Taobao (www.taobao.com) is not a standalone top-level domain (TLD), rather it is a second-level domain that falls under the top-level domain (TLD) of .com. The .com TLD is one of the original and most recognizable TLDs in the global domain name system(DNS), and it was initially used to identify commercial entities, but has now been widely adopted by various individuals, organizations and businesses worldwide.
This little clarity about TLD is based on the definition provided by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that coordinates and manages the Internet’s domain name system. According to ICANN, TLDs are the last part of a domain name – the letters that come after the final dot of any domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, .com is the TLD (ICANN, n.d.).
Now, focusing on the second-level domain ‘Taobao’, it’s part of Alibaba Group, a multinational conglomerate specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Taobao specifically acts as a Chinese online shopping website, similar to eBay and Amazon, offering a wide range of products which makes it the world’s biggest e-commerce website, with hundreds of millions of products (Alibaba Group, 2019).
It’s quite essential to understand that websites like Taobao, that use the .com TLD generally aim at reaching a global audience. According to Verisign, the global registry operator for .com and .net, the .com TLD had a total of 149.7 million registrations as of December 31, 2020, making it the most registered TLD by a large margin (Verisign, 2021).
Relating back to the website, Taobao offers a variety of features that have contributed to its popularity. For Instance, Taobao’s live-streaming feature which is immensely popular among Chinese consumers, enables vendors to advertise their products in real-time, provides a dynamic and interactive shopping experience for users (South China Morning Post, 2020).
In summary, while Taobao is not a TLD, it is an important second-level domain, based in one of the world’s most populous countries and part of a globally recognized TLD – .com. It’s interesting to see the tech advancements making these domains accessible to a broader audience, highlighting the importance of TLDs in the modern, globalized world of the internet.
References:
- ICANN (n.d.). Beginner’s Guide to Domain Names. Retrieved from https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/beginners-guide-2012-12-06-en
- Alibaba Group. (2019). Taobao Marketplace Overview. Retrieved from https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/pdf/190315/8.pdf
- Verisign. (2021). The Domain Name Industry Brief. Retrieved from https://www.verisign.com/en\_US/domain-names/dnib/index.xhtml
- South China Morning Post. (2020). How Live-streaming on Taobao is Changing the Way China Shops. Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/explained/article/3082520/how-live-streaming-taobao-changing-way-china-shops
