German IDN and .info goes for 5 figures

[none]

From dnjournal
"S�dtirol.info ("South Tyrol" in German) at 8,750 Euros (US$10,308), especially impressive for an IDN (International Domain Name)"

Not even a .com or .de!

[mole]

It is happening, isn't it?

[Rubber Duck]

Yes, it is but this is a surprise even for me. This broke yesterday on another thread, but we haven't heard from Seeker or Acroplex. I guess they are too busy hoovering up those Greek IDN dot infos.

I always thought IDN would be valuable. I thought, however, their biggest role would be in the Far East, rather than Europe. I seriously never thought that this quickly Latin IDN would fetch as much as their ASCII counterparts.

It just goes to show what will happen in China. Chinese IDN are unique, as they are most unambigious names in the world. In one registration, you get singular and plural, past, future or present. I also don't think there will be much or role for Typo's there.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[touchring]

Yes, it is but this is a surprise even for me. This broke yesterday on another thread, but we haven't heard from Seeker or Acroplex. I guess they are too busy hoovering up those Greek IDN dot infos.

I always thought IDN would be valuable. I thought, however, their biggest role would be in the Far East, rather than Europe. I seriously never thought that this quickly Latin IDN would fetch as much as their ASCII counterparts.

It just goes to show what will happen in China. Chinese IDN are unique, as they are most unambigious names in the world. In one registration, you get singular and plural, past, future or present. I also don't think there will be much or role for Typo's there.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

Is it possible to register greek.infos?

[Rubber Duck]

Well job to know. According to the Afilias site:

"Afilias will launch German script IDN registrations on 16 March 2004."

My guess is that it is probably only possible to register dot info in Latin Scripts and even then probably not with all the accents required for languages like Czech.

I do know that dot biz do Korean, but to my knowledge not Chinese or Japanese, although how they differentiate I don't know. Perhaps they only support Hangul.

From the enquires I have had so far, the stipulation has either been dot com, or dot cn or dot jp. So dot info is not on my immediate agenda.

Germany is a unique market, so I would not necessarily extrapolate things from there. Very clever though, US would not have got a man on the moon without their rocket technology, and the Manhatten project ultimately relied on enriched Uranium captured from Germany. If the Germans see the value in Latin IDN, I would suspect that they do have real value. I doubt that an investment at this level would have been done without some serious analysis.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[none]

I just love it when mole says that...

[Rubber Duck]

Yes, but Mole is a real thought provoker, which is fairly unusual on this Forum. I have just realised that some of Moles ideas on Flat Name Space could actually be implemented through an extension of the Verisign proposals for DNAME mapping for IDN gTLDs. Without, provocative contributors nothing revolutionary is ever brought to the table. Mole may not always be right, but to ignore what he says would be foolish!

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[none]

I wasn't being sarcastic. Mole has said that before, and I love it!

[Rubber Duck]

No, I know you weren't but sometimes Mole's remarks are a bit tongue in cheek themselves!

Although this time. I believe it is happening and I believe that the remarks are a warm reception for a truely monumental event in the development of the internet. I think we are about to witness an almost Apocalyptic change in the the Domain Space. Actually, I am really exited as I can envisage the incorporation of Flat Domain Space style keywords into the DNS, using the DNAME proposal without significant distruption to the existing domain space, well probably provided you have an TLD extension with only three characters or less.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[rawkinrich]

From dnjournal
"S�dtirol.info ("South Tyrol" in German) at 8,750 Euros (US$10,308), especially impressive for an IDN (International Domain Name)"

Not even a .com or .de!

Congratulations to the seller, but I do believe that this is way overpriced. But hey, thats just my thoughts.

[Rubber Duck]

Well, it seems expensive to us. But perhaps we are not seeing things in the perspective of the German Market. Things there have not always mirrored the US experience.

1) Germans buy more ccTLDs than any other nation.

2) Hypens are full accept in German domains and are not necessarily detrimental to the domains value

3) Germans have probably embraced IDN more than any other western nation

4) Germans register a lot of dot info

5) German oriented domains generally fetch very good money, probably more than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[none]

Congratulations to the seller, but I do believe that this is way overpriced. But hey, thats just my thoughts.

It looks like a pretty interesting place -- a province of Italy situated in the Alps with a large degree of autonomy. Most residents speak german, hence the IDN language.

[touchring]

Well, it seems expensive to us. But perhaps we are not seeing things in the perspective of the German Market. Things there have not always mirrored the US experience.

1) Germans buy more ccTLDs than any other nation.

2) Hypens are full accept in German domains and are not necessarily detrimental to the domains value

3) Germans have probably embraced IDN more than any other western nation

4) Germans register a lot of dot info

5) German oriented domains generally fetch very good money, probably more than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

Bottom line -> The Germans got more money?

[Rubber Duck]

Yes, the place is a clear Tourist and Business Seminar Hot Spot. Home from home for Germans in the Italian Alps. This obviously contributes greatly to the interest in this domain. There is also quite a story to be sold about the place. It would seem to me that perhaps, the uniqueness of the place has signficantly influenced the price.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

Bottom line -> The Germans got more money?

