Registry sells four premium domains to giant etailer.
Amazon.com has purchased a.com, z.co, k.co, and cloud.co from the .co registry, TechCrunch reported this evening.
.Co Internet has previously sold other one letter domain names, including o.co (sold to Overstock for $350,000) and e.co (auctioned off for $81,000 in a charity auction).
Other allocated one letter domains include t.co for twitter and x.co for Go Daddy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon uses a.co as a link shortener itself.
Most interesting to me is cloud.co. Would Amazon actually brand a service as cloud.co? Or was this a throw in?
This will be interesting to watch. Whether you love it or hate it, you have to admit .Co has trumped all other recent TLD launches for creating buzz and getting big name buy in.
Andy says
“Amazon.com has purchased a.com, z.co, k.co, and cloud.co”
I rest my case.
Andrew Allemann says
oops, I did it again
cm says
looks like Elliot, TechCrunch, and even Mike got theirs correct. And Mike is a typo king like me
Tommy Green says
The .co ext is going to take over as number 2 extension of all time. You guys that keep bashing .co are going to left out in the cold.
Take a gander at what the berkens and ricks own on the .co What are you going to say they are lucky.. You guys know who you are.
>co number 2 ext in 3 years
RAYY says
Yes .CO is catching up quickly.
Well done. Smart move by Amazon.
Joe says
Good news indeed for .CO. Congrats to buyers and sellers.
Steve M says
Ho hum. More .com typo purchases.
Expected better from a smart firm like Amazon.
Total .co registrations won’t hold above 1 million in our lifetimes; starting with the monster drop coming up with 1st anniversary registrations.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Steve – a.co and k.co can’t be considered typos since the corresponding .com’s don’t exist. And z.com isn’t an active web site.
jpt says
It really all depends on what they use them for. If cloud.co ends up being a full service or website, then it is big news for .CO But if it is just used as a redirect/shortener/shortcut, it’s just the same old false PR buzz. Keep in mind these names were “bought from the registry” so no domainers benefited.
Will wait and see what they use them for before I jump to any conclusions.
Spongy says
The point most people are missing is the branding issue and also the graphics one. Any brand designer will tell you that .co looks better than .com It’s much sexier graphically and is easier to manipulate and incorporate into logos. The simple fact that it’s shorter and sounds good helps too. Also I’ve heard typos being mentioned but the real coup for .co is the fact that google have recently introduced ‘instant search’
Example – If you type bimmer .com you’ll notice as your typing that bimmer.co appears first in the listings. Try it!
I’ve heard it said that .co may one day match .com but I have to disagree, I think it will surpass it and become the global extension of choice.