Archive for the ‘.co’ Category
.Co trademark program concludes.
.Co announced today that 100% of the world’s top 100 brands have secured their .co domain name through the registry’s Specially Protected Marks Program, or “SPM.”
SPM provided a way for companies on the Deloitte Brand List to get their .co domains without the traditional expense and time required. Among the companies securing their .co domain through SPM are Facebook, Ferrari, Blackberry, Siemens, Sanyo, Amazon, Honda, GAP and Barbie.
The program is somewhat similar to the idea of having a “globally protected marks list” when new top level domain names launch. There is still a lot of debate around the idea, with much of the debate concerning which brands would actually make the list. You can imagine that brands listed 101-200 would push for an extended list.
What .co did was a win-win. It protected the rights of mark holders and won their praise. But .co can also now say that the world’s top 100 brands have secured their .co domain. That’s good publicity.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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Trademark owners go after their names on .co.
A dozen companies have filed 13 .co domain name arbitration disputes since the relaunch of .co as a a generic domain name.
The most recent UDRP filing was for Dreamhost.co by the owner of the large web host DreamHost.com. This is a somewhat surprising case given that surely a web host was aware of the release of .co domains.
Other companies have also filed cases. AOL wants aolmail.co and L.A. Fitness is going after lafitness.co. Other companies filing complaints include:
Akbank Turk A.S.
Linode, LLC
Karl Storz GmbH & Co. KG
Barry’s Ticket Service, Inc.
Dormeuil Freres
Tilda Limited
Rautaruukki Oyj
Spa Esprit Group Franchise Pte Ltd
.Co domains are subject to a UDRP procedure similar to .com, except that only World Intellectual Property Organization currently hears the cases.
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Big .co sale finally completed; landrush auctions begin.
e.Co, which was auctioned for $81,000 in a charity auction in June, has finally changed hands. Although the whois for the domain name still shows CO Internet, the buyer has informed me that the domain name was transferred to his registrar account today and that he paid for the domain weeks ago. It will be interesting to see what the buyers have planned.
In other .co news, the landrush auctions began today. Approximately 2,550 .co domain names that received more than one landrush application will be auctioned at Pool (information is available here). Landrush applicants have already plunked down about $300 per domain, and will now have to pay an additional amount if they wish to secure the domains.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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Another milestone. What’s next?
It has taken .co just two and a half weeks to hit a big milestone: today the .co domain name surpassed 400,000 domain name registrations according to the ticker on its web site.
Although the rate of registrations will obviously slow over time, this is a fantastic launch. Including roughly 39,000 domains that were charged a premium in the sunrise period and landrush (but excluding auction fees), I calculate that consumers have paid over $20 million for .co domain names so far.
According to HosterStats.com, the other recent country code rebrand .me had about 400,000 registrations in June of this year.
Where will .co go from here? Let’s do a little poll. How many domain names do you think will be registered at this time next year, which means .co will have gone through its first expiration deletion cycle?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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Relaunch was successful, but hard work remains.
It comes as little surprise to me, but it’s now apparent that the .co launch has been successful. As of now, 279,000 .co domain names have been registered. I calculate gross sales of about $19 million to date.
There are a number of reasons I’m not surprised by the initial success of .co. I outlined many of these in my last newsletter. But regardless of how or why it has charged out of the gate, and regardless of how much time, money, and ingenuity has gone into the process, it all starts over now. The long term viability of any top level domain name isn’t determined in the first week. It’s determined in the ensuing years.
The number one driver: use and promotion by end users.
.Co already has some big coups in this area. Twitter is using t.co. Overstock bought o.co, although it’s not sure what it will do with it. Go Daddy plans to use x.co.
But what will be interesting to watch is use by other companies. Will any of them actually use it for unique and new web sites? Will they advertise them on TV? Will small businesses say “find us at xyz.co”?
I can’t think of any “new” TLD that has been successful by this measure. Yes, .biz is a great business for Neustar. And .info is a cash cow for Afilias. But are they successful? Will they wilt under the pressure of hundreds of competing TLDs in the coming years?
Given the thought and money behind the launch, I know .co is thinking about this. The work has only just begun.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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Coming soon, x.co URL shortener.
Domain name registrar GoDaddy is releasing a new URL shortener at x.co, according to a tweet by company founder and CEO Bob Parsons:
This is likely a .co “founder’s program” deal. .Co has already done a deal with Twitter for t.co, which will be Twitter’s own URL shortener services. .Co is Colombia’s country code top level domain name, which is currently being liberalized.
The domain registrar is one of ten accredited registrars for .co domain names, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that it is upping the ante with registry .Co Internet.
Still, it will be interesting to see how GoDaddy positions the URL shortener. There are plenty of shorteners on the market, and Twitter will soon begin wrapping all links in t.co. It seems that the registrar will need to find a way to integrate the shortener into its other products to make it really gain traction. Many of the company’s employees currently use a .me shortener, and the .me registry is a partnership involving GoDaddy.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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Company offers way for non-.co-accredited registrars to sell .co registrations.
One of the unique aspects of the launch of the .co domain name is that there are only ten domain name registrars accredited to sell the domains. This includes some big names such as Go Daddy, eNom, and Tucows. But that means that smaller registrars are shut out from selling .co domain names unless they strike a deal with one of the ten accredited registrars. That creates an interesting situation, as going to a competitor to form a reseller deal is never easy.
