Potential of .cat domain

[llista]

On the 23rd April will open to the public the .cat domain, I was wondering what kind of potential it has...

FYI, the .cat stands for Catalonia and to be able to buy one there must be some kind of personal or commercial link with the Catalan nation, I am thinking about buying some as probably few people will be able to do so legally as we are only 11 millions of Catalans, the problem that I see is that nobody will be able to buy them back unless they also Catalan and that makes the English sounding domain like lost.cat useless to buy...
Another condition to have a .cat domain I understand is that you must use the Catalan language on the page, few companies will do so.
Do you think it has any potential/value?

They are priced at around 30 Euros year

 

[angisson]

hmm, with all those guide lines I doubt thay will take off... if you have to have it in there lang, it makes it usless to millions of ppl. IMHO

so I don't think it will take off... but thats my opinion

 

[Dr.Lee]

pet.cat and dog.cat will be pretty valuable.
only one point.

good luck
Dorin

 

[zehrila]

Pussy.cat 1337

 

[mis_chiff]

smelly.cat lol sorry, couldn't resist. (watching to much "friends" on tv)

Same rules for ownership as in Canada. You must have
live in that country in order to purchase one. But, there
are legal ways around it. But keep in mind, whoever buys
the domain will be targeting that country anyway, so a translation
page shouldn't get in the way of the purchasing of domains.
.ca (canada) there getting bigger all the time.
(by US buyers with a Canadian Presence).
Top domains in any language will be worth it in time. :imho:

 

[thefabfive]

My recommendation would be to get domains that the native people would find useful. And in the language that is most used (whether that be English or Catalonian (sp?) ).

 

[fonzie_007]

I woud like the domain my.cat or tom.cat.

 

[Dr.Lee]

right, tomcat is a very good JSP application container I am using.
Apach company must buy this name.

 

[Epic]

I might consider a few .cat domains, but honestly if its true that you have to use their language then that would suck...

 

[nRnF]

I live in Catalonia, and tried to get several pussy, tom, etc. CATs.

No chance, the ruls are Sooooo strong.
If you can`t proof that you are setting up a CATALAN website you wont get the domain.
If you manage you get it they will periodically check the site wich MUST be in catalan language, and related to the region.
If it is not you loose your domain.

I am not shure, but I think its not allowed to sell them.

Regarding coverage:
Catalan is spoken by about 7 million people (only 3 mio can write it), so there is not much audience

 

[Kate]

If you manage you get it they will periodically check the site wich MUST be in catalan language, and related to the region.
If it is not you loose your domain.

So it is a ghetto TLD ? They can keep it.
Obviously it is not a TLD for domainers.

 

[white_crane]

Why would they do something so stupid and limit the amount of income the could generate by selling names? Look at .tv. They are paving roads with that money.

 

[nRnF]

Why would they do something so stupid and limit the amount of income the could generate by selling names? Look at .tv. They are paving roads with that money.

1) Catalans are different
2) How many good descriptive names you can make out of the ending .cat ?

 

[mojojo]

cat is a cultural extension not the best for greedy speculators :p

 

[khuldun]

Thanks not good at all for domainers! and they are destroying the whole ext with all those rules!

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Thanks not good at all for domainers! and they are destroying the whole ext with all those rules!

I would say more, that out extensions (.com, .co.uk and .eu) are ruined by lack of rules... In my opinion I think that anyone found parking domains should have them confiscated.

It is CLEAR from parkers that they do not plan to use the name other than to sell or make money from traffic.

The system for our names are rediculous... the .cat rules seem quite fair and sensible in today's domaining world

 

[Kate]

...
In my opinion I think that anyone found parking domains should have them confiscated.

It is CLEAR from parkers that they do not plan to use the name other than to sell or make money from traffic.

The system for our names are rediculous... the .cat rules seem quite fair and sensible in today's domaining world

Well I do not agree with this. Many if not most of my names are parked just because I can't develop 100s of names at once...
A name available today may be registered tomorrow. Should I wait for someone else to register the names I want ?
Let's get real... and there is nothing wrong with selling at a profit. I agree the domaining industry sometimes lacks ethics but setting ultra-strict rules is a good way to ruin any TLD.
Of course .cat is not designed for domainers, it's their right after all but maybe they are going a bit too far.

BTW I do not know of any TLD where you are actually 'forced' to use a particular language to be entitled to use it... even the repressive regimes won't do that (as long as you avoid politically sensitive matters).
Just imagine Nominet saying: "all .co.uk holders will now have to use wording in English or Welsh on their websites. Failure to comply will result in cancellation of your name". Talk about speech police. Ridiculous isn't it ?

 

[llista]

Link

Regarding coverage:
Catalan is spoken by about 7 million people (only 3 mio can write it), so there is not much audience

According to Wikipedia 10.145.9577.129.401 Catalan speakers

Wikipedia Number of Catalan Speakers

If you live in Catalonia I would expect you to learn the language of the nation where you live otherwise you can get the **** out of here.


I find it completly adequate to force people to use the Catalan language on their website the same way that shops that can't attend customers in Catalan can be reported to the Commerce department for sanctions, if anybody thinks that is fascist I could not care anyless, we have democracy in here and elect the politicans we want every four years.

Yes we are different

 

[nRnF]

llista,
Benvingut a NP :hi:
Les teves estadistiques parlan dels catalans arreu del mon i no dels catalans de Catalunya.

PS:
El valencià no es català !

 

[zehrila]

What :td: