Future Predictions - .CO TLD

[Domain_Logic]

Hello,

I would appreciate it if you could divulge your predictions in relation to your perceived outlook on the re-released .co TLD. Do you believe that it will compete with .net? Obviously, I cannot see it ever being in the same league as .com, however, I believe that it has a great deal of potential and already is more attractive to me than .org or .info (and even the ccTLD of .co.uk).

I have used the search facility and couldn't find any related topics. Please include a link if such topic exists elsewhere.

Thanks.

[katherine]

I think it can do ok within its own niche, like .me or .tv.
But I do not believe it will be significant outside Colombia.
It's just an alternate/rebranded ccTLD. Therefore, it will not attain critical mass on a global scale and established businesses are not going to brand around it (why would they ?).
Sure there are opportunities but they are vastly overrated imo.
Mark my words

[Domain_Logic]

Thank you for your opinion Katherine - much appreciated.

[JB Lions]

Don't think it'll ever be more than another extension you can use to get some great keywords for SEO, not much else. But you can get that with other extensions, paying less.

"I believe that it has a great deal of potential and already is more attractive to me than .org or .info "

I'd pick those over .co. Obviously .com is king and everybody knows that, they also know .org (better than .net) since many respected sites, organizations use that extension. And thinking about it, on TV, I've only seen .coms and .orgs. I've never seen a .net.

"I think it can do ok within its own niche, like .me or .tv."

I like those better than .co as well. me and tv are words people use daily and very recognizable and have meaning. .co not as much and just leads to confusion since it's so similar to .com. I would never try to brand a site with .co because the .com would see the benefits of that.

[David G]

It appears Mike Mann owns the best by far .co name portfolio which are now for sale, or already have sold for high prices. However, the vast majority of all the other.co names and names owned by domainers here are probably reg fee or even less and will likely never sell, with a high percentage dropping at renewal times, especially in view of the very high .co reg costs and likely low traffic.

I can also report .co gets virtually zero traffic as I did register 2 .co's where the same .com is worth a lot and gets good traffic but the .co sites get basically none even though good SEO work was done on the 2 sites and they are also typein kind of domains (but who would typein the .co extension? dot-org would get typedin far more vs .co)
.
Remember, this is only a county code of the nation of Colombia and is not a gtld even though it has been hyped like it was a gtld, making it far less desirable vs say com net and org. Why in the world would an end-user or business possibly want to brand a non-Colombian business based on a foreign domain name extension? The .co registry pulled off a miracle with their great marketing causing the .co popularity with domainers.

I doubt if the extension will ever go much more than the value of most .me names in the future or near the value of gtld's, except for rare true premium names such as in Mr. Mann's portfolio and even his tier-1 names will significanty decline in value soon, imo. Just my 2-cents.

[David G]

......And thinking about it, on TV, I've only seen .coms and .orgs. I've never seen a .net

Bingo. That's a big reason (plus other media coverage) why among the gtl's I bet 98% of all typeins go to the .com and .org and extremely rarely to other extensions. A lot of domainers do not realize dot-org can get good typein traffic, especially in niches such as health and wellness, kids, family, charitable, gov, geo, some financial niches, etc.

[Gerry]

Anything that promotes itself or is promoted as a typo of dot com is so over-hyped as such that it will not live up to its hype - just like .cm was hyped the same way.

Depending on typo traffic as your sole basis of traffic and ROI is extremely risky.

I guess next we'll see .om being pumped up as a typo of dot com, perhaps after that we'll have .comm released as a typo of dot com.