cctld Where do you see .CA five years from now?

[whitebark]

5 years from now - bigger and better. Guessing many of the best domains will still be parked by the usual few big holders waiting for the big fish to come along... and that suits current developers of .ca just fine!

There's a reason Canada is a G8 nation - we are rich, America is our neighbour and oil crack addict, our lands are bountiful and our government as screwed up as it is - is really stable.

But Irish makes a good point - Canadians are notoriously cheap at times, but here in a major recession we see that this frugality has served many Canadian businesses and individuals rather well as they didn't overextend themselves. We will come out of this long before other Western nations do.

Canadian television, print media and radio is saturated with .ca's. That's a good thing and it ain't going away.

 

[DomainSpace]

Exactly whitebark "Canadian television, print media and radio is saturated with .ca's. That's a good thing and it ain't going away."

All domainers in Canada should be advising everyone to register there business .ca and if you can get the .com grab it too. But since you are targetting Canadians make sure you get the .ca (that will increase the registerd name, increase exposure to the .ca ext and most importantly increase our ROI since most will want shorter better names rather then... IwishIhadashorternamethenthisthing.whatever

 

[FormerDnForumer]

Lately, .ca's are getting punished it seems to me. I've been able to stockpile for ridiculously low prices, and I am genuinely shocked that people are basically giving them away. I mean, what's the point?

 

[fwdtech]

Seeing the .de model so successful, one could have actually hoped for 3 million .ca's.

But, with the exploitation taking place now at CIRA, it would be optimistic to get to 2 million.

CIRA has posted a chart "boasting" of the past success ( as if it were due to the revised philosophy now being practiced ) here

With the current numbers at 1.475 million, the 6 month increase has been about 75,000, whereas previous 6 month increases have been about 100,000.

More and more domainers are not renewing marginal domains.

That chart will show a dramatic plateau shortly.

 

[msn]

You think .de is successful? Look up then please how many .se domains are registered.

 

[Namefox]

I for one am still excited about the .ca marketplace. This has been one of my best years ever for .ca sales, PPC income, affiliate sales and ecommerce income. I am still developing sites and am excited about my growth over the next 5 years. I have a lot of .com's but I am focusing on my .ca development now.

 

[katherine]

You think .de is successful? Look up then please how many .se domains are registered.

1,011,989, which is not bad for < 10 mil. inhabitants but it's in the norm in Europe.

However there are more .nl per capita than .de

As for .de today's stats:
Aktuelle .de-Domainzahl:
13.854.725

 

[msn]

1,011,989, which is not bad for < 10 mil. inhabitants but it's in the norm in Europe.

However there are more .nl per capita than .de

As for .de today's stats:
Aktuelle .de-Domainzahl:
13.854.725

The latest official number I found was 9,219,637 so they have one domain registered for every nine people.

 

[Irish31]

Update time:


It is now over two full years since I started this thread and the majority of us gave our views on the future. Half way into the "where are we in 5 years" question, do you still stand behind your 2009 assessment of the .CA suffix? Or has developments in the world changed your view?

I will add that since I posted this thread I have made some decent .CA sales. However, the amount of offers I receive has decreased. Are we hitting a plateau, feeling the effects of a decade long depression (if you feel this way you know it is just in its infancy) or are you still as optimistic on .CA today as you were when you put in your .002 cents back in 2009?

Put your money where your mouth is and let's see what direction this ship is going in!

 

[katherine]

Well the volume of registrations has increased noticeably. Sales did not necessarily increase in proportion.

 

[Namefox]

Well, we are partially responsible for where the .ca marketplace is in upcoming years. I still think that small businesses and even some large ones are still lagging behind when it comes to the Internet and domain strategies. IMO we are still in the infancy of the .ca domain market and I for one am still excited about where .ca domaining is going. I will play my part and represent as best I can to help ensure that the .ca market flourishes. I am still curious as to whether there is a viable Domain Owners Association of Canada as I have not seen anything really come of DOAC.ca.

 

[A D]

The .ca future is bright and will continue to grow over the next 3 years.

There will be more sales and more offers.

I have sold 3 .ca's this week all over 2k.

-=DCG=-

 

[msn]

Yes, but you are an outlier, as you have critical mass in good quality domains.

Would it be possible for you to share what sold for how much - even privately?

The guy trying to sell his domain name for 'sewing machines with an overlock mechanism' would be thrilled to get $200, hops from one small sale to the next, and has less than 100 domains.

It is not easy to get up to your level.

 

[A D]

Nothing too exciting, today's sale was lentils.ca for $2888

-=DCG=-

 

[rmacdon]

CA future IMO looks really strong - you can see it in the ads (companies using .coms for local advertising almost seem awkward - out of touch). The only fly in the ointment for all domains is that you see companies starting to actually advertise their FB page over their own domain! Bizarre!

 

[hugegrowth]

I still agree with my earlier comments, its just taking longer than I thought to really pick up. Sales were better a few years ago actually. In 2011 I have had very very few enquiries, though you can still see domains selling well every week in the DNJ. Not too many big .ca sales reported this year. Seems like one and two word generics in a good industry, and tech related terms sell well in general. You see .ca being used a lot but not a lot of aftermarket activity, unless there are private deals going on. But you never know when lightning will strike.

 

[Mark Talbot]

The thing that worries me most is the offfensive/defensive postures that you see around anymore.

If you understand where I am coming from, you know what I mean.

A sign of the times.

 

[msn]

Nothing too exciting, today's sale was lentils.ca for $2888

-=DCG=-

That is really a great example: a specific category generic domain name which is perfect for a lesser-known producer to establish a strong online presence which can extend into the bricks-and-mortar side of things as well.

Would you be willing to PM me some information about this?

It could be a excellent subject for a business case to illustrate to potential .ca buyers the value of investing in their domain name.

 

[DropWizard.com]

I will add that since I posted this thread I have made some decent .CA sales. However, the amount of offers I receive has decreased. Are we hitting a plateau, feeling the effects of a decade long depression (if you feel this way you know it is just in its infancy) or are you still as optimistic on .CA today as you were when you put in your .002 cents back in 2009?

You can thank the [email protected] for the number of offers decreasing. Once they enable the privacy provision by default instead of letting the customer choose the number of offers dropped dramatically. After all there is little sense now in prowling through the whois when there is no info. And the inexperienced clients wouldn't know about the cira offer system. It cut off a huge source of previous customers. :-(

Overall I predict a great future for .ca. It could do especially well if we could get the tree huggers out of CIRA and a more businesslike atmosphere and board. Or even (dare I say it) privatize it.

The one area we really need to work at is getting our message out to the end user. The vast majority of them don't have a clue about the internet and the use of domains and that hampers us badly. It would be wonderful if we could work together to overcome that but I don't think we'll ever see that happen. Too many wolves in the room

 

[A D]

So how do we get most of these registrars to turn on the whois for our domains, I am having the same issue.

-=DCG=-