.co .CO - The Discussion, Showcase and Sales Report Thread

[ZOX]

Well, it seems like Colombia will be releasing .CO to the internet market:
...
http://www.mincomunicaciones.gov.co...ge=./mods/contenido/noticia_user_view&id=1043
...
This could truly be a big competitor to .COM (especially being a "typo").
I would say with proper guidance .CO could REALLY have a bright future!
...
Let me know your thoughts please.

 

[Kate]

If you remember that frantic buyer from the Czech Republic who bought booze names such as brandy.co holland.co Cognac.co also 666.co and others, all for 4 or 5 figures each.
And the crown jewel business.co for 80K. Total bill is low 6 figures.
Looks like the names are still parked on Sedo.

Look at the Sedo stats for business.co:

Visitors to this Sedo offer page: 10 (previous 31 days)
Visitors to this domain’s website: 81 (previous 31 days) [B]=> so much for typo traffic[/B]
New! Core statistics:
View Domain Value Indicators
Previous offers for this domain: 4
Learn more about the seller 
Country of origin: Czech Republic 
Value added Tax (VAT) status:  Not Applicable 
Sedo community member since: January 2010 
Sedo seller activity index: [B](zero bars)[/B]

He doesn't seem to be selling a lot of domains, at least on Sedo
Somebody is bound to be left holding the bag.

 

[jmcc]

"September 2012 .CO Statistics & Trends"

See they are quoting that numerology rubbish from Pegasus Consult. Of that 41% redirects, most of them will be the Godaddy PPC lander page for undeveloped domains.

Regards...jmcc

---------- Post added at 02:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:22 PM ----------

Thanks for the link. As usual, registration stats have been carefully omitted. Go figure
I wonder what their definition of active site is. A lot of .co are on Godaddy placeholders, which is a form of parking. I will compare the distribution of second and third level registrations against my own analysis.

I don't consider the firm that they use for their numerology to be in any way accurate when it comes to web usage and classification. There's another factor with a new zone like .co ccTLD and that's the abandonment rate. This is where someone starts a new website and then decides to abandon it whether through lack of interest or lack of traffic. There's a lot of sites like this in .co ccTLD. Then there are the clone sites where someone registers a bunch of keyword domains and has the same site (without a 301 redirect) on all of them. But then stating that up to 41% of domains are PPC/parked makes .co ccTLD look like a Dead Zone and that's the last thing that COInternet wants. Genuine development in .co ccTLD is probably well below 20%.

Regards...jmcc

 

[NPer]

I wonder what their definition of active site is.

The answer:

A lot of .co are on Godaddy placeholders, which is a form of parking.

A .CO with a parked page = active site. :hehe:

Somebody is bound to be left holding the bag.

Yup... plenty of those around.

Some dudes need to swallow their pride, and drop the crap they are holding, or let go of them at realistic prices. Realistic pricing is certainly not the prices you would've seen during the hype phase.

The hype is gone, and so are many of the .CO holders dreams.

Some are even going out of the way buying more "gold" that they can't believe is being dropped. More like fool's gold. Whatever tickles their fancy I guess.

Some have renewed and are holding, clinging onto that hope for a sale.

Aint nothin' but dreams.

 

[surprise]

I would say the same in regards to .com registered domains ( holding dreaming and hoping ) , the vast majority of the +100 Million registered domains are worthless and undeveloped ...

 

[jmcc]

I would say the same in regards to .com registered domains ( holding dreaming and hoping ) , the vast majority of the +100 Million registered domains are worthless and undeveloped ...

Yes but the numbers of developed domains is in the tens of millions. With .co ccTLD, the number of developed and genuinely active domains may be less than 200,000.

Regards...jmcc

 

[surprise]

Yes but the numbers of developed domains is in the tens of millions. With .co ccTLD, the number of developed and genuinely active domains may be less than 200,000.

Regards...jmcc

Ok but always look percentage wise , anyway i wouldn't compare .com to .co , but just saying that holding and hoping isnt just a .co situation , would say the same about .com as well ...

Regards

 

[Kate]

I would say the same in regards to .com registered domains ( holding dreaming and hoping ) , the vast majority of the +100 Million registered domains are worthless and undeveloped ...

Yes, but there is more demand for .com and it's much more established globally. An average domain could still sell in .com but not in any other extension. The odds of selling a .com are considerably higher than .co.

When you exclude parked/inactive domains or redirects from the figures you can see the genuine interest in .co or whatever is not what the rosy press releases from the registry want you to believe.
If you look at .xxx the figures are much much worse. While .co is speculative, .xxx is defensive.
The figures is just part of the story, actual usage tells a lot more.

 

[jmcc]

Ok but always look percentage wise , anyway i wouldn't compare .com to .co , but just saying that holding and hoping isnt just a .co situation , would say the same about .com as well

The situation with .co is that most of .co is just holding and hoping. There's a massive overlap in .com with ccTLDs in that people register their ccTLD and the equivalent .com if it is available. The .co ccTLD is not a must-register TLD and it really is an over speculated ccTLD with very little going for it other than it is a typo of .com. In most developed country level markets the domain footprint has a strong local ccTLD/.com axis which can account for 80% or more of that country's domain market. The .co market share by comparison is often less than 1%. The .co is being pitched at startups (mainly in the US) but the reality is that if people don't recognise a TLD, they don't use it and if they don't use it, then webmasters don't bother developing sites in that TLD.

