Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
.CO
Celebrates a Happy Birthday While Skeptics
Predict a New TLD Flood Will Leave Befuddled
Consumers Seeking .Com Shelter
.CO
is celebrating its 2nd
birthdaytoday.
The re-launched extension (originally
designated as Colombia's ccTLD before
being re-purposed for general use worldwide)
opened to the public on July 20, 2010. Since
then more than 1.3 million .CO domains
have been registered in more than 200
countries. Much of the credit for that goes
to a masterful marketing job that set high water
marks future new registry operators will be hard
pressed to match.
.CO's
success has extended beyond new registrations to
the domain aftermarket according to a press
release issued by domain sales giant
Sedo
today. Sedo reported selling over $1.6 million
worth of .CO domains since the extension was
re-launched. The company said the average .CO
sale price of $1,800 was higher than any
extension other than .com on their
platform.
.CO
Internet CEO Juan Diego Calle said,
"The numbers say it all. Sedo's report
confirms that in just two short years, the .CO
domain has become a major force to be reckoned
with on the global domain market. It's exciting
to imagine how these numbers will grow in the
next five to ten years as the .CO TLD becomes
even more widely adopted, developed, monetized
and marketed by end users worldwide."
Sedo's
Chief Sales Officer, Liesbeth Mack-de Boer,
added "Sedo is in a unique position to
monitor how any new TLD performs on the
secondary market, and this performance is often
a good indicator of its future success. With
.CO's second anniversary and the pending
approval of hundreds of new extensions,
this
was the perfect time to examine .CO's
performance, and to offer our insights for new
gTLD applicants. We look forward to partnering
with many new gTLD applicants to help them build
successful new extensions that can compete with
the historic heavyweights like .com."
Speaking of
new gTLDs, those who believe the
impending arrival of hundreds (and
eventually thousands) of new extensions
will create mass confusion among
web surfers are buzzing about a clever new YouTube
video (below) that illustrates
their point better than most have been able to
articulate. At 8 minutes, I think the video runs
about twice as long as was necessary to get the
message across, but even if you sample just the
first 3-4 minutes you can see why skepticism
about the new gTLD program remains
widespread.
Domain
industry pioneer Rob Grant (who
was the subject of our April
2008 Cover Story) also had a
lot to say about new gTLDS (and
many other topics) in a new
interview that Goran Duskic
published on his WhoAPI.com blog.
Grant told Duskic, "Only one extension will emerge as the winner. Its the same extension that has always emerged on top, through countless disruptions and changes in the domain space.
It’s Dot Com. It doesn’t
matter how many horses enter the
race."
Grant said,
"It’s important to remember that this is the one extension that all companies
(Fortune 500 companies on down to small businesses everywhere) have all built massive brands around – both online and offline (print, TV, radio, etc) over the last 15 years. All other extensions have basically played a defensive role. This means that
billions of dollars in advertising and marketing have been spent on the Dot Com brand itself. It’s what consumers are familiar with and understand."
Rob
Grant
Grant
continued, "The introduction of thousands of new extensions will only confuse the consumer, and serve to strengthen the Dot Com brand. What people forget is that we have already been through a
similar test case with the introduction of new
TLDs like . Biz, . Info, . Travel, .Mobi, etc."
You can
read the rest of Rob's comments on new
gTLDs and other topics in the full
interview here.
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