A strong sales month for .UK.
Over 100,000 second level domain names under .uk have been registered since they became available for registration last month, .uk registry Nominet announced today.
About two-thirds have been registered by people who have matching third level .uk domain names. They are given first rights to the second level domain name for a period of five years.
Surprisingly, over one-third have been registered as completely new and unique registrations, showing demand for shorter .uk domain names for terms that people didn’t yet pick up in .co.uk
Buoyed by second level domain sales, last month was Nominet’s biggest sales month in 14 years. It sold 225,000 new registrations across .uk, .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk.
This comes as Nominet is gearing up for an expanded namespace in England. Nominet will begin offering .wales and .cymru domains soon, but will also face competition from .London.
Joseph Peterson says
Here’s one new extension that won’t be a flash in the pan.
stuart walker says
..except its not available unless you own the corresponding .co.uk ,org or .me . You can eventually buy one in 2019 if the corresponding .co.uk etc owner doesnt reg the .uk.
Pointless .
Andrew Allemann says
You can buy one if the corresponding .co, .me, etc domain isn’t registered. Apparently people are doing that.
Joseph Peterson says
Phasing in the new extension seems the most responsible and equitable approach. Otherwise the brand protection / squatting / extortion issues for existing .CO.UK owners would be devastating on a national scale.
Sure, there are fewer opportunities to make a killing by grabbing premiums in a hurry. But the alternative would have been horrible for domain investors with large .CO.UK portfolios. If they had to protect all their domains with immediate .UK registrations, it would be equivalent to double the renewal fees for a year … paid on a single day.
We can only imagine how things would have been if business interests in the United States had been equally aware of their online vulnerability and mobilized to protect themselves against ICANN. Maybe we would have seen the nTLDs phased in together with grandfathered rights for brand owners.
In that case, a company like LuxuryEstate.com would have been able to spend $50k on itself or its customers rather than facing a $50k tax to continue operations without undue brand dilution.
Bad for opportunists … but better for the broader economy.