Regards...jmcc

 

[surprise]

Yes, but there is more demand for .com and it's much more established globally. An average domain could still sell in .com but not in any other extension. The odds of selling a .com are considerably higher than .co.

When you exclude parked/inactive domains or redirects from the figures you can see the genuine interest in .co or whatever is not what the rosy press releases from the registry want you to believe.
If you look at .xxx the figures are much much worse. While .co is speculative, .xxx is defensive.
The figures is just part of the story, actual usage tells a lot more.

Ok nobody would argue about the .com huge advantage over other extensions period , but i always look percentage wise , compare 105 Million .com registered domains to 1.3 Million .co registered domains ! so you cant say hey this week 1K .com domains exchanged hands , what is the percentage from total parked .com domains ? we are talking here about huge number of .com parked domains waiting for a buyer , there is huge demand yes but the supply is much much more , so we cant say that the .com is a rosy one , it is speculative as well and it is definitely holding and hoping ...

 

[the_poet]

Yes but the numbers of developed domains is in the tens of millions. With .co ccTLD, the number of developed and genuinely active domains may be less than 200,000.

Regards...jmcc

Tens of millions out of about 110 million .COMs vs 200,000 out of about 1,100,000 .COs (maybe even less, depending on how large the number of drops will be). If you take into account the fact .CO is new and of course lacks the history and credibility of .COM, the percentages aren't very different.

 

[jmcc]

so you cant say hey this week 1K .com domains exchanged hands , what is the percentage from total parked .com domains ?

First off, there is a problem with what is a parked domain. In web use classification, there is PPC parked (which is where a domain is monetised with PPC adverts rather than being developed) and a holding page. The holding page is where the domain has a "coming soon" type page or a registrar/hoster's holding page.

we are talking here about huge numbers of .com parked domains waiting for a buyer

No. That's purely a domainer view. The reality is that many .com domains are not for sale. The owners may have developed their ccTLD domain as their primary brand and left the .com on a PPC lander (like Godaddy's PPC lander for undeveloped domains). There are also large groups of .com domains that have been monetised with PPC. It varies from country level market to country level market.

there is huge demand yes but the supply is much much more , so we cant say that the .com is a rosy one , it is speculative as well and it is definitely holding and hoping ...

No. In speculation terms, .co is a largely speculative TLD with at least 41% on PPC parking. That's just PPC parking and doesn't include the holding pages and the dead websites. I don't trust COInternet's figures when it comes to the classification of web usage. I don't consider the firm that COInternet uses for its usage numerology to be capable of properly classifying web usage. While I am not yet saying that .co ccTLD is a Dead Zone, it really has to get development started. Otherwise it is just going to end up as one of thost ccTLDs where domainers flip domains to other domains and nobody notices it.

Regards...jmcc

 

[surprise]

Jmcc
You didn't bring anything new mate , i agree with you .co is largely speculative , but i would say the same on .com as well , as i pointed out earlier we have 105 Million registered .com domains compared to 1.3 M .co domains , so please don't tell me that .com is not speculative , it is , the only difference is with .co they are setting on rich keywords like business .co , and on .com they are setting on full sentence marketing weird url lol

Best regards

 

[jmcc]

Tens of millions out of about 110 million .COMs vs 200,000 out of about 1,100,000 .COs (maybe even less, depending on how large the number of drops will be). If you take into account the fact .CO is new and of course lacks the history and credibility of .COM, the percentages aren't very different.

You have a .co domain. You buy another one. You have just doubled your .co domain holding.

The .com TLD has global recognition. The .co ccTLD does not. The problem for .co is that it has to make an impact in developed markets. Now in numerical terms, 1.3 million might sound impressive but when you break it down on a country by country basis, it is not. When you consider the amount of continual development happening in .com, there is very little development happening in .co by direct numerical comparison.

The abandonment problem is an important one with measuring web usage in TLDs. This is where someone starts out with great plans to develop a website (often with Joomla or Wordpress) and then finds the reality of keeping a site updated to be too hard. This kind of abandonment problem happens in .com and other major ccTLDs but it has far less of a corrosive effect because of the natural growth and development patterns.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Kate]

the only difference is with .co they are setting on rich keywords like business .co , and on .com they are setting on full sentence marketing weird url

All the premium keywords such as business.co were reserved by the registry so they could auction them. That's what most 'new' TLDs are doing nowadays.
It's not like names of that caliber were released into the wild at landrush and the small guy had a chance to grab a top keyword unattainable in other extensions.

As mentioned above, business.co sold for 80K to a Czech citizen. I am not sure he has any plans for the domain. But forget about flipping the domain for a profit.

The biggest domainer in .co is the registry, the other domainers dabbling in .co are small time players thinking they can win against the casino, with a few exceptions like Mike Mann.

