Domain Market Study by SEDO

[DOTCA]

I just went through this report.

http://sedo.com/fileadmin/documents/...rket_Study.pdf


Too bad, .CAs are not to be found anywhere in the report...I can see .CH in the report.
I am sure the recent sales would bring some credibility to the .CA marketplace.

[Namefox]

Go to sedo.ca and you will see how sedo treats .ca domains; in french which is our second official language. I have approached them in the past to improve their .ca presence in terms of searches but never heard anything back.

[David G]

Years ago I had several really good keyword .ca names but ended up dropping them because of the very strict .CA registry non-resident requirements which makes buying .ca names today a higher cost and limited potential market. Maybe that's why they don't get much play at sedo.

[Irish31]

I think the fact that big players in the domain industry don't even recognize the TLD often, and the fact that the .CA sales forum gets about as much action as my pocket AA's when i'm in the big blind (so... none), is indicative of how the suffix is doing. Poorly.

The cost of owning a .CA is no where cheap enough to offset the expected return value on 95% of the names out there. If you own some of the better names, paying 10$ to register it, or 100$ is negliable, since you will turn a tidy profit. Between the pricing model, our extremely low population, relative to total land area, and tight ownership rules, we've put ourselves into a corner.

If you are one of the few around here that buys low, monitizes as best they can, and eventually sells high, then you may be able to get by. For most potential owners / investors, just about anywhere else would be more profitable.

Now, if CIRA stops ruining the suffix and starts, oh I don't know, promoting it? And even went as far as opening it up to the world, well then you'd see a gold rush like no other, and top holders of names would be "broke off" something fierce.

But, while i'm dreaming, I might as well ask for a pony and a norwegian wifey too!

[DOTCA]

Thanks for all the contributions/comments. I think it's about time CIRA does something about it.. I agree.

[onlinestoreca]

As a future online store owner I want the names owned strictly by Canadians. When you advertise any .ca right now, the consumers know that they are reaching someone located in Canada.

They know they will be able to buy something from Canada so there are no extra duties, shipping costs, or exhange rate issues. They are getting Canadian information.

Open it to the world and you actually lose this value, it becomes another extension like .cc, .biz. .org. I don't see why anyone outside of Canada would care to own a .ca unless they were selling from Canada, which qualifies them already.

The value of .ca will be in selling to the end users, who still don't understand the value at this point.

JMHO

[urlurl]

i agree, 110%, i prefer to have .ca exclusive to Canadian's it keeps it in the family and it identifies my site as Canadian. There are buyers of canadian names (end users) who are willing to pay for quality names. depending on the site im working on I would prefer a .ca to ensure i am attracting the right customers (canadians)

[katherine]

As a future online store owner I want the names owned strictly by Canadians. When you advertise any .ca right now, the consumers know that they are reaching someone located in Canada.
...
Open it to the world and you actually lose this value, it becomes another extension like .cc, .biz. .org

I don't quite agree.
Many top ccTLDs including .de .co.uk don't have that kind of restrictions and they are doing just fine.
Actually it's a shame that say, a US or European company may not target the Canadian market through .ca domains without setting up a local subsidiary (in practice that's how they would qualify).
I think it's just protectionism.
And I would like to see .us relaxed the same way.

I think we have had enough of the 'restrictions = safety' argument, that's the old school (1995-2000 era).

Of course we would see more sales if .ca was an open extension. But I'm afraid we can't have it both ways. As long as the restrictions are in place, do not expect a thriving aftermarket.

My 'mistake' when I started out domaining around 2000, was to take part in the .ca landrush. I did OK, but I should have invested in .com instead. The same portfolio would have appreciated at a much faster pace.

[Gerry]

Another contradiction that appears in the report is sedo's push of Fixed Pricing domains = better sales.

Yet, it accounts for only 6% of sedo's sales.

[onlinestoreca]

I think we have had enough of the 'restrictions = safety' argument, that's the old school (1995-2000 era).

