.cn Domain Zone: Comprehensive Statistics & Trends for 2026
The .cn country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) has a rich history as China's official internet extension, launched in 1994. With over 5.1M+ registered domains (5 081 223 total), it remains a critical asset for businesses targeting the Chinese market. Understanding domain statistics is vital for investors and SEO specialists to identify valuable patterns, assess market saturation, and predict future trends. This data-driven analysis covers domain length distribution, character composition, and keyword frequency to help you make informed decisions in the .cn zone.
Domain Length Distribution in .cn
The average domain length is 7.26 characters, with the most common length being 5 characters (963 434 domains). The maximum allowed length is 63. A representative domain like 0.cn (1 char) illustrates the prevalence of short, memorable names.
Infographics for .cn
Domain length distribution by number of characters
Character Composition: Letters, Digits, and Hyphens
Letters dominate .cn domains, with 3 906 142 (76.87%) being purely alphabetic. Domains with only digits number 161 465 (3.18%), while mixed alphanumeric domains account for 697 237 (13.72%). Hyphens appear in 316 379 domains (6.23%).
Average domain name length
Most Frequent Characters and Starting Letters
The most common character overall is 'a' (appearing 2 588 522 times), while the most frequent first character is 's' (403 322 domains). These patterns help identify branding opportunities.
Character frequency in domain names
| # | Symbol | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | a | 2588522 |
| 2 | n | 2554172 |
| 3 | i | 2456877 |
| 4 | e | 2093709 |
| 5 | o | 1803650 |
| 6 | s | 1766017 |
| 7 | h | 1573322 |
| 8 | g | 1424302 |
| 9 | u | 1403092 |
| 10 | t | 1369619 |
| 11 | c | 1346216 |
| 12 | l | 1307036 |
| 13 | y | 1187101 |
| 14 | r | 1132283 |
| 15 | d | 1104737 |
| 16 | x | 937741 |
| 17 | m | 918583 |
| 18 | j | 910677 |
| 19 | b | 877839 |
| 20 | z | 858805 |
| 21 | p | 751433 |
| 22 | w | 739163 |
| 23 | f | 690097 |
| 24 | k | 642974 |
| 25 | q | 483864 |
| 26 | 1 | 423365 |
| 27 | 8 | 389973 |
| 28 | 0 | 365170 |
| 29 | v | 348014 |
| 30 | 6 | 320182 |
| 31 | 5 | 317467 |
| 32 | 2 | 311284 |
| 33 | 3 | 295385 |
| 34 | 9 | 287405 |
| 35 | 7 | 243678 |
| 36 | 4 | 201150 |
Vowel vs. Consonant Balance in .cn Domains
Among total characters (36.9M+), vowels make up 31.28% (11 532 951), consonants 58.96% (21 736 894), and digits 8.56% (3 155 059). Hyphens account for 1.19% (440 256).
Most common first character in domain names
| # | First char | Domains count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | 0 |
| 2 | 0 | 45336 |
| 3 | 1 | 62200 |
| 4 | 2 | 32916 |
| 5 | 3 | 38437 |
| 6 | 4 | 22912 |
| 7 | 5 | 56335 |
| 8 | 6 | 30170 |
| 9 | 7 | 27241 |
| 10 | 8 | 33970 |
| 11 | 9 | 38947 |
| 12 | a | 196021 |
| 13 | b | 219910 |
| 14 | c | 304861 |
| 15 | d | 200069 |
| 16 | e | 107429 |
| 17 | f | 157545 |
| 18 | g | 197175 |
| 19 | h | 297692 |
| 20 | i | 109901 |
| 21 | j | 210460 |
| 22 | k | 122528 |
| 23 | l | 210244 |
| 24 | m | 198225 |
| 25 | n | 135997 |
| 26 | o | 65821 |
| 27 | p | 131981 |
| 28 | q | 107410 |
| 29 | r | 107798 |
| 30 | s | 403322 |
| 31 | t | 202094 |
| 32 | u | 54062 |
| 33 | v | 63135 |
| 34 | w | 184284 |
| 35 | x | 289065 |
| 36 | y | 213354 |
| 37 | z | 202376 |
Top Keywords and Numeric Tokens
The most frequent word in .cn domains is 'go' (65 836 domains, 1.30% share). The top numeric token is '8' (51 526 domains). These insights guide keyword-rich domain selection.
Character distribution in domain names
Domain Composition Categories: Pure Letters, Digits, and Mixed
Pure letter domains dominate at 76.87%, followed by mixed letters and digits at 13.72%. Pure digit domains are rare at 3.18%. Other compositions account for 6.23%.
Domain names with numbers and letters
Hyphen Usage Patterns in .cn
Only 6.23% of domains contain hyphens (316 379), while 93.77% are hyphen-free (4 764 844). This low usage suggests hyphenated domains are less preferred.
Most frequent word fragments inside domain names
| # | Word | Domains count | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | 65836 | 1.30 |
| 2 | my | 37261 | 0.73 |
| 3 | tech | 32317 | 0.64 |
| 4 | one | 24118 | 0.47 |
| 5 | car | 21208 | 0.42 |
| 6 | net | 20312 | 0.40 |
| 7 | new | 14436 | 0.28 |
| 8 | cloud | 14025 | 0.28 |
| 9 | pro | 12689 | 0.25 |
| 10 | app | 12384 | 0.24 |
| 11 | star | 11465 | 0.23 |
| 12 | top | 11348 | 0.22 |
| 13 | shop | 10599 | 0.21 |
| 14 | home | 10547 | 0.21 |
| 15 | link | 9193 | 0.18 |
| 16 | life | 9075 | 0.18 |
| 17 | lab | 9000 | 0.18 |
| 18 | game | 8649 | 0.17 |
| 19 | web | 8640 | 0.17 |
| 20 | data | 8044 | 0.16 |
Trends & Insights 2026
Hyphen usage in domain names
Popular numeric tokens in domain names
| # | Token | Domains count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 51526 |
| 2 | 1 | 50470 |
| 3 | 2 | 50451 |
| 4 | 3 | 48403 |
| 5 | 5 | 44916 |
| 6 | 9 | 44256 |
| 7 | 6 | 41651 |
| 8 | 4 | 39077 |
| 9 | 7 | 38964 |
| 10 | 0 | 35162 |
| 11 | 51 | 15819 |
| 12 | 88 | 13108 |
| 13 | 168 | 10814 |
| 14 | 365 | 10217 |
| 15 | 888 | 9812 |
| 16 | 123 | 9619 |
| 17 | 99 | 8081 |
| 18 | 360 | 7638 |
| 19 | 52 | 6972 |
| 20 | 100 | 6940 |