Using ccTLD without owning the TLD

[zattack]

I contacted the .com owner and he quoted the sale price at high $xxxx which was out of my budget so I opted for a ccTLD. The .com is a registered for last 16 years but have never been developed.
So should I proceed and ccTLD and develop my project or should I go for another domain? The domains is actually too good one.

 

[Kuffy]

If you are operating in one country, then you could be OK with a ccTLD. BUT, you will lose a bit of traffic to the .com, and, should you be a success, then you will make the com more valuable.

Would the owner of the .com consider a lease or staged payment option?

 

[Kate]

If your focus is purely national the ccTLD is fine, many end users don't care about the .com although it's good to have. If you think you might be expanding think about it.
If you say the domain is a really good one, then it could be an investment, you have an asset that can be resold for a profit.
And a domain purchase is a business expense.

However you are not saying if the ccTLD is relevant to you, do you live in the host country or not. There may be alternatives.

 

[zattack]

If you are operating in one country, then you could be OK with a ccTLD. BUT, you will lose a bit of traffic to the .com, and, should you be a success, then you will make the com more valuable.

Would the owner of the .com consider a lease or staged payment option?

Yes, my focus is only for one country. No lease or staged option available.

 

[zattack]

If your focus is purely national the ccTLD is fine, many end users don't care about the .com although it's good to have. If you think you might be expanding think about it.
If you say the domain is a really good one, then it could be an investment, you have an asset that can be resold for a profit.
And a domain purchase is a business expense.

However you are not saying if the ccTLD is relevant to you, do you live in the host country or not. There may be alternatives.

Yes, the focus will be only on one country and traffic source will be mostly from search engines.
And yes, the ccTLD is relevant for the country I'm targeting. I do live in the host country.