That’s where My.CO, one of two accredited Colombian registrars, comes in. My.co offers an EPP gateway option for ICANN accredited registrars as an alternative to a traditional reseller program with one of the large registrars. This means registrars can get direct access to the .co registry and won’t have to share customer data with their competitors.
A handful of domain name registrars have already inked deals with My.co to offer .co domains, including EuroDNS and Blacknight.
“We think .co will have a major impact this year,” Blacknight Founder Michele Neylon told Domain Name Wire. “We evaluated several options for offering .co domain names, and determined that My.CO was the best solution for Blacknight.”
My.CO also has a consumer registrar for .co domains at mi.com.co, which is powered by LogicBoxes.
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Twitter signs on to .co.
.Co has pulled out all the stops in marketing its launch, and it got another big win today. Twitter announced that it will begin using t.co as its URL shortener, and eventually will wrap all URLs on the twitter service through t.co.
That doesn’t mean that all links will show up with the .co domain, however. The company explained that URLs will show up as t.co in SMS, but on the web interface or through various applications it might actually show as the long form URL rather than the shortened one. This will help create transparency into where your click will actually take you.
Regardless of how it is ultimately implemented, this will definitely help to further elevate the buzz around .co. It’s just another example of .Co Internet’s outside-the-box marketing strategy. New TLD applicants should take note.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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Here’s a guide to getting .co at the lowest price.
I have a feeling .co is going to be hot. It will have one of the best country code “relaunches” we’ve ever seen. .CO Internet has undertaken one of the most impressive “new TLD” pre-marketing campaigns that I can think of, and the buzz is mounting. I’ve had several non-domainer friends email me inquiring about the domain.
The global sunrise period for trademark holders is going on until June 10, followed by a landrush June 21-July 13. The sunrise includes unprecedented checks to keep people from “gaming” the system as we’ve seen in other launches. There will be an auction if more than one sunrise applicant qualifies.
Even though it officially doesn’t start until June, the landrush phase has sort of started already as many registrars are offering landrush applications for the domains now. If more than one application is received for a domain, it will be auctioned off.
Here’s a look at how 8 of the 10 the accredited .co registrars are pricing the domains prior to general availability*. Based on these numbers, it seems that eNom and OpenSRS (Tucows) are your best bet for pricing during sunrise and landrush.
OpenSRS
-Global Sunrise: $205 non-refundable application fee (covers trademark application) + $25 Registration Fee (if name is awarded, includes 1-year registration)
-Landrush: $5 application fee and $220 registration fee if domain awarded.
GoDaddy
-Global Sunrise: $299.99. Refundable except for $270.00 application fee if you don’t get the domain.
-Landrush: $299.99. Refundable except for $10.00 application fee if you don’t get the domain.
-General availaiblity: Go Daddy is already accepting applications for the general availability period for $29.99 per domain.
Register.com
-Global Sunrise: Unknown
-Landrush: $275 with Promo Code LR25. If they don’t get the domain you’ll get a refund less $9.00. They have a price match guarantee for the total price but “applies only to fees equal to or above $225 per domain and is only applicable for up to 10 domains per account”. So if you’d prefer to use Register.com but get lower pricing, you can quote them one of the lower competitor prices.
Dotster
Global Sunrise: $299 non-refundable application fee plus $34.99 per year for registration.
Landrush: $10 application fee. If you get the domain it’s $325 plus $34.99 for each additional year of registration.
InternetX
Unknown, must have a reseller account to apply.
MelbourneIT
-Global Sunrise: $340 for the first year.
-Landrush: $310 for first year, includes $15 application fee and $290 registration fee. Presumably the $290 would be refunded if you don’t get the domain.
eNom
-Global Sunrise: non-refundable application fee is $200 and there’s a $25 additional fee if you get the domain name.
-Landrush: $5.00 application fee and $220 if you get the domain.
Network Solutions
-Global Sunrise: $240 non-refundable application fee, plus $39.99 if you get the domain.
-Landrush: pricing not yet released
mi.com.co
-Global Sunrise: 279.99 non refundable. Includes first year registration fee.
-Landrush: To be published 1st of June
-GA: To be Published 1st of July
*Prices based on posted prices on each registrar’s web site as of 5/10/10. Domains will also be available through other registrars who have resale agreements with the above registrars.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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LogicBoxes powers .co registrar for transition of domain names.
LogicBoxes, a sort of “registrar/registry in a box” solution, announced today that it is the registrar backbone behind .Co Internet’s transition of .co domain names from Universidad de los Andes to its own platform.
.Co is being commercialized into a global brand this year. As part of the process, the .co registry needed to transition 27,000 already registered third level domain names (e.g. name.com.co) away from Universidad de los Andes, which previously managed .co.
Eventually, all of the .com.co domain names will be transitioned to one of the ten registrars that will be initially accredited to register .co domain names. However, the .co registry will continue to use LogicBoxes to maintain restricted domains including .org.co, .edu.co, .gov.co and .mil.co.
A number of domain name companies and individual domain investors use LogicBoxes to reap the benefits of owning their own registrar without the technical headaches.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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