Domain industry veteran Paul Goldstone (whose enterprises include registrar DomainIt.com) has decided what he wants to do with his favorite domain, perhaps the ultimate two-letter .com - co.com. Today Goldstone announced the launch of a new co.com registry that will allow users to register third level domains (for example,  cars.co.com).

In addition to having a powerful .com foundation in co.com to build on, Goldstone has assembled an all-star leadership team to guide the new registry with Gregg McNair coming on board as Chairman and Ken Hansen being lured away from Neustar to serve as CEO. 

McNair said, “When Paul asked me to work with him to build a ‘dream team’ for co.com, I immediately thought of Ken Hansen as our leader. Today our CEO is among the most respected and savvy operators in the registry space. Ken’s appointment along with his knowledge and understanding of the co.com opportunity is turning heads in a sea of confusion. To him the co.com solution was so simple and obvious." 

In announcing the new registry, the .co.com team noted, "61 countries currently offer domain names ending in “co.countrycode” (such as co.uk and co.jp), with registrations for those extensions totaling over 11 million.  Additionally, each year over 10 million new .com domains are registered.  co.com Registry intends to capitalize on this strong demand, and the current lack of available domains, by opening up a new tract of land in .com."

As most of you know, the first of hundreds of new gTLDs have just started arriving, but .com will continue to dominate total domain registrations for many years to come, a situation that gives  .co.com confidence that their offering will stand out in what is about to become an extremely crowded marketplace. 

Hansen noted, “The demand for .com names is not going away. We intend to meet that demand by offering short memorable domain names ending in .com."

co.com domain names are expected to become available in the first quarter of 2014. Plans call for a “Sunrise Period” for trademark holders, followed by a first-come-first-serve “Landrush Period”.  Premium domain names like travel.co.com, tickets.co.com and insurance.co.com will also be available. 

Those who wish to receive launch updates and additional details, as they become available, can subscribe to the email list at www.registry.co.com. The co.com team is also attending the ICANN Buenos Aires 

Paul Goldstone
President, co.com LLC

Ken Hansen
CEO, co.com LLC

Gregg McNair
Chairman, co.com LLC

meeting that runs Sunday through Thursday (November 17-21), where they will be available to meet with registrars interested in becoming distributors of co.com domains.   

Goldstone noted, "I couldn’t be more excited with the team and the future of co.com domains, where users will be able to pick the perfect .com domain to fit their online and branding needs."