.tv ccTLD's picking up the pace

[ThreeD]

A friend of mine just sent me a very interesting article posted over at DNjournal.

The ccTLDs were the only category whose total dollar volume figures in 1Q-2012 beat both the preceding quarter and the same quarter a year ago. $4.6 million in country code sales were reported to us in 1Q-2012 - a 15% jump from the $4 million reported in 4Q-2011 and a 7% gain over 1Q-2011.

What about .com?

.coms only - the total dollar volume reported in 1Q-2012 was $15.2 million, down a little under 7% from the same quarter a year ago ($16.3 million) and off 13% from the $17.5 million reported in the preceding quarter (4Q-2011).

Yes, .com is still king (only in the US though). Why? Basically because there were no alternatives 15-20 years ago. In 2012 the internet is so much more than just the good old .com.

In the early to mid 90's it was all about being online, building an online presence, mostly just being able to say "yeah, we have a website" (with some exceptions of course). Today it's all about brandability and building brands.

With great brand alternatives like .US, .TV and .ME etc (all depending on the business plan) the opportunities are endless and end users started to realize this years ago. I'm no longer shocked when multi-billion dollar companies decide to build their brand around a .TV or a .ME.

Some brands/words are a far better match for a .TV or a .ME than a .com. Good examples are NBA.TV or About.ME. Who would want to use NBATV.com or Aboutme.com when building a brand? Forget about traffic leaks to the .com for a second and think about brandability. What looks better, what is easier to remember?
I rest my case.

The "brandable" extensions like .TV, .ME have opened a new world with new opportunities to a global audience. Thankfully more and more companies/people are catching on to this.

The numbers over at DNjournal prove this trend in every way and I'm pretty sure this is only the beginning.

Source: DNjournal

PS: Obviously not all ccTLD sales are .ME, .US and .TV. We have the .de's, the .co.uk's and .fr's etc, but the "brandable" extensions are definitely picking up the pace!

 

[DU]

Some Comments

1. .CO had a successful launch with land rush names and two auctions (one for PRIME KEYWORDS) and .COM didn't have a similar growth addition.
   
2. There is imho an inherent disparity in non-disclosure which will be far greater in .COM than in any other TLD. The bigger the deal the more likely the NDA.
   
3. Sale price is irrelevant for domainers - it's profit margin that matters. A $100K .com sale on a $95K purchase with broker fees is less than a $20 .CO turned into a $15K sale without a broker.
   
4. .COM is looking a much larger overall numbers so smaller sales don't have quite the overall impact. The number quoted for .COM above seems low, quite honestly. But percentage growth I think is a poor metric.
   
5. Finally - if you look at Sedo numbers - .TV aren't even reported and the vast majority of sales are true ccTLD usage .de/.co.uk/.nl with a few hit and miss brandables thrown in to the mix.
   

I agree in principle with what you're saying though

 

[Kate]

It's true that the ccTLDs have become the norm in many countries, however I've never been a believer of using branded ccTLDs for 'creative' domains.
I would say it's like the domain hacks, just because some people like to use them doesn't mean there is a market or a clear trend.
Nothing new really.

.com is still the king for startups and companies with global scope.
Companies with national focus or that are local in nature are happy with their ccTLD

There is still more money in extensions like .co.uk, .ch or .de than .me or .tv :gl:

 

[MeanerDomainer]

I did not read the article, but I would be really surprised if .tv or .me had much at all to do with the total $ increase in ccTLD sales. Many countries appear to be really embracing their own ccTLD over all other extensions, including .com.

 

[freedom30]

.com is still the king for startups and companies with global scope.
Companies with national focus or that are local in nature are happy with their ccTLD

There is still more money in extensions like .co.uk, .ch or .de than .me or .tv :gl:

"com is still the king for startups and companies with global scope."

...a king perhaps, but alas and alack no longer the supreme dictator of yore..

"There is still more money in extensions like .co.uk, .ch or .de than .me or .tv"

...the potential always existed...

 

[eyedomainous]

Of course the prime .com market, the U.S., has an 80% internet (market) penetration rate.

African countries are at 14% web. Asia, which has over a billion web users, compared to the North America's 274 million, is at 36% web penetration.

Because the web adoption rate is much greater in countries outside of North America, ccTLD sales volume should maintain a 'greater than .com' trend for sometime.

However, scarcity most often drives up prices, so this is not necessarily bad news for .com.

 

[claudedauman]

Very well said ThreeD.

Claude

 

[ThreeD]

Great replies from you all, thanks for contributing. I can't wait to see where we are in a year from now.

I agree in principle with what you're saying though

It's better to agree than to disagree :wave:

Very well said ThreeD.

Thanks, Claude :great:

 

[uniquedomainer]

Do you forsee a trend in the future, where DotCom loses it's rank and becomes more of a prince than a king? or perhaps a marquis? I would think with 3 billion asians and east asians slowly making their way online other extensions would become more popular since all the good .com's are mostly taken.

Does the addition of new TLDs diminish the power of dotcom as other extensions become more viable in terms of purchasing affordability?

 

[freedom30]

Do you forsee a trend in the future, where DotCom loses it's rank and becomes more of a prince than a king? or perhaps a marquis? I would think with 3 billion asians and east asians slowly making their way online other extensions would become more popular since all the good .com's are mostly taken.

Does the addition of new TLDs diminish the power of dotcom as other extensions become more viable in terms of purchasing affordability?

...I most certainly do not, anymore than I see the cassette replacing the eight-track tape...

 

[ThreeD]

UD - I personally think you are spot on with your assumptions. That is if we're talking about the global perspective/market.

15-20 years ago the internet evolved around .com, so .com has a massive head start. Today, with more and more extensions on the rise .com will slowly loose ground and other extensions will catch up.

 

[Kate]

Does the addition of new TLDs diminish the power of dotcom as other extensions become more viable in terms of purchasing affordability?

ccTLD can certainly be preferred over .com, that
is already the case in quite a few countries.

But the vanity gTLDs are a different story.
They will get some use, but not for serious projects.

 

[eyedomainous]

I think its a win-win proposition.

ccTLD sales volume will outpace .com for the foreseeable future. However, because the U.S. is the world's multinational power brand this will actually increase .com value as the global gateway extension.

With 'TV' being the most popular local-global content bridge TV domain demand, and value, will also increase.

.TV transcends 'ccTLD' status, especially with multinational management. It is, and should be referred to as, a Global TLD (along with .com).

The same goes for TV.com, its demand and value proposition as a global brand is also rapidly increasing as multinational media brand deployments illustrate.

Two example's in today's news include:

London based LimeTV.com launching set-top and Broandband TV service for the (multi ccTLD) Caribbean Islands. (Though U.K. based, parent company CWC.com use a .com, or tv.com, for operations in dozens of countries. No ccTLD use here, even at home.)

NimbleTV.com -a 'TV Everywhere' gateway service, is about to launch serving the U.S., India and the U.K..

Do you forsee a trend in the future, where DotCom loses it's rank and becomes more of a prince than a king? or perhaps a marquis? I would think with 3 billion asians and east asians slowly making their way online other extensions would become more popular since all the good .com's are mostly taken.

Does the addition of new TLDs diminish the power of dotcom as other extensions become more viable in terms of purchasing affordability?