Of course we would see more sales if .ca was an open extension. But I'm afraid we can't have it both ways. As long as the restrictions are in place, do not expect a thriving aftermarket.

I guess the question is who CIRA should be serving Canadiians running websites and using .ca domain names or domainers from anywhere. I have to side with Canadians running websites. Anyone else can target Canada with a .com, .net, .org, .biz.

As far as restrictions go, well that is the whole point, so .ca has a meaning. Cocos Islands' .cc domain extension is completely useless to them. I know they have a tiny population and probably don't care, it's just an example, but it's still useless. There are lots of alternatives if you want a domain name to sell something in Canada. StuffForCanada.com, and I think it's available

[question]

Hi there, here is a semi recent ccTLD based report (UK) with nice numbers for ccTLDs and ,.ca in specific:
http://www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAss...report2009.pdf
-.com 44% market share, gTLDs growing 6% per year currently
-ccTLDs 40% market, growing at 10%
-.ca growing at 16%
-.us growing at 14% and nice opportunity says the 'market penetration' chart

[katherine]

As far as restrictions go, well that is the whole point, so .ca has a meaning. Cocos Islands' .cc domain extension is completely useless to them.

Yes, .cc is useless but it's because there is no local market, not because it's unrestricted.

Another question: does anyone think the arcane transfer process is killing .ca sales ?

Me thinks that Canadians just lack awareness and don't want to pay top dollar for good names.

[south]

-.us growing at 14% and nice opportunity says the 'market penetration' chart

That's probably all me...

[Stian]

It's good to see that the domain market is going in the right direction again.

[hugegrowth]

I think .ca is definitely lagging in market activity, when compared to others such as .de, co.uk, .es, .fr and other european country codes. I don't know exactly why, but the ownership restrictions are a big part of it. Our population size is a factor, but relative to the European countries we should still have a more active extension than we do now.

The good side is that .ca is widely used in Canada, and so is the internet. We will have our day but hard to say how long it will take.

Look at .us, ten times our population are arguably in the same boat market-wise, and they are behind us in awareness. You don't see a lot of .us sales every week. And they have ownership restrictions too. If they didn't, I know I would be buying some .us.

.ca is about half of my portfolio, the rest mostly .com and other country codes and global tld's. If you are a domainer, and not developping every domain you have, it is hard to make it on just a .ca portfolio unless you have lots of premium or high traffic names.

Like I said, we will have our day, the internet is growing and people need good domains. Cira lifting the ownership restriction would be a huge boost, but you can't count on that happening.

[fwdtech]

The cost of owning a .CA is no where cheap enough to offset the expected return value on 95% of the names out there. If you own some of the better names, paying 10$ to register it, or 100$ is negliable, since you will turn a tidy profit. Between the pricing model, our extremely low population, relative to total land area, and tight ownership rules, we've put ourselves into a corner.

If you are one of the few around here that buys low, monitizes as best they can, and eventually sells high, then you may be able to get by. For most potential owners / investors, just about anywhere else would be more profitable.

Now, if CIRA stops ruining the suffix and starts, oh I don't know, promoting it? And even went as far as opening it up to the world, well then you'd see a gold rush like no other, and top holders of names would be "broke off" something fierce.

3 points need to be addressed:

1. CIRA's raison-d'être is not to ensure that squatters domain investors are enriched, it's to administer the registry professionally

2. Canadian designers/web designers have "gotten it" over the past 2 years or so - i.e. .ca is the way to reach Canadians.
I made a point of observing websites advertised over the past 36 hours, on TV and in public.

