.uk extension

[Xensale]

I recently purchased a .uk extension valued at $8,600 on estibot. After doing some research it seems the United Kingdom will be slowly transferring over from .co.uk to just .uk starting June 2019

source: https://www.theukdomain.uk/do-i-have-uk-rights/ .. If this is true, will the .uk extension have more value in the future, and should I hold on to this domain. For reference the .com version of this domain is valued at 6 figures.

 

[ukbackorder]

This is not correct. When the .uk was released they could only be purchased by the people who held the corresponding co.uk,org.uk,me.uk according to the earliest registration. This is in place until June 2019 where any .uk that hasn't been registered by the rights holders will become available for everyone to register. Obviously domains registered after the introduction date did not have the rights applied so that is why some domains you can already register the .uk for.
In June 2019 the .uk will be released but there is nothing transferring over. The co.uk, org.uk, me.uk will still exist - this is just an additional extension.
Take, for example, horse .uk - at the moment the only person allowed to register it is the owner of horse .co .uk. If they don't register it then in June everyone will have the right to register horse .uk but horse .co .uk will still remain unchanged and exist. It is also worth noting that when these domains become available they will be caught within milliseconds so unless you have your own tag or are prepared to pay in the aftermarket you are unlikely to get anything valuable from a public registration.

 

[Xensale]

I meant transfer over as in .uk will become more popular over time due to it being sharper and easier to type.

 

[ukbackorder]

There is no transfer. Two different people can own two different extensions. There is a lot of debate about how this will affect the market. Some people prefer the uk. Some think it will dilute the namespace as co.uk holders (who have already spent a fortune branding their companies as nominet used to tell them 'co.uk - the place to be') will be forced to acquire the uk as well. Others don't like it at all. In my experience, and I have over 1000 uk domains, everyone so far who has bought from me either doesn't want or doesn't care about the .uk equivalent. This may change. One thing is for sure - the people who benefited most from this are nominet, the uk registry. Personally I prefer the look of the .uk domain but I think it came too late. We asked nominet for this 10-15 years ago but they said it wouldn't happen. In those days though any profit from domain sales was put into a trust and given away. Now they funnel that money into other non-domain related projects and I suspect many of those are run by friends, relatives, or even themselves on different boards. So it is in their interest to make as much money as possible. In the meantime co.uk, like .com, has become ingrained into the UK advertising space and mentality. Basically you will need the co.uk and .uk pair for the foreseeable future, in my opinion, to be able to make major sales. On a separate note I will say that estibot values are meaningless. You cannot automate an appraisal for anything that has a different value depending on who wants to buy. Nobody has ever bought based on an estibot appraisal and it is wrong far more than it is right - you may as well pick a number and you will be as accurate over time

 

[moonswamp]

That's a good news, I want to reg some UK domain, but most valueable domain in the niche been taken... hope some of them forgot the reg the UK domain in June....

 

[ukbackorder]

If you don't have your own tag you have almost zero chance of getting any valuable .uk. There are tons of tagholders who will preload lists and catch some in milliseconds, some a little longer. However they will be caught before you can publicly register them. Now is the time to get your own tag if you're serious about competing - otherwise it's going to be backorders, auctions, and aftermarket.

 

[99 NAMING]

co.uk names are widely accepted in the UK.

UK will most likely not turn to the .uk extension. I have made several searches which indicates that the people have no interest in the .uk extension.

However, we cannot decide the future with these factors.

Keep your domain at your discretion.

 

[thehostdir]

since so many days from the launch, I hardly found any growth in .uk brand building so personally I feel co.uk will still rule the market.