Phone Number in China Auctioned

8 has long been regarded as the luckiest number in Chinese culture. With pronunciation of 'Ba' in Chinese, no. 8 sounds similar to the word 'Fa', which means to make a fortune. It contains meanings of prosperity, success and high social status too, so all business men favor it very much.

Somewhere in China, there's a man who owns a Cellphone Number which have 5 consecutive number 8 on it. Imagine how lucky that Cellphone number is for the Chinese people.

So, if so happen that you're a Chinese holding this Cellphone number, don't do anything criminal in nature, or if you do, try not to get caught.

8 in Mandarin is 'Ba'
which means 'Prosper'

The phone number was among the assets seized from a defendant who had failed to comply with a court order, a local news outlet said. The identities of the buyer and the defendant were not disclosed, nor were details about why the defendant was in court. Yeah, mysteriously as it is, that's all we've got as far as "Information" is concerned ;-)

A phone number with consecutive repeating digits, let alone a string of the same five, is rare and considered appealing in China. A string of repeating auspicious numbers is worth an even higher price. Yeah, you read it right, you can sell a phone number! Like a vanity license plate, if it contains the right combination of digits, it can be a coveted status symbol.

A phone number that ended in five 5s was sold for $52,000 in an online auction last year, and a number with eight 7s was auctioned for $560,000 in 2017. Five is thought to be associated with emperors, while seven is a homonym for “life’s spirit,” or “qi” in Mandarin, China’s official language.

The perceived value of numbers varies by region. In Hong Kong, where Cantonese is the dominant spoken language, the number seven sounds similar to a swear word and is associated with ghosts. (It is generally taboo to serve seven courses in meals.) When the semiautonomous territory introduced phone numbers in 2015 that began with 7 or 4 — the latter a numerological stand-in for death across the country and therefore the unluckiest number in Chinese culture — cellphone operators complained.

Now take this, the Chinese phone number, ending in five 8s, drew 5,000 bids because it’s considered auspicious.

The Chinese phone number attracted 5,000 bids over the weekend from businesses and individuals eager to own it. It ultimately sold for $325,000 on Sunday, August 16 in an online auction by a court in the Chaoyang district of Beijing.

That's a lot of dough for a cellphone number if you ask me ;-) Well, it's all about the culture, we've got to respect that.

Cheerio!