According to Dash Huang, CEO of XD Network, Google just handed them a potentially very valuable domain for free.
XD Network is one of the largest video game publishers in China and owns TapTap, a distribution platform that focuses on community building.
In the past few years, TapTap has become one of the most trusted and highly regarded platforms when it comes to mobile gaming critiques, and data gathered by the platform is very important for market trend analysis.
However, since TapTap is a relatively new brand, they do face one problem: Namely that their brand name was taken by other organizations under a variety of circumstances. A particular case is the internet domain of TapTap.cn, which was registered by Google back in 2010.
TapTap contacted Google, hoping to negotiate a deal to purchase this domain. Normally, this type of domain transfer would cost millions of dollars, if the domain owner agrees to such transfer at all. Back in 2007, the domain owner of Gmail.cn actually refused to sell this domain to Google, claiming it would undermine their own email services.
TapTap is essentially a direct competitor to Google Play, but to Huang’s surprise, Google not only agreed to transfer the domain, they even handed it to TapTap for free. Huang is clearly touched by the decision, and showed his appreciation on Twitter, saying this act of kindness is far beyond Google’s old motto of “don’t be evil” and that they had his respect for their action.
Huang showing his appreciation to Google on his twitter
