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discuss Why is .CA worth so much more than other ccTLDs?

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I look at the history of sales and I am blown away! Is there some sort of marketing strategy or sense of pride behind the ccTLD? For an extension exclusive to its country, it is mind-boggling what .CA premium and keyword domain names fetch for prices. When you factor in the population and economy in comparison to other countries it is kind of a head-scratcher to me. I realize many domain sales are completed privately, but does that mean Canadians are more transparent with their end-user sales, or is it as simple as it appears, Canadians just value their domain names more than other countries?!
 
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I look at the history of sales and I am blown away! Is there some sort of marketing strategy or sense of pride behind the ccTLD? For an extension exclusive to its country, it is mind-boggling what .CA premium and keyword domain names fetch for prices. When you factor in the population and economy in comparison to other countries it is kind of a head-scratcher to me. I realize many domain sales are completed privately, but does that mean Canadians are more transparent with their end-user sales, or is it as simple as it appears, Canadians just value their domain names more than other countries?!
Speaking as a Canadian, I can say that .ca is just as trustworthy and authoritative as .com for companies doing business in Canada. The federal government uses .ca for its online presence, and all major companies (Amazon, Google, Walmart, etc.) operate within Canada on the .ca extension.

In some cases, .ca may even be preferred over .com if a company only does business within Canada and truly wishes to separate themselves from international companies by identifying as Canadian.

On top of this, the country code doesn't have any other competition (like .com vs .us in the USA, .uk vs .co.uk in the UK, or .in vs .co.in in India). Combine that with a strong, stable economy and an under-rated technological industry, and I think that puts .ca in a rare space when it comes to ccTLDs, perhaps only matched by .de.
 
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it's not..and ca sales totally suck compared to io and co
 
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it's not..and ca sales totally suck compared to io and co
I'm not sure you can truly compare .io and .co with .ca, since .io and .co are available to all and are in essence used as de facto gTLDs.
 
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The key is the major use in Canada. You won’t see that in extensions like .us. Also, you have to keep in mind that there are no outside investors. You need to have Canadian Presence requirements to register .CA. That means when someone is shopping on .CA or visiting .CA websites they know it to be secure, safe and most of all 100% Canadian. Those restrictions enforced play a large role in how businesses view .CA.
 
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Speaking as a Canadian, I can say that .ca is just as trustworthy and authoritative as .com for companies doing business in Canada. The federal government uses .ca for its online presence, and all major companies (Amazon, Google, Walmart, etc.) operate within Canada on the .ca extension.

In some cases, .ca may even be preferred over .com if a company only does business within Canada and truly wishes to separate themselves from international companies by identifying as Canadian.

On top of this, the country code doesn't have any other competition (like .com vs .us in the USA, .uk vs .co.uk in the UK, or .in vs .co.in in India). Combine that with a strong, stable economy and an under-rated technological industry, and I think that puts .ca in a rare space when it comes to ccTLDs, perhaps only matched by .de.

Thanks for the information, I now see why there is a gap in value with some of the ccTLDs like .us others.
 
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.CA is a closed market with strong purchasing power.
 
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As others have noted, .ca has strong acceptance, respect and use in Canada. Same true for numerous country code in Europe.

The .ca has double the registrations of .us, and many more Alexa 1M websites, even though population of US is about 10x higher. That is largely because .com plays in some ways role of country code in US.

One must be careful in comparing average prices on NameBio though. With .com the average price is made up of many more wholesale prices than retail (assuming all sales above $100 and all venues). In .ca, and most other closed national country code extensions, the reported sales are probably almost entirely retail.

Bob
 
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As others have noted, .ca has strong acceptance, respect and use in Canada. Same true for numerous country code in Europe.

The .ca has double the registrations of .us, and many more Alexa 1M websites, even though population of US is about 10x higher. That is largely because .com plays in some ways role of country code in US.

One must be careful in comparing average prices on NameBio though. With .com the average price is made up of many more wholesale prices than retail (assuming all sales above $100 and all venues). In .ca, and most other closed national country code extensions, the reported sales are probably almost entirely retail.

Bob

That's good info, I appreciate it! I know it may sound a little foolish, but I also feel like there is some level of pride that goes into the price and U.S. domain investors mostly stick with .com, .net, and .org. Personally, I like .us domains, I think .us will gain momentum in the future, but big companies will need to start using the extension and promoting it with pride by inserting a footer graphic of the .us extension. I know .us has been around for a while and if there was any substantial interest it should've happened a while ago, I still think with this right strategy and hard work the extension can entice a lot more businesses and individuals.

.CA is certainly a model for exclusive ccTLDs to follow and learn from.
 
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