Indigenous ccTLD versus .com

[JoshuaPz]

In my brief 2-month stint as a domain name salesman I've had some nice luck selling .com names to their complementary .ca name owners, but absolutely none selling .com names to the .com.au owners. This stat, combined with other findings, reeks with evidence that certain countries value .com names as equal with (or better than) their own ccTLDs, whereas others totally dismiss the worth of .com.

So, I'm curious, is there a list available of how sexily each major country views .com names compared to their respective ccTLDs, assuming we're talking keywords that are neither intently country-specific nor overwhelmingly universal?

I personally would find such a list incredibly helpful.

 

[ripley]

I think -- and maybe someone can either refute or back me up here -- but I think that .co.uk is generally preferred to .com for UK businesses.

That's about all I can speak to though.

ripley.

 

[Jake]

From what I've read, Australians like their .com.au more than they like .com

To some people, its a trust factor, I think

 

[JoshuaPz]

Thanks. I've heard rumors about ccTLD loyalty amongst Aussies/Brits/Germans here and there. I'm more interested in whether that loyalty also holds for other technologically advanced countries like China, Japan, India, Russia, and Israel.

 

[hey.co.uk]

.co.uk , .com.au and .de are all seen as locally stronger than .com and that is based on spending various amounts of time in the respective countries.

 

[netfleet]

Com.au are much more valued in Aus than com.

It's been a well kept namespace where only Aussie businesses with an ABN can rego names so Australians know that if they visit a com.au domain, they'll get a local business.

Having spent time in UK, France & Aus (with a domaining head on!), I can say that the .au has the strongest loyalty amongst the locals. You just don't see ads for .com domains like you do in France & UK.

Top answer the OP question, to work out country's loyalty, check the last post on this thread - http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/400900-domain-registration-statistics.html

then divide by the country's population. Crude but effective, I reckon.

 

[JoshuaPz]

Thanks for the info, netfleet!

For each country below, I divided the number of websites in that country's TLD by its number of Internet users (according to Wikipedia) to obtain its ccTLD fidelity index:

High ccTLD fidelity:
Belgium (.be): 0.191
Germany (.de): 0.191
Denmark (.dk): 0.187
Switzerland (.ch): 0.150
Netherlands (.nl): 0.131
UK (.uk): 0.122
Austria (.at): 0.112
Argentina (.ar): 0.077
China (.cn): 0.075
Norway (.no): 0.068
New Zealand (.nz): 0.068
Sweden (.se): 0.065
Hungary (.hu): 0.057
Czech Republic (.cz): 0.049
Slovakia (.sk): 0.040
Finland (.fi): 0.037
Australia (.au): 0.036
Italy (.it): 0.035

Some ccTLD fidelity:
Canada (.ca): 0.031
Ireland (.ie): 0.030
Poland (.pl): 0.029
Brazil (.br): 0.022
Chile (.cl): 0.021
Ukraine (.ua): 0.019
Croatia (.hr): 0.018
Russia (.ru): 0.016
Spain (.es): 0.015
France (.fr): 0.013
Portugal (.pt): 0.012

Low ccTLD fidelity:
Japan (.jp): 0.009
Mexico (.mx): 0.007
Europe (.eu): 0.007
United States (.us): 0.005
Turkey (.tr): 0.003
India (.in): 0.003
Peru (.pe): 0.002
Colombia (.co): 0.002
Algeria (.dz): 0.000

...the fundamental idea being that the higher the ccTLD fidelity index for a given country, the more the more likely it is that members of that country prefer their own ccTLD to a global one like .com or .net.

I hope many of you find this list helpful in your sales ventures!

 

[netfleet]

Nice work, JoshuaPZ.

Interesting results although it does blow away my theiry about Australia being more loyal to .au than the UK.... ah well!

 

[mwzd]

I divided the number of websites in that country's TLD by its number of Internet users (according to Wikipedia) to obtain its ccTLD loyalty index.

Statistical analysis derived from incorrect statistics, not to mention a total disregard for absolutes can be made to prove almost anything. :D

Lets look at the absolute numbers - Total number of $$ invested in any namespace, by anyone - you'll get a small modicum understanding of why a particular ccTLD is worth more.

According to your stats, .be should be more valuable than .de. You also do not take into account all interested parties in a namespace - only canadians can develop a .ca but anyone can and does develop a .in/.ws. Restricted namespaces might align to your figures, but ccTLDs w/o a nexus requirement are really an entirely different ball game.

 

[JoshuaPz]

I'm not sure I completely understand your reply having skimmed it so quickly, but I should clarify that I was speaking more in terms of the value of a ccTLD in the eyes of a given country than of the objective value a given ccTLD.

Empirical evidence in my selling experiences seem to confirm the findings in my table. I've had substantial luck selling .com names to Indians, some luck selling .com domains to Canadians, and zero luck whatsoever selling .com-ers to Australians.

I'll read your response more carefully a little later. It's possible I missed something.

 

[netfleet]

According to your stats, .be should be more valuable than .de. .

That's not what the stats represent at all. The conclusion should be "Belgium internet users value .be over .com (or any other extension for that matter) more than Germans value .de over .com".

I think it's a very useful list - rep to JoshuaPz for taking the time.

 

[lzy]

Thanks for sharing Josh! :tu:

 

[mwzd]

The conclusion should be "Belgium internet users value .be over .com (or any other extension for that matter) more than Germans value .de over .com".

When you try and define a ccTLD Loyalty Index, you must take into account various other factors which affect this ccTLD and internet users.

What do 50,000 sites developed by foreigners have to do with number of internet users in western samoa - you just might have a divide by zero error in certain ccTLDs.

This simplistic look at stats to try and determine who will and wont prefer the .com over the local cctld is both skewed and incorrect in its parameters.

 

[soggyindo]

+1 for the .com.au arguments. many australians see .com as a spammier, cheaper version of .com.au

 

[wot]

.co.jp - .日本 -soon , .cn - .中国 - now .ru to cyrilic - soon

I think .com will become second to those cctld in the not too distant future.

 

[Traveler]

Not to take away from the debate that is occuring in this thread, but just an observation of what I see in Spain where I have been living off and on for a while. The .com is still superior but the .es is widely accepted and is used if not as often but possibly more often in advertisements. This is one country hat does embrace their cctld.

 

[JoshuaPz]

Thanks, neobodhi. I bumped the low|mid ccTLD fidelity threshold down from 0.02 to 0.01 in response to your post. Hopefully these updated classes capture the reality with greater accuracy.