the two.

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Companies that choose to phonetically translate their brand into a name devoid of real meaning could be doing more harm to themselves than good. Google’s Chinese name 谷歌 (GuGe), which does not exactly have a true meaning, but literally translates into “harvest song.”

1. Phonetic



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The second translation method for foreign brands is semantic. It means taking a name in the local context but does not necessarily sound like the original brand.

2. Semantic

The Chinese name of MySpace is 聚友 [jù yǒu] which means ‘bringing friends together’ and it is believed that the translation limits the function or purpose of the website.



Some times the mixture of both, semantic-phonetic, is a good way to go.

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TUI, a Germany company, entered the Chinese market with 途易 [tú yì]. This name sounds like TUI and has the meaning “easy journey” in Chinese.

3. Semantic-phonetic

TUI is the largest tour operator in the world


Conclusion

Regardless of the type of company you are or the type of service you wish to provide, your brand name needs to be catered to the local context of your consumers

It is particularly important for social networking sites and e-commerce sites who do not have multiple touch points with its consumers to have a brand in the local Chinese language.

Creating a local brand name requires a set of skills: creativity, linguistic accuracy, and knowledge to conduct proper legal and market checks to develop the best Chinese brand name.

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For more info regarding Chinese brand names, please contact [email protected]

For more info regarding Chinese brand names, please contact [email protected]

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Chinese Naming for Online Brands: How to Stand Out from Competitors