Trusted Marketplace for Game Skins
BUFF163 (163.com) scores 72 out of 100 on Brand Analyzer, placing it in the Brand-Ready tier among Media & Entertainment brands, E-commerce brands, Technology brands, in the 30th percentile of 24694 Media & Entertainment brands.
BUFF163 (163.com) is a Chinese online marketplace for trading in-game skins for CS:GO, CS2, and DOTA2. Operated by NetEase, a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Hangzhou, the platform enables millions of gamers to buy, sell, and trade virtual items securely. It positions itself as a leading, trusted skin trading service within the esports and gaming community, focusing on convenience and security for its transactions.
| Brand Name | BUFF163 |
|---|---|
| Domain | 163.com |
| Industry | Media & Entertainment, E-commerce |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Hangzhou |
| Parent Company / Owner | NetEase |
| CEO | Ding Lei |
| Main Competitors | Steam Community Market (92/100), Skinport (66/100), DMarket (77/100), CS.MONEY (75/100), Bitskins (78/100), Skinbaron (68/100), Tradeit.gg (72/100) |
Moz Domain Authority 25/100 vs category average 52 / leader 100 - limited third-party links, so AI systems rarely encounter mentions of the brand.
No Wikipedia presence was found - a major gap, since Wikipedia is among the most heavily weighted sources in AI training data.
The homepage meta description reads "BUFF163 provides the most convenient and secure CS:GO and DOTA2 skins trading services, the top choice for millions of players." (Meta description: 20 words (ideal length). No OG description (falling back to meta)) - this is the summary AI engines are most likely to quote.
Structured data on the homepage: og:image. Adding Organization and FAQ schema would further help AI crawlers parse the brand's identity.
AI-crawler access: robots.txt present, no AI bot restrictions - robots.txt controls whether engines like GPTBot and ClaudeBot can read the site at all.
Detected tech stack: Nginx.
Social footprint: verified profiles on X (Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, GitHub; no detected presence on LinkedIn, Facebook - consistent profiles reinforce the brand's identity across the web.
0 Reddit mentions - community discussion signals real-world reputation to AI models.
Live results from asking a general-purpose AI assistant about the brand, checked August 2026.
When asked "What is 网易 (NetEase)?", Claude could identify the brand as of August 2026. NetEase is one of China's largest internet technology companies, known for online gaming (both self-developed and publishing titles like those with Blizzard partnerships historically), email services through 163.com, and ventures into e-commerce, music streaming (NetEase Cloud Mu Best known for One of China's biggest online gaming companies and operator of the 163.com email service.
When asked "Best brands similar to 网易 (NetEase)?", Claude would recommend BUFF163 as of August 2026. It's a major, well-established player in Chinese internet and gaming, so it would naturally come up alongside companies like Tencent when discussing Chinese media and entertainment giants.
Common questions people ask in Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI search engines.
BUFF163's main competitors in Media & Entertainment: Steam Community Market (92/100), Skinport (66/100), DMarket (77/100), CS.MONEY (75/100), Bitskins (78/100).
Sources: Brand Analyzer scan
BUFF163 offers a skin trading marketplace service where users can buy, sell, and trade in-game cosmetic items (skins) for CS:GO, CS2, and DOTA2. The platform facilitates these transactions securely, serving as an exchange point for virtual goods within these specific gaming titles.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 is an online marketplace operated under 163.com (NetEase) that specializes in the trading of in-game skins for popular esports titles, primarily CS:GO, CS2, and DOTA2. It functions as a digital marketplace connecting gamers who want to buy, sell, or exchange virtual cosmetic items within these games.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 has limited AI-search visibility, scoring 28/100 on Brand Analyzer's AI visibility composite (visibility 25, trust 15, recommendation 48). This estimates how likely AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity are to know, trust, and recommend the brand.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 was founded in 1997. BUFF163 operates in the Media & Entertainment category. It is analyzed by Brand Analyzer across seven brand dimensions and AI-search visibility.
Sources: Wikidata
BUFF163 is headquartered in Hangzhou. BUFF163 operates in the Media & Entertainment category.
Sources: Wikidata
BUFF163 provides a platform for trading virtual in-game skins, specifically for CS:GO, CS2, and DOTA2. It facilitates secure transactions between players who wish to buy or sell these digital items, acting as an intermediary marketplace that verifies and processes trades for millions of users.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 scores 48/100 on Brand Analyzer's AI recommendation signal, indicating it is less likely to be surfaced when AI assistants like ChatGPT suggest Media & Entertainment options. Recommendation depends on crawlability, structured data, and category authority.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 can improve AI discoverability by strengthening structured data (Organization and FAQ schema), maintaining an accurate Wikipedia/Wikidata entity, earning authoritative citations, and keeping content crawlable for AI bots. Brand Analyzer measures these as visibility, trust, and recommendation signals.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 is known for being a leading platform for trading CS:GO, CS2, and DOTA2 skins, serving millions of players. It is recognized within the gaming and esports community as a go-to marketplace for secure and convenient skin transactions, particularly popular among Chinese gamers given its association with NetEase's 163.com.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 is used by gamers and esports enthusiasts who play CS:GO, CS2, and DOTA2 and are interested in buying, selling, or trading in-game skins. Its user base includes millions of players, with a notable concentration likely in China given its operation under NetEase's 163.com platform.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 is popular because it offers a convenient and secure platform for trading CS:GO, CS2, and DOTA2 skins, catering to millions of players who seek a reliable marketplace for these in-game items. Its backing by NetEase, a major Chinese internet technology company, likely contributes to its scale and reach among gamers, particularly in the Chinese esports community.
Sources: BUFF163 official site
BUFF163 scores 28/100 for AI visibility - how well ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can discover, identify and cite the brand.
BUFF163 has a weak AI-visibility profile at 28/100 - a proxy for how readily ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews can recognise and cite it. Its strongest area is recommendation likelihood (48/100) and its weakest is trust (15/100). It benefits from a Wikidata knowledge-graph entry and open access for AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc.). The main gaps holding it back: no clear Wikipedia entity to anchor it in LLM training data, a low Moz Domain Authority of 25/100 and thin schema.org structured data. In a live check, Claude could already identify BUFF163 from memory (August 2026) - a sign these signals are paying off.
The score combines seven dimensions - name quality, digital presence, visual identity, messaging clarity, trust foundation, AI discoverability, and brand authority - into a single objective benchmark.
72 in October 2026, down from 74 in August 2026.
Ranked closest to BUFF163: 10musume (72/100), Zone-Turf.fr (73/100), 1 Happy Birthday (72/100), 24hourcampfire (72/100).
A step up - brands to learn from: Zoom (81/100), Zeno Group (81/100).
Category leader: Change.org (97/100).
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