Well that argument doesn't really stand up! See below table of GDP per capita for 2004 in dollars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...%29_per_capita


1 Luxembourg 69,737
2 Norway 54,600
3 Switzerland 49,300
4 Ireland 45,675
5 Denmark 44,808
6 Iceland 41,804
7 United States 39,935
8 Sweden 38,493
9 Qatar 37,610
10 Netherlands 37,326
11 Japan 36,596
12 Austria 36,244
13 Finland 35,666
14 United Kingdom 35,548
15 Belgium 33,866
16 Germany 33,390
17 France 32,911
18 Canada 31,134
19 Australia 30,682
20 Italy 29,014

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[touchring]

Yes, the place is a clear Tourist and Business Seminar Hot Spot. Home from home for Germans in the Italian Alps. This obviously contributes greatly to the interest in this domain. There is also quite a story to be sold about the place. It would seem to me that perhaps, the uniqueness of the place has signficantly influenced the price.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon



Well that argument doesn't really stand up! See below table of GDP per capita for 2004 in dollars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...%29_per_capita


1 Luxembourg 69,737
2 Norway 54,600
3 Switzerland 49,300
4 Ireland 45,675
5 Denmark 44,808
6 Iceland 41,804
7 United States 39,935
8 Sweden 38,493
9 Qatar 37,610
10 Netherlands 37,326
11 Japan 36,596
12 Austria 36,244
13 Finland 35,666
14 United Kingdom 35,548
15 Belgium 33,866
16 Germany 33,390
17 France 32,911
18 Canada 31,134
19 Australia 30,682
20 Italy 29,014

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

We must consider population (implies market size). Like Luxembourg - there's only quarter million people.

Here's the list (nominal GDP):

— World 40,894,780
— European Union 12,865,602
1 United States 11,734,300
2 Japan 4,671,198
3 Germany 2,754,727
4 United Kingdom 2,133,019
5 France 2,046,292
6 Italy 1,680,112
7 People's Republic of China 1,653,686
8 Spain 1,041,338
9 Canada 993,443
10 South Korea 680,409
11 Mexico 675,254
12 India 665,071

[Rubber Duck]

We must consider population. Like Luxembourg - there's only quarter million people.

Here's the list (nominal GDP):

1 United States 11,734,300
2 Japan 4,671,198
3 Germany 2,754,727
4 United Kingdom 2,133,019
5 France 2,046,292
6 Italy 1,680,112
7 People's Republic of China 1,653,686

Fair comment, but these statistics are most relevant when considering the size of potential markets. Even these do not really tell the whole story, but market size or predictable market size are key indicators to a domain's value. This is why China is so hot for IDN. This is by some measures the biggest market in the world. If you look at the shear numbers of shipments for things like mobile phones, computers and even cars it is starting to leave even the US trailing in its wake! Take into account not only predicted growth rates but likely future currency appreciation and the place becomes a marketeer's Klondyke.

When you start to look at factors like homogenity of script and the uniqueness of character strings, that put China even further out in front. Unlike India, there is only a single script to worry about and the Iconic nature of that script gives domains a marketing potential that names in Latin characters frankly lack.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[Sarcle]

Yes, it appears the death for english, foreign, ext's is near. Must be making a few investors nervous to hear.

Better get rid of those english .in's fast kids. India's next.

[Anthony Ng]

Those German numbers reflect the post-unification reality (of a lowered average after adding the Easterners' to the denominator). My brief stay in what was West Germany before 1990 clearly showed that Germany was so much stronger and affluent than say the U.S. and U.K. that you can tell from just the look of it. And many richer Western cousins remain rich these days.

[Rubber Duck]

Those German numbers reflect the post-unification reality (of a lowered average after adding the Easterners' to the denominator). My brief stay in what was West Germany before 1990 clearly showed that Germany was so much stronger and affluent than say the U.S. and U.K. that you can tell from just the look of it. And many richer Western cousins remain rich these days.

I agree with those comments, but we have a similar wealth split in the UK with the North being much poorer than the South. London, the World's Financial Capital is by far the wealthiest City in Europe and the general standard of living there is much higher than anywhere in the old West Germany.

The shift in financial power in Europe is difficult for those who have not visited the UK in recent years to appreciate. The German's in particular don't come in the numbers that they used to because they find it too expensive! As for France, huge swathes of that have been bought up by Brits for second homes!

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[touchring]

Those German numbers reflect the post-unification reality (of a lowered average after adding the Easterners' to the denominator). My brief stay in what was West Germany before 1990 clearly showed that Germany was so much stronger and affluent than say the U.S. and U.K. that you can tell from just the look of it. And many richer Western cousins remain rich these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo

Tokyo has the largest metropolitan economy in the world: its nominal GDP of around $1.315 trillion is greater than the 8th largest national economy in the world[2].

Wow, Tokyo is almost as big as Italy.