OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
Last week DN.com announced by sending an email that it will be closing for 3-4 days and their website went offline.
Yesterday they announced by sending another email that they had some government issues and they will remain closed for several more days. A few hours later their website was up again.
I am sorry but something doesn’t feel right with this. So what was so unexpected that turned “several more days” to a few hours? China is not known for government efficiency.
Today DN.com wrote on NamePros.com that “DN.com is Back”. I don’t understand why DN.com didn’t send an email to all its customers like it did with the closing down announcements.
Sorry but I don’t feel that I can trust DN.com any more. At least for the next few months and if they keep a good record…
Here is today’s announcement:
“The good news is www.DN.com is now accessible again!
We sincerely apologize for all the problems caused in the last three working days. During the last couple of days, users’ transactions and withdrawals were all processed timely as usual. During the past days, we have noticed how much the domaining community care about DN.com, thank you all for that! We are now geared to deliver even better service to the entire domaining community.
Please understand that taking down www.DN.com temporarily was a prerequisite move if we wanted to modify the entity. We did this to coordinate with the lawful procedures.
For you to understand it better, we’d like to explain the exact procedures that we need to go through. We hope everyone can take an objective perspective over this. The official term is called “备案（bei an）”. “备案（bei an)” is to register the website and the company with the government’s network authority, in which procedure we report to the government about what the website’s business is and which company the website belongs to. It is because of our development plan, that we are changing the entity from “Hangzhou Midaizi Network Co., Ltd.”(also the mother company of 4.cn) to “Hangzhou YunBiao Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd.” Both companies belong to John Xu, 4.cn owner.
There was no suprise that all Chinese domainers understood what we’re going through, while our foreign friends find it absurd. For that, we apologize for not explaining it in advance.
What difference does 备案（bei an）make?
As an escrow service company, we attach great importance to the compliance, legality and regulation. 备案（bei an）means our website’s security is fully guaranteed by the government, which is great news for domain traders.
As a quite newborn domain name escrow service provider, DN.com was launched on 4th Sep, 2014. Till now, we are still growing and learning lessons. During these days, we are sincerely grateful for all the kindness and support we have received from the domaining community, and we are open to all comments and suggestions. DN.com’s mission is to serve the domaining community and we’re working on it hardly. Thank you for all your patience and business, we hope for a better future. “
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“备案（bei an）means our website’s security is fully guaranteed by the government, which is great news for domain traders”
What the hell is that supposed to mean ? I find that rather scary actually.
Government firewall and antivirus?
lol
Do westerners have to fax/email personal documentation documents, such as police ID or passport to DN.com in order to be able to engage in escrow deals?
Yes, including a photo of you holding that said ID!
Yes, same thing so creepy
A selfie of me holding my id was requested to be sent to China
I said FcK it no way no how, those communists get my personal data with imagery
Not enough security or back checks to guarantee data will be safe.
Never used them again, China is an amazing place, if you can’t get anything done, and you have a friend or family member with connections, and a duffle bag full of money, adding these two things together doors magically open.
Hello Konstantinos,
I have used dn.com for few transactions last year and admit I was very happy of the service.
To be true few sales to chinese will have never been posible otherwise, because it was a requirement (maybe they were doing like some American who only trust they own local escrow service and have horrible words with others).
I will continue using it (like many others) and in fact I am also proposing dn.com when a deal is near completion so the other party is not blocked by an escrow he doesn’t like or simply find the one he prefers.
I have been very surprised by all this ado about dn.com when as a customer I got myself an email notice few days ago that the service will be down for 2 days, so there was no surprise.
Cheers!
So I guess ecop doesn’t get the job done anymore?
Hi Francois,
I have used them twice.
One transaction went fine the other not so well.
They promised that they can do a paypal payment and when the buyer paid the funds and I transferred the domain they said they could only pay $1,000 per month through Paypal.
I had to wait 3 months to get my money.
Thank you Francois, it has always been a pleasure working with you 🙂 All the best!
I 100% agree. DN.com has been great for Chinese sales. Really a great service – and much needed.
Same here, happy customer of DN.com and in some cases i was required to use them when selling to Chineses..
Ps: i myself was “affected” with a pending x,xxx sale there during these days, but actually there was no real delay in my payout since in the background every already started transaction was processed normally (like also mentioned by Cynthia in one post while referring to admin.dn.com.. just saying)
Thank you Daniel, we will continue to deliver high-standard service 🙂 Have a nice day 🙂
“备案（bei an）means our website’s security is fully guaranteed by the government”
That can basically mean nothing at all.
Escrow services includes monetary transactions, for which many countries require a license.
That’s a basic measure to protect customers against frauds, scams, mismanagement and other manipulations, unlawful or misleading commercial practices.
Unless they are licensed to provide monetary/financial services, audited by a reliable third party and insured, no way we are going to allow them to manage our domains and/or money.
@ François: as I’ve already explained last year on DomainInvesting (here: http://www.domaininvesting.com/keep-some-funds-in-escrow/), Escrow companies which operate without a license in countries were a license is mandatory to provide financial/monetary services to the public are doing business in violation of the law.
According to the European PSD (Payment Services Directive, see 2007/64/EC), European companies offering Online Escrow services have to be properly licensed and government-regulated.
eCOP, as far as I see, is not licensed/authorized, so you’re illegally conducting an escrow business.