So that's it, the tier 1 domains you won't touch, or be prepared to pay big money.
People are left with the crumbs. The names that remain available could be very nice in .com, but we are talking about the .co extension. There is a huge gap in value between the two, I mean like 1 to 100 or 1 to 1000.

That's why speculating in alt extensions is more difficult. The pool of buyers is much smaller to begin with.

 

[surprise]

oh my god

so 1.3 million domains in .co is speculative and gambling against the casino , but the 100 million crappy names in .com is business and professional domaining ...:hehe:

 

[jmcc]

oh my god

so 1.3 million domains in .co is speculative and gambling against the casino , but the 100 million crappy names in .com is business and professional domaining ...:hehe:

With .co, you are playing poker with the court cards and aces taken out of the deck and only available to the casino. With .com, you are playing with the the full deck.

Regards...jmcc

 

[surprise]

With .co, you are playing poker with the court cards and aces taken out of the deck and only available to the casino. With .com, you are playing with the the full deck.

Regards...jmcc

haha

 

[jmcc]

As mentioned above, business.co sold for 80K to a Czech citizen. I am not sure he has any plans for the domain. But forget about flipping the domain for a profit.

There's something rather odd about the high value keyword sales in what is effectively a non-core TLD.

Regards...jmcc

---------- Post added at 09:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 PM ----------

haha

Well to use that great quote from the movie 'Rounders': "Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker."

Regards...jmcc

 

[Kate]

I didn't say 100% of the 1.3M .co are strictly speculative, just like .com is not 100% speculative either.
But .com is established, .co isn't (outside Colombia of course, but the local market is still very much using .com.co). You don't need to convince anybody of the value of .com, but when it comes to .co you still have to explain it's not a typo.
There can be no comparison between the two in terms of end user adoption. It's not a credible alternative.
It's not like all TLDs offer the same opportunities.

Of course, the .co investors want to keep the hope alive and will point at every reported sale like a proof .co has momentum.
But a number of sales here and there does not mean there is a market.

 

[surprise]

I didn't say 100% of the 1.3M .co are strictly speculative, just like .com is not 100% speculative either.
But .com is established, .co isn't (outside Colombia of course, but the local market is still very much using .com.co). You don't need to convince anybody of the value of .com, but when it comes to .co you still have to explain it's not a typo.
There can be no comparison between the two in terms of end user adoption. It's not a credible alternative.
It's not like all TLDs offer the same opportunities.

Of course, the .co investors want to keep the hope alive and will point at every reported sale like a proof .co has momentum.
But a number of sales here and there does not mean there is a market.

Totally agree , no comparison whats so ever , but as i pointed earlier same goes to .com domains and domainers in regards to the speculative part , the full deck was registered 10 years ago , you know and i know that most of these .com domains are worthless , anyway i registered the only .co i have , it is an expired 3 keywords domain , i had a buyer within a week ,but we didn't agree on the price ...

 

[Keith]

oh my god

so 1.3 million domains in .co is speculative and gambling against the casino , but the 100 million crappy names in .com is business and professional domaining ...:hehe:

The goal with these types is to flip quick. Dot co is in bad shape and will continue on a downward spiral. The number of registrations means nada. But if you must continue to invest, go ahead...someone has to be left holding the bag :bingo:

 

[Kate]

Update: I have compiled new figures for .co

.co	1248891	91.20%
.com.co	102952	7.52%
.edu.co	5512	0.40%
.gov.co	4874	0.36%
.net.co	4492	0.33%
.org.co	1386	0.10%
.nom.co	1071	0.08%
.mil.co	149	0.01%
total	1369327	100.00%

Note that the breakdown by extension differs from the registry figures. But I don't know how recent their own data is, as they quote an activity rate from June.
Plus, I must have a margin of error. But today I have possible benchmark to compare against.

Link to previous surveys

 

[jmcc]

Note that the breakdown by extension differs from the registry figures. But I don't know how recent their own data is, as they quote an activity rate from June.
Plus, I must have a margin of error. But today I have possible benchmark to compare against.

Interesting stats.

The reason that COInternet provide rather nebulous stats seems to be that it obscures the state of .co ccTLD. The figures they quote are prior to the Landrush anniversary too. Their web usage figures are, in my opinion, totally unreliable and are designed to obscure the high level of PPC parking in the ccTLD.

Regards...jmcc

 

[JB Lions]

Interesting stats.

The reason that COInternet provide rather nebulous stats seems to be that it obscures the state of .co ccTLD. The figures they quote are prior to the Landrush anniversary too. Their web usage figures are, in my opinion, totally unreliable and are designed to obscure the high level of PPC parking in the ccTLD.

Regards...jmcc

I think you mentioned why before and I can't find it but are you not putting the .co stats on your site? I like checking out the various extensions every now and then.

 

[jmcc]

I think you mentioned why before and I can't find it but are you not putting the .co stats on your site? I like checking out the various extensions every now and then.

COInternet stopped publishing domain counts a few years ago but I've a percentage of .co tracked and post the top 50 .co hosters by detected domains each month based on detected domains. I haven't done any major websurvey of .co websites since February this year because it would be a waste of time, bandwidth and resources.

Regards...jmcc