Recognizable?
CO has been the abbreviation for "company" for at least 400 years. Most business people around the world know what CO stands for. This is because English is the second language in a lot of countries and English colonizers came under the auspices of many "COmpanies".
Nowhere did I say that CO didn't mean Company in a lot of places (even though it's not a global designation).
I said that I'm in the school of people that don't think .CO (see the dot?) means company.
Take Sneaker.COM what does this mean in your world? Sneaker Commerce? Sneaker COMpany? or Sneaker dot com?
Why is .CO different?
More people than you think/realize do not associate the .CO with anything. It's JUST an extension. What's .NET to an end user? No one goes flowershop.net - must be a network of flowershops.
.ORG has that "charity" aura but as domainers and people dilute that notation it is lessening.
.CO gives you NOTHING but a new extension. It's not like .ME or .TV or .XXX which actually have a tangible separation. (Even then MEET.ME is Meet DOT Me and not Meet Me). .CO is just there like CO.UK, CO.JP, CO.IN, COM.CO even.
Ask people what the CO in Sneaker.CO stands for? People will say Company.
Ask people what extension means company? People will say .COM (or Co.Uk, .COM.CO)
Just because someone wants something bad enough doesn't mean they will get it. It is true - and I'm not denying it - that some people/companies are building on sites that are .CO but I would think the vast majority wouldn't say that their name is LEFT OF THE DOT COMPANY. They would say LEFT OF THE DOT DOT CO... and if pressed for their registered name it would be LEFT OF DOT or (most likely - something totally different using a brand that was separate from their company name - such as Sneaker.CO would not be owned by "The Sneaker Company")
Sorry if you still don't get where I'm coming from. This doesn't change the underlying .CO asset - but just how you recognize/describe it.
.COmpany? That's COINTERNET marketing. It's not reality, imho.
If you have your own subjective viewpoint of CO, hey, great, but just know you don't share the same view with a heck of a lot of other people.
Nobody said .co MUST stand for "company", but it is one of the most recognizable abbreviations around. And that is irrefutable.
I would say though, that you are in the minority group of people in the world that instantly associates Company with .CO.
First notice the DOT and then notice the order.. not denying that people can take .CO to mean Company... but people assume it works the other way which is recognizing Company as .CO - this will NEVER happen. EVER EVER. Probably.
.CO <> Company
CO = Company (in some jurisdictions)
---------- Post added at 08:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:21 AM ----------
"They have a great sneaker company" Correct
"They have a great sneakers company" Acceptable but not really common place.
This has no relevance imho.
Sneaker.CO is a brand.
Sneakers.CO is a brand.
Sneakers.CO makes more sense (you don't ever do anything with one sneaker though I found a one shoe store online recently).
It's potentially a very good brand. Potentially worth a lot more than $110.
I hope John sells it for $1,000,000
I hope he gets a more realistic X,XXX.
The whole Company discussion is just totally irrelevant. No one ever sells a name and has to explain the extension.