I don’t know what are current Chinese specific regulations regarding the provision to the public of such monetary services, but one thing is sure: if they allow companies to operate without a license and properly controlled/audited, they are doing that at their own risk, same for people using those companies and doing business with them.
Given rampant corruption at all levels, that would pave the way for many other financial scandals, scams, bankruptcies and manipulations of all types …
It’s not something new that many people, also in the domain business, would prefer operating just with the law of the jungle … that would be the paradise for scammers and unscrupulous con men …
Dealing with an escrow services which is not licensed, audited and insured is always a bad idea … unless you don’t care about the risk of losing all your money in case of bankruptcy, fraud, mismanagement, etc … 🙂
Hi Konstantinos and onlinedomain.com readers,
I am Echo from DN.com.
Firstly, we want to thank you Konstantinos for the past business, including the transactions, the ad banners we worked on and the posts. It really has been a pleasure to us.
Secondly, about disbursing the funds through Paypal, we’re truly sorry that we couldn’t find a better way to work it out, but we’re trying, hardly. We have reached out to Transferwise, Skrill and Stripe, unfortunately their service is not available to Chinese yet, we will get informed at once if they ever offer service to Chinese. We want to offer better service. Meanwhile, I’d like to mention though, it is written on DN.com’s web page(when requesting withdrawals) that we could only process 1,000 usd per day to each Paypal account, we might need to enlarge the font so that everyone pays attention to it. If the withdrawal amount is above 1,000 usd, we would recommend wire transfer instead. Normally, if you wish to withdraw 3,000 usd, the request could be completed within 3 working days. Please understand that we set this rule for a reason, that Paypal has been very strict with the funds crossing the Chinese border. Any large amount transaction could trigger a Paypal investigation, and it is the receiving account that usually gets investigated. We truly hope that users could get their funds smoothly, not having any trouble from Paypal. It might not be an international thing, but all Chinese who use Paypal for business know about the issue. We’re in China, so we can’t get around of it. Sorry again.
And thirdly, DN.com is back! We have apologized for the problems happened recently and here we apologize again. We have been feeling self-blaming for the recent days, but we know that we can’t only live in our mistakes. Now we want to focus on what’s important and what’s lying ahead of us. In deed, we’re growing, developing and ofc changing, just like everyone of you. The onlinedomain.com is getting better everyday! Life is a dynamic process, so is the DN.com program. We’re getting better, just like all of you. Let’s hope for a better domaining community to everyone!
Lastly, thank you again Konstantinos. I really mean it. Your opinions about us might not be positive, but we see it as a chance to improve ourselves and in China we believe that “He who is loved by God, will also be chastised.” Well, at least there is a Chinese saying like this, but I like the Bible version even better.
Best Regards,
Echo
Echo – Thank you for your clarification. Can you please address the concerns of personal identification including taking a photo with with a passport or I.D? Is that a company policy or a regulation of the Chinese government? Is that information sent or shared with the government?…..Thank you in advance.
Hi Aaron,
The reason that we asked for an ID is to verify the ownership of domain names. As everyone is aware of, there have been massive domain name hijacking and thefts happening. We’re doing this to protect both buyer and seller’s benefits. Buyer won’t suffer from buying any stolen names, and seller would keep a clean record for his/her future transactions. User’s ID is NOT shared with the government, we pay high attention to protect users’ privacy. As I mentioned somewhere else, we’re running the business with absolute integrity, I wouldn’t have had the guts to say so if it’s not from my heart.
Please also understand that many users left DN.com because of the ID requirement, but we still chose to do the right thing, that means what matters to us most is justice and integrity, not profit.
Hope it answers your questions 🙂
Best,
Echo
You ask users for an ID and photo but you use a nickname.
What is your real name?
Good question Kostas :), I was thinking the same.
We don’t do business with anonymous nicknames … lol 😀
@Andrea and @Konstantinos
Is DN.com an escrow service that is properly licensed, properly audited and properly insured, or not ?
You should ask that to Mr Echo who posted above …
As far as I know, DN.com is neither licensed to offer monetary services (which are a part of the escrow service) nor audited and insured by a reliable, independent third party.
I wouldn’t be surprised of that, since Chinese financial industry is a mess, a sort of poorly or not regulated jungle … you’d be surprised to see how many companies, including banks, are cooking the books, misleading investors, etc
Mix that with online entities which are loosely or not regulated at all as well, many of which have grown up from nowhere, like mushrooms …
Scandals, frauds, scams are booming, just see a few recent examples: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-fraud-idUSKCN0VB2O1 or this http://qz.com/576389/a-banner-year-financial-scams-in-china-nabbed-at-least-24-billion-in-2015/
And this is just the peak of the iceberg, the worst has still to come out …
Hi Andrea,
Echo is a girl 🙂
Thank you for paying so much attention to learn about DN.com 🙂
I understand why you are criticizing the Chinese financial industry, I feel the same. But what can I do? DN.com is located in Hangzhou, China. We are under a greater background than the domaining world. As a website business, we cannot go around the fact that we’re in China and are bind by the Chinese law.
We can only do what we can do, making the most of everything we’ve got.
Wish you all the best!
Echo
Ms Echo,
We don’t do business with escrow companies which have no license, no annual audit, no insurance.
Sorry, but if a Chinese buyer and/or client wants to deal with us, he/she has to agree to our policy, no exceptions.
Thanks for your kind reply. 🙂