IDN Geos may be a different animal. A domainer can register foreign city names in relevant foreign languages (e.g. مدينةالكويت.net --> Kuwait City). One can also register city names with nouns (e.g. 東京住宅ローン.com --> Tokyo mortgage), of course. We have all seen these names and combo domains.
These days, it may be impossible to find a major city unregistered in a desired relevant language. Moscow in Russian, Beijing in Chinese, and Tokyo in Japanese were registered long ago. The desire to mix geo and noun, the next step, may be tempered by a lack of cultural understanding (what works?) or the fear of two-word combos in a foreign language. Arabic domains can 'squish' two-word combos and make them unreadable without a dash or full stop. Native speakers can have differing opinions on two-word combos for specific scripts (e.g. Greek, Russian) leaving the non-native speaker confused. Accented vs unaccented vs hyphens vs full-stop vs more.... For example, when registering the non-geo term 'mobile phones' in Greek, I was only able to solve the problem of accented vs non-accented vs hyphens vs squished-looking by registering the accented and non-accented versions with and without hyphens: κινητα-τηλεφωνα.com, κινητά-τηλέφωνα.com, ΚινητάΤηλέφωνα.com, and ΚινηταΤηλεφωνα.com. The city domain 'Chicago' (σικαγο.com and σικάγο.com) is much easier to register with only two variants and large Greek population. I could give examples in Arabic and other languages.
We know that the Arabic two word combo بطاقات الائتمان will squish together بطاقاتالائتمان, correct? So you might separate the two letters with a dash ( - ) like بطاقات-الائتمان.com or a full-stop ( ۔ ) like this بطاقات۔الائتمان.com. I have seen Arabic keyboards with both the full-stop and the hyphen. I have no idea if either is better. They are just different. I do, however, get most of my Arabic traffic and revenue to different domains that use the full stop, not the hypen. That is why I try to register both versions if the words squish together. For example:
لوسأنجلوس (Los Angeles لوس أنجلوس squished is unreadable)
لوس-أنجلوس.com --> Los Angeles (dashed)
لوس۔أنجلوس.com --> Los Angeles (full-stop)
With many major languages, the value of expats and immigrants can be overlooked. For example, searching for the largest ethnic groups in given cities/countries can provide an interesting avenue for registrations. Wikipedia can give you that information.... What US or Canadian cities have the largest Chinese populations? Do you realize how many 'Chinatowns' there are in North America and around the world?
Other Chinatowns are newer, such as in Chinatown, Las Vegas, Dubai, and Santo Domingo.... Check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown.
Finally, countries may have strong ties with each others' languages that may not necessarily be tied to immigration. For example, I recently surmised that the growing financial, political, and trading power of Arab speaking countries necessitated strong future ties with non-Arab cities. I decided to register the names of many of the largest world cities and the wealthiest cities in Arabic dot com. While a gamble, I registered these massive and wealthy non-Arab city domains with the hope that they might become a more likely destination for Arab tourists, students, and business travelers in the future. I am banking on greater internet penetration in the Arab world, world development & integration, and more wide-spread tourism. Given the large amount of Arabic speakers throughout the world, I think it is a fair bet.
This was just a quick stream of consciousness post, but I hope it might spark some honest discussion. What works? What doesn't?
.
