Dubai is the business hub of the middle east and is known for its luxury lifestyle, ultramodern architecture and nightlife.
Being in the domain industry, you just can't ignore the urls even if they are mentioned on buildings. Here are some of the my observations about domain names used in this part of the world, in the last two days that I have been here:
1) .COMs dominate the market here over .ae extension, which I thought would be more popular here. Pharmacy shops, hospitals and private practitioners such as dentist, gynaecologist, orthopaedics etc. mostly use .COMs, as I could see a lot of URLs on buildings and hospitals. So, there is an opportunity for geo domain investors to look into this market.
2) There are a lot of tourists here. Therefore, english is a well known language among common people, though they prefer to speak in Arabic and occasionally, Hindi. English keywords sounds totally fine for the businesses here.
3) Cab and tourism companies are plentiful and popular, and therefore, people owning rental domain names related to this geography have a good chance of getting a fantastic price if they approach the right buyer.
4) People are crazy about cars. You can literally find every high end cars on the streets of Dubai. Sports cars are very popular. A lot of car enthusiasts who visit Dubai go for renting high end cars. Therefore, if you have domain names like Exotic cars, or any other related names, you can get a good price for those, selling it to these service providers in Dubai.
5) There are exhibitions happening throughout the year in Dubai. Owning geo domain names in those category may also help fetch some good price.
6) People are filthy rich here. If they want something, they want it!! Any price, and they will take it. Money is not a matter.
Here are some of the domain names that I came across as advertisements and could recall :
a) During my research about the place, I came across the website VisitDubai.com ranked higher than Dubai.com.
b) Self storage provider TheBoxMe.com.
c) Emirates.com, in the flight.
d) MaiDubaiWater.com, the drinking water service.
e) OSN.com, the television entertainment.
f) TheDubaiMall.com, which is the largest mall in the world by total area.
So, I guess investing in .COM domain names related to this area makes sense. Although I haven't personally sold any domain name to someone from Dubai or Middle East for that matter, but I sure am going to give it a try. Perhaps, people who have had first hand experience buying or selling domain names from/to businesses in Middle East may share their experience and let us know what works and what not.
P.S. The brand name H & M, which is a well known brand, has a showroom in Dubai Mall. One of the glass walls of the shop reads www.H&M.com(I couldn't take the photograph). That makes me wonder if people are actually aware of the domain names. Even big brands such as these which uses HM.com, are making such mistakes('&' is not even a valid character for domain names).
Please share your views, advice, experiences and criticisms, if you have any, related to this.
Thanks!!
Being in the domain industry, you just can't ignore the urls even if they are mentioned on buildings. Here are some of the my observations about domain names used in this part of the world, in the last two days that I have been here:
1) .COMs dominate the market here over .ae extension, which I thought would be more popular here. Pharmacy shops, hospitals and private practitioners such as dentist, gynaecologist, orthopaedics etc. mostly use .COMs, as I could see a lot of URLs on buildings and hospitals. So, there is an opportunity for geo domain investors to look into this market.
2) There are a lot of tourists here. Therefore, english is a well known language among common people, though they prefer to speak in Arabic and occasionally, Hindi. English keywords sounds totally fine for the businesses here.
3) Cab and tourism companies are plentiful and popular, and therefore, people owning rental domain names related to this geography have a good chance of getting a fantastic price if they approach the right buyer.
4) People are crazy about cars. You can literally find every high end cars on the streets of Dubai. Sports cars are very popular. A lot of car enthusiasts who visit Dubai go for renting high end cars. Therefore, if you have domain names like Exotic cars, or any other related names, you can get a good price for those, selling it to these service providers in Dubai.
5) There are exhibitions happening throughout the year in Dubai. Owning geo domain names in those category may also help fetch some good price.
6) People are filthy rich here. If they want something, they want it!! Any price, and they will take it. Money is not a matter.
Here are some of the domain names that I came across as advertisements and could recall :
a) During my research about the place, I came across the website VisitDubai.com ranked higher than Dubai.com.
b) Self storage provider TheBoxMe.com.
c) Emirates.com, in the flight.
d) MaiDubaiWater.com, the drinking water service.
e) OSN.com, the television entertainment.
f) TheDubaiMall.com, which is the largest mall in the world by total area.
So, I guess investing in .COM domain names related to this area makes sense. Although I haven't personally sold any domain name to someone from Dubai or Middle East for that matter, but I sure am going to give it a try. Perhaps, people who have had first hand experience buying or selling domain names from/to businesses in Middle East may share their experience and let us know what works and what not.
P.S. The brand name H & M, which is a well known brand, has a showroom in Dubai Mall. One of the glass walls of the shop reads www.H&M.com(I couldn't take the photograph). That makes me wonder if people are actually aware of the domain names. Even big brands such as these which uses HM.com, are making such mistakes('&' is not even a valid character for domain names).
Please share your views, advice, experiences and criticisms, if you have any, related to this.
Thanks!!