Here's my list:
2 dot-com's - robinsdonuts.com - thumbs down - granted, they regged the .com first, in 1998, and the .ca in 2000. However, after 10 years, they should have switched to .ca by now (Thunder Bay H.O. - probably a smaller designer)
itscanadastime.com - major thumbs down - a pfizer site - if targetting Canadians, why not itscanadastime.ca - probably a U.S. braintrust

18 dot-ca's
the regular H.O. site, eg.
dove.ca
chevrolet.ca
homehardware.ca
eharmony.ca (kudos - not eharmony.com/canada like dell, but a complete Canadian site)
hnb.ca
progressmedia.ca
pottypatch.ca


However, the striking observation are the phrase .ca's that have started being used recently:

silhouetteandme.ca
bringingvaluehome.ca
rightplacerighttime.ca
chewtowin.ca
babycenter.ca (shouldn't it be babycentre.ca)
smokershelpline.ca
brewsomegood.ca
freshenergy.ca
safewaychampionship.ca
newgolf.ca
thefamilybehindthefarm.ca


Canada corps. are creating sites the way that domains and the internet should be used, and almost exclusively with .ca's

The .ca growth push to over 1.3 million has been constant and regular, and shows no signs of slowing, without CIRA's intervention.

3. A decent annual marketing campaign would need a minimum of $2,000,000, which would be about 20% of CIRA's current budget. There's only one source for that money - a 25% increase in the base cost of domains - a permanent ANNUAL increase of $2.00 per domain. This would actually create DOWNWARD pressure on the number of registrations, instead of upward.

(And once an item is put into the budget, it's NOT coming out.)

If it's not broke, what needs to be fixed?

The consensus on the forum seems to be: concentrate on DEVELOPMENT, not just parking.

[katherine]

1. CIRA's raison-d'être is not to ensure that squatters domain investors are enriched, it's to administer the registry professionally

Fair enough, but the interests of both domain investors and end users can converge

3. A decent annual marketing campaign would need a minimum of $2,000,000, which would be about 20% of CIRA's current budget. There's only one source for that money - a 25% increase in the base cost of domains - a permanent ANNUAL increase of $2.00 per domain. This would actually create DOWNWARD pressure on the number of registrations, instead of upward.

That is a good point. I don't think CIRA has the means to sponsor mass advertising nationwide. But many European TLDs are doing much better and I don't see the national registries doing so much more promotion.

IMO lack of promotion alone does not explain the Canadians' apathy toward their own extension. Fortunately it's nowhere as bad as .us.

If it's not broke, what needs to be fixed?

I'm sure CIRA can fix a thing or two. What about streamlining the transfer & registrant merger processes. Nothing has changed in 10 years if I'm not mistaken. Everybody can benefit from any improvement with this.

The consensus on the forum seems to be: concentrate on DEVELOPMENT, not just parking.

Do I hear: "Another developer extension"

[whitebark]

IMO lack of promotion alone does not explain the Canadians' apathy toward their own extension

You haven't been watching much Canadian television have you?

If by apathy you mean their reluctance to buy a domain from a reseller then you would be correct. Look at the list fwdtech wrote - they would rather register a three word .ca than put out for $10K investment. Unless they plan on becoming a reseller themselves they will get the same results from a $10 domain as a $10k one.

Seems to me the ones most down on .ca are the resellers. Developers on the other hand like the depressed market...

[katherine]

Actually you're right on that - what strikes me is the relatively weak penetration rates (domains per capita) which I find surprising for a tech-savvy nation.
Every time I got an offer for a .ca I was under the impression that the prospective buyer did just treat the .ca as a fallback when the .com was unavailable. Now I could be wrong, it's all a matter of perception.
I agree that the aftermarket is not the primary rating of maturity of an extension, on the other hand a thriving extension logically has a healthy aftermarket.
As for the sedo report I would venture to say that the average price paid for .ca domains was just too low vis-à-vis other extensions to be featured in the report, and .ca accounts for a marginal portion of the reported sales. To put it differently, the buyers are there and sales are taking place, but the prices paid are in line with the restrictions and the limited supply of qualified Canadian buyers.

[urlurl]

very true - .ca's are for the developers, and i like it this way. I do both. If i invest in .ca's it would be for future projects I want to do. If i want to invest in names as a reseller its .com's

why would i want 90% of the .ca's owned by foreigners (if they lifted the restriction) - yes in the short term the Canadian resellers would make some good cash but after that...