.uk .UK domain name release

[Psychedelic.us]

Is anyone registering .UK domains? They opened registration for anyone and there's a bunch of great one-word domains up for grabs. I haven't heard much about this extension on this forum and wanted to know all of your take.

UK residents already owning the .CO.UK extension received first dibs of its equivalent but now it's open registration. These .UK names seems to be much more better and catchy than .co.uk, but we'll see how things go. I suppose it's still too early to say.

There's still many great domains up for grab.

​

 

[erwin.groen]

Was fortunate to pick up:
FineJewellery.uk which I’ll be using to attract UK clients..

 

[jmcc]

Seemed to be a bit of a bloodbath with the .uk over the last few months.

Regards...jmcc

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Seemed to be a bit of a bloodbath with the .uk over the last few months.

Regards...jmcc

What's happened?

 

[jmcc]

What's happened?

A lot of .uk domain names that were reserved by 123 for its customers a few years ago were deleted.

Regards...jmcc

 

[BaileyUK]

Don't know why anyone should think its been a "Blood bath" Been pretty much as everyone in the UK had predicted.

Probably a couple of million defensive registrations by .co.uk owners (businesses and domainers)
100,000 or so pick-ups by those that see an opportunity in the UK as a stand alone - that hasn't really materialised accept for some top notch words and geo place name domains. (domainer purchases)

Seems to me the wise money has stayed with the established .co.uk extension. Nobody seems to want the .uk as a standalone. Obviously most secondary market buyers would prefer the pair but will settle for the .co.uk, whereas they wouldn't settle for the .UK (alone) for a business or product domain.

The 123-reg drops (January) did attract some interest but, mostly the decent stuff went to drop-catchers and then subsequent auctions, So, the market set the price. Only real winners were those with a decent catch-script and had paid for the access to the Nominets drop system which wasn't cheap (and heavily restricted in regards to attempts)

Seems to me that from a domainers perspective (large portfolio holders) have used the uk launch to thin out their .co.uk holdings (dropping the least desirable) then use the savings to consolidate their top names (create pairs) and ignore the UK version of their least favorable.

A quick visit to the number of half-decent domains available in just the .UK shows it hasn't been a blood bath at all. - Nobody really wants them as a stand alone

 

[jmcc]

Don't know why anyone should think its been a "Blood bath" Been pretty much as everyone in the UK had predicted.

It was expected but it is still interesting to see it happen. Most of these domain names were not active.

I ran web usage survey on the .uk domain names in July 2019 and the total number of .uk domain names was 3.6 million with 2.1 million being in the zone file. The usage breakdown was
Content: 42,514 (2.02%)
No Content: 893,789 (52.45%)
Templated: 221,488 (10.52%) (sales/PPC/affiliate landers)
Redirects: 288,038 (13.68%)
No Sites: 659,329 (31.32%)

Of the redirects, 32,360 (1.54%) were to the HTTPS version of the site. The PPC count was 174,421 (8.28%) and Sales were 46,948 (2.23%).

Agree on the demand element. There was also a major screwup in communicating the changed registration terms and this may have suppressed registrations from people and businesses using outsourced registrars who thought that people outside the UK could not register .uk domain names.

Regards...jmcc

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I keep seeing lots of decent sales for .UK names on domainlore.

 

[erwin.groen]

I still find it fascinating that any UK business choose not to continue to register their .UK equivalent despite what has been said prior..
To see a competitor use their shortened .uk version of your brand would not be ‘helpful’ in their UK business moving forward..

Australia will face the same dilemma shortly..

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I still find it fascinating that any UK business choose not to continue to register their .UK equivalent despite what has been said prior..
To see a competitor use their shortened .uk version of your brand would not be ‘helpful’ in their UK business moving forward..

Australia will face the same dilemma shortly..

Me too. It's fascinating that given the choice they still languish on .co.uk

 

[erwin.groen]

Could anyone here on the forum tell me whether any businesses are publicly advertising the shortened version .uk (without the co) on billboards etc

 

[Amar D]

Got moveto (dot) uk

 

[DoughMayne]

DigitalEuro.uk

 

[wizard]

Could anyone here on the forum tell me whether any businesses are publicly advertising the shortened version .uk (without the co) on billboards etc

Yes plenty are in London and on the tube but only decent short brands which they own the co.uk version

 

[NickB]

Used to go to Alexandra Palace a lot and still take the kids to the park....

AlexandraPark.uk

com net and co.uk are developed

 

[Amar D]

 

[Wesley S]

Tourney.uk

 

[Anne L.]

E-game.uk