West.cn offers free .VIP transfers but only for premium domains

West.cn is celebrating the .VIP government approval in China by offering free .vip domain name transfers.

But the offer is good only for certain .vip domains that are considered Chinese premiums:

• 1-3 letter domains
• 1-3 number domains
• 1-4 number domains (without 0 or 4)

I am not that clear on what the business model here is. I think that west.cn is focusing on .vip domains that have very high renewal rates while at the same time limiting the offer at only a few thousand domains. So they are hoping to earn enough money from renewals in the coming years to cover the cost of the transfers.

The only other thing I can think of is that maybe west.cn wants some piece of the expired .vip domains action. Expired domain name auctions is certainly a big revenue stream for major registrars in the legacy TLDs.

West.cn is also offering $3.2 .vip domain name registrations for a few days.