Here are 13 ccTLDs just begging to be commercialized.
With the recent launch of .co, we’ve seen another re-purposed country code domain name get international recognition. It joins other fairly successful commercializations such as .tv and .me, as well as failures such as .ws and .md.
Here are some other country code top level domain names that might have commercial potential, and my predicted marketing success for each one. But these countries better act fast, as soon they will have to compete with hundreds of new generic TLDs.
.AD (Andorra) – Shortly after beginning the sunrise period, AOL claims rights to every .AD domain name based on its non-existent trademark for Ad.com.
.BJ (Benin) – Fresh off the success of .xxx, ICM Registry expands its empire.
.BS (Bahamas) – Tired of political BS? Bahamas will sell you the domain of your favorite politician.
.CD (Congo) – Thousands of CD stores line up to register their .cd domain name, only to all go out of business before landrush.
.DJ (Djibouti) – Thousands of DJs high on acid end up registering their own .dj domain name.
.EE (Estonia) – Every electrical engineer is provided with a .ee domain name upon graduation.
.ET (Ethiopia) – ET Phones Home with this launch.
.GM (Gambia) – Every person who has lent money to General Motors gets a free domain name. Instantly, 300 million U.S. citizens become .gm domain registrants, creating the most successful TLD of all time.
.MO (Macao) – Interviewees of Brian Null’s MO.com get a free .mo domain. Because MO.com is just too long.
.MY (Malaysia) Hoping to piggyback on the success of .me, Malaysia markets .my domains, before figuring out that screw.my doesn’t have the same ring to it as screw.me.
.NO (Norway) – Thousands of corporate minions register .no domain names for corporate big wigs up the food chain who only know how to say “NO!”.
.PR (Puerto Rico) – Step right up, PR firms!
.SM (San Marino) – Another new market opportunity for ICM Registry.
Mark Fulton says
I have to disagree. None of these extensions would be a global success. How can they compare to what .CO represents? They each represent a niche that is much too small.
Jim Fleming says
Yes, low-hanging fruit still exists.
.PR and .PRO could form a joint venture and one would get both names with one registration.
.BJ and .JOBS
The States may be a better investment.
.FL .TX .IL .NY .HI have some clue-level
Note all of the .COlorado cities in .CO
.USA Senators do not like being left out
mnp says
Whatever is anybody going to say or anti-arguing.
.CO is just a very good typo for .com that is all. Fairy tale is over, none other country code is going to be interesting for global domainers and end-users.
Cloud Hosting says
Mark, I agree with Andrew and that’s why .co have no value to me, what .co for? Company? That is simply dumb, domainers invest on generic so where is company name in? It’s just like any other ccTLD that came out and will come later but the difference is that this is pure domainers tld, the hype is big as marketing budget is too. Look what happens to .biz not a cctld and not a niche (business) Do you think that businesses or company got in .biz? or will go with .co? No, seriously .com is king and most companies already have their .com or ccTLD (real one not the .co), I beter bet on a dot pro than a .co!
Jim Fleming says
@mnp
“.CO is just a very good typo for .com that is all.”
If the industry stalls and it remains as you say, then the new DNS software will likely take a .CO name and first query the NameServers for the .COM equivalent.
That could weld (meld) .COM and .CO into a strange mess for many decades. Some people favor CHAOS like that.
Brian Null says
ha! I was chuckling my way through your list only to land on the .mo entry… too funny, yet, i see an opportunity! 😉
Tim says
I think in the future all the great hacks and such in these extensions will have some value in terms of what the general collectibles market is much like now.
Just like dolls, collector plates,figurines, autographs do, good hacks and the greatest keywords will have some value and will be traded much like the they do.
The values will be smaller but will fill a need for those that can’t afford better domains, which will be the .com, .net, .org .
.co will be similar as well to these other extensions after some time. It will be interesting to look back at the one year mark, as well as the two year mark to see what, if anything ever happened with .co . 🙂
Me says
.al, .mn, .co, .ma , .mo are all great for US states. BigColoradoCity.co makes perfect sense, insurance.ma makes sense since plenty of insurance is local etc etc etc. Who doesn’t what a Boston.ma is for?
The US state abbreviations will not change anytime soon, but new tld will come and go.
FX says
you forgot .OM
Lohand says
.MD a failure, HA!
Maybe so at this point, (love to see the evidence) but with health care at the forefront one might very easily see that this certainly could become more successful going forward.
Alan says
Andrew
You are right – the list of possibilities to sell suckers is never ending and will be enjoyed by many for years to come.
M. Menius says
It seems obvious, but few domainers discuss the importance of the intuitive meaning needed for an extension to really catch on. By catch on, I do not mean speculative domainer fever (that’s artificial), but real companies using domains to publicize their company.
Most of the ones listed would not elicit a familiar reaction among most internet users … and therein is the long uphill battle ahead.
.travel, .tv, and .us are instantly recognizable to anyone, yet look at the time that was required for them to come this far.
