Yesterday the .Co registry sent out its first press release of the year, reminding everyone that The time to pre-qualify for the i.Co is coming to a close in just a couple of weeks (the press release is on the bottom of this post).
The domain name itself, i.Co already is getting close to 10,000 visitors a month, according to Compete, which tends to under report traffic. The domain also has an Alexa Ranking under 500,000.
So thought it might be fun to figure out who the most likely buyers of this domain are or at least should be:
Apple
They created the “i” brand and it seems like a no brainier for them to lock this domain up.
From the iPhone, to the iPod to the iPad and even the itouch its a “i” world thanks to Apple, will they let someone else buy this?
IBM
There was a time when IBM was it in the computer world.
So when it comes to the computer industry IBM would have to a strong choice of the companies that might logically want i.Co
Intuit
From Quicken to Quickbooks to Mint.com, Intuit has created some great brands and i.Co would seem to perfect fit for a tech company whose brands are better know than the company itself.
Microsoft
For years Microsoft had to endure all of those attack ads by Apple saying how great Apple was and how poorly Vista Performed.
Now Microsoft has the opportunity to snatch i.Co and the “i” brand away from Apple itself, with tens of billions in the bank will Microsoft sit by and miss the chance to win one from Apple for what amounts to chump change for it?
Likewise Google which has tens of million in the bank might be smart to grab this domain and use it to promote its Android smart phones and Tablets that will be coming out to compete with Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
Intel
Another high tech company that has spent hundreds of millions branding itself and could pick up i.Co especially for use in the non-US market much like Overstock is doing with o.Co.
Yahoo.com
Anytime you mention Apple, Microsoft and Google you also have to mention Yahoo as a possible player.
QuinStreet
The public company spend over $100 Million to buy insure.com, carinsurance.com and insurance.com. While approaching a $1 Billion dollar valuation on the market its a brand that is not widely known.
i.Co would seem a natural fit for the company and a great chance to brand itself on the net.
ICO Companies
There are several companies known by the name ICO.
On the New York Stock exchange, International Coal Group goes by the ticket symbol ICO.
Currently the company uses a pretty bad domain intlcoal.com and doesn’t own the domain with the natural spelling, InternationalCoal.com, which is plenty long anyway.
With a market cap of $1.75 Billion this is another company that could rebrand itself for what amounts to chump change for them.
Another ICO company is ICO Global Communications Holdings whose stock symbol is ICOG, and which owns Ico.Com
Although this company is not as big as any of the other companies mentioned here, it’s market cap is still almost $500 Million.
ico.com only gets 50 visitors a month according to Compete so the domain i.co would drive a lot of traffic and attention to this company.
The International Coffee Association which uses ico.org as its site and calls themselves ICO, should want i.Co especially being a worldwide organization and of course much of the worlds coffee comes out of Colombia.
Others
Some off line brands might also have interest including the clothing retailer Intermix. Izod is another clothing line that would seem to be a natural fit for i.Co
Any insurance company that wants to key in on the letter “i” for insurance.
Citibank could easily brand something around the ‘I’ since Citi basically did this long ago rather than calling itself Citybank.
GE who has used the phrase “imagination at work” for a long time could key in the letter ‘i”
iVillage, yes they are still around and certainly cold use a brand makeover.
iNewswire the press release service which uses the domain, www.i-newswire.com, could certainly use a better domain, especially since they don’t own inewswire.com. Also i.Co would also be a great shortener for them and their clients.
IKEA, talk about a global brand that could benefit from a short i.Co for use around the world.
INGdirect which uses Ing.us and Ingdirect.com as its websites, is a HUGE public company that spends tens of millions a year on ads including TV ads and i.Co is a hell of lot easier to remember than ingdirect.com
A few others possibilities;
IGN Gaming
Indeed
ioffer
Inc.
So the question is who is the company that’s going to wind up getting this domain when the auction is held in February?
It will be interesting.
As promised, here is the press release send out by the .Co registry yesterday:
“””Happy 2011! To start the New Year off with a Bang – the .CO Registry will be auctioning off the domain name i.CO in the coming weeks. The letter “i” is the shortest and most often-used word in the entire English language. And with the popular .CO domain to the right of the dot, i.CO is the shortest web address in the world — with the potential to create one of the most meaningful, memorable Internet brands in history.””
The auction will be privately held and only qualified bidders will be eligible to participate. Bidder qualification will commence immediately and will end on January 21st, 2011. As such, time is of the essence to make your business case, get your budget approved — and prepare yourself to win the domain name destined to become the “next big thing” online!
What makes i.CO so compelling?
“i is interactive. i.CO embodies the fastest growing activities done on the internet today from social, entertainment and news media to mobile services and devices – any and all things interactive.
“i is impactful.”
“There are only a few one letter .CO domain names that have ever been made publicly available.”
“Twitter is leveraging t.CO its official URL shortener; and Overstock is rebranding all of its international sites from Overstock.com to o.CO”
“Now, i.CO gives YOU the rare chance to be an industry thought leader — one of the first and only to leverage a one letter, iconic domain name — and world class brand.”
“i is for … the innovative, inspirational, insights and ideas, of the billions of individuals interconnected on the Internet!”
“For more information regarding this truly one-of-a-kind premium domain name auction, please visit http://i.co – and fill out the short form. Someone will get back to you as soon as possible to answer your questions.”
Best Regards,
The .CO Team “”
I’ll bet the top bid is in the $450K-$600K range and the buyer will be a sub-$50m (rev.) company.
– TBC
Hey that 5d.tv looks pretty good in the comment section.
Nice
Thanks, man. Want to trade for D.TV? 🙂
For some reason I didn’t think of Apple for one second when I saw the i….and I usually do. While I love the short domain, as a businessman I have to think what dot com could I get for this same price. Same businessman in me thinks that if dot co catches on with consumers it would be looked at as a bargain in future years. I agree with 5D that 500K sounds about right.
What about Go Daddy? 500K would be less than Bob spent on one single employee party…
Hello Mike,
Watch what the big boys do. They promote and drive traffic through the .com channel. The more excitement about other extensions drives .com valuations even higher. Anyone in the domain game who doesnt trade UP to .coms is missing out on optimal valuation performance.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group)
Look likes the only traffic the domain gets is when an ad campaign is done.
Look yourself Alexa graph and compare with one of your sites that have almost no traffic:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/i.co#trafficstats
There are three times as many meaningful Google results for IDE as there are for ICO. Now look at i.de
Good
Yes but .de is well known in the domain world as the country code for germany and “de” has no meaning other than as the extension while .Co branded itself to stand for many things, including company and corporation
MHB, I see your point, but still wonder why Apple for example would create another brand / destination, while they evidently did not bother to do so in one of the worlds most potent markets? See iTV and i.tv as well.
@Good,
You make an excellent point. I don’t see any Fortune-500 company buying i.co, simply because ALL of these companies are ALREADY branded with whatever domains, etc. they already possess.
This’ll be picked up by some sub-$50m company that almost noone has heard of – watch.
– TBC
Good
i.Tv even more reason Apple should pick up i.Co.
What are they selling on i.TV all of Apple’s “i” products
I just came across my first real company using a .co That is, a vendor in my brick business. I look forward to speaking to them about the choice. The company has 1MM Facebook fans.
a vendor in the brick business with 1m facebook fans?
Went to the i.tv site – damn, I wish I had a one-letter .tv. One-letter .tv’s may be THE MOST VALUABLE domains on the web ten years from now, in this order:
i.tv
e.tv
s.tv
d.tv
g.tv
and the list goes on.
@MHB, unless you need the cash, I wouldn’t part with d.tv for anything less than mid-seven-figures. I’m quite envious. 🙂
– TBC
Who knows but it should be an interesting one to watch, anything is .possible
“s.tv”
There’s a tv channel in uk that uses stv.tv, another one using Five.tv
@Gazzip,
Yeah, I see FMA is sitting on s.tv – they have SEVERAL of the best .tv’s on the planet – millions$ worth.
– TBC
It would be a wise investment for Apple since they got all the extra cash now. If anything they should try to get iPad.com before getting any other domain.
Money for all this companys are no issue they could pay even 5mil.It’s how bad they need this domain or how bad Microsoft whants to get back to Apple.They will pay a big sum even if it’s not worth it.
Nissan got Z.com (not even resolving) and Paypal X.com, but A.com, I.com, G.com are still with IANA.
IBM.co does not resolve; Google.co does not resolve (not even redirected to Google.com.co), Yahoo.co doesn´t, Intel.co doesn´t, Microsft.co forwards to Bing.com, Apple.co to Apple.com
They don´t look very eager.
But, who knows.
chase.co forwards to a parked page about banks. Bad move by the owner. It sold for low $xx,xxx
Mike- great deep research and insight you’ve put into this. Only addition is iGoogle personal homepage and feeds
@Francois advertising is the