.co needed a HUGE campaign to reinforce to consumers it stands for “COmpany” or “COrporation”. Only the best, most marketable, and most instantly recognizable keywords will have any real chance of gaining traction in the market as a new tld. The absurb proposition that there is anxious & eager “demand” for new extensions is laughable.
WRS says
In European English .co would probably be much better aligned with company than .com, if .com hadn’t ‘got there’ first.
Funny you mention screw.me – my only .me is Crewe.me, 1st because it is my hometown, and 2nd because of the rhyme.
Rob Sequin says
speculators selling to other speculators is the basic “greater fool” model.
Maybe .ne or .or will come out to challenge .net and .org 🙂
All just silly.
What percentage of .co owners will develop their .co domain? 1%
What percentage of .co owners will consider or try to sell their .co domain? 99%
End of story.
We had this same conversation with .me.
How’s that working out?
FX says
Well dot co wont get developed much.
Considering the fact Mike Mann stole all the best dot co domain names before they became available for everyone else. Lets see how many greater fools he finds.
Waikiki says
@rob Sequin
Sorry to say that .me is not like .co, there are development starting like my website and like missouri.me (bruce marler) so .me is something more toward public and is like a social tld
Louise says
Isn’t there something to be said because Neustar is the Registry of .co? That’s a big plus. However, I didn’t register any.
@ Waikiki: “.me is something more toward public and is like a social tld” – I agree! Check my website.
Anthony Mitchell says
Two extensions to watch would be .MO and .DJ. As a special administrative region or SAR that allows gambling, Macau could be a lower-risk extension than other country codes.
If there could be dual registration options for pinyin and Chinese characters on both sides of the dot, Macau could offer an alternative to the .cn extension.
We will be hearing more about Djibouti, thanks to the efforts of one of the Bin Laden companies (the good Bin Ladens) to build the Bridge of the Horns between Africa and Asia. Twin cities, both called Al Noor City, will be built as free trade zones on either side of the bridge.
If Djibouti can move quickly into the IDN space by enabling the use of non-English characters, its domain extension could gain traction with regional languages that would complement the free-trade status of the Al Noor Cities.
Some of the other extensions listed in the article above carry some of the risks inherent in the use of India’s country code:
1. Civil liability for intellectual property disputes;
2. Retroactive taxation liabilities for greater than 10 years;
3. Poorly functioning judicial systems that operate with different standards than Americans are accustomed;
4. National and state-level censorship of content; and
5. Criminal penalties for activities that have no corresponding counterpart in the United States—as we saw with the incarceration of the American head of eBay’s operations in India.
Americans need to think carefully before relying on country code extensions.
Kitvy says
Thanks for the explanation.
I love .NO and .BS. 🙂
Domainer Income says
I read that list and thought about domaining.bs (its available). The only problem is that the Bahamas want $500 a year for one domain!
Jakbqwik says
.CO has some value; both as a type of .COM and as a potential future shortener to .COM which is a real possibility with the surge of all things MOBILE. I could see .CO and .COM eventually coming to parity in terms of pricing, with one never really being worth more than the other.
The rest of these CCTLD’s are worthless; completely worthless.
I bought eight .CO’s. Three of them have corrensponding .COM’s that are currently getting over 50,000 unique hits per month. I have received offers from two of these .COM companies already…I can’t believe they didn’t register the .CO of their domain when they had the chance! One of them has offered $8,000 so far (I countered at $40,000 – still waiting to hear back). The other offered $200 and then called me, trying to strong-arm me…this company does over $30 million per year in sales, so I told the guy I’m sitting on it until I get it developed, but I’ll part with it for $70,000 now…he was pissed! The third company (the one I haven’t heard from) gets around 300,000 unique hits per month and I estimate they are doing over $90 million per year in revenue…I’ll either develop the .CO on this one or they’ll pay me $200,000…we’ll see what happens:)
.CO was a the best thing to happen for domainers in fifteen years.
TW says
Yup,
I’ve already sold a .co for $xx,xxx, but I signed a NDA, so I can’t talk. They’ve already got the site up and running, and it’s NOT pointing to a .com.
Senator says
I think .OM good as well …
C.OM !
Damon P says
Jakbqwik, you’re cyber squatting.
Do you know they can take them off you without your permission. They just go through ICAAN. If I were you I would sell them before they get ripped from your hands.
I puchased 60 + .CO names, I have about 30 of them that will fetch a nice price when the time comes.
What people fail to realise is that .CO the Parent of Domain names such as .co.uk
It is also shorter than .COM
With mobile devices becoming a key utility for communications it is a sure bet.
Human nature is universal, people will abbreviate when they can.
.CO is the answer, and will be on par with .net and .org sooner than you think with the right marketing.
People leaving negative comments are the ones that missed the boat. Me, I am already laughing all the way to the bank.
.CO cannot be compared to .me or .tv. That’s just plain stupid, but on the other hand the more ignorant people there are, the more opportunities I have to capitalise by purchasing more .CO’s. Yes, remain ignorant, make my wallet fatter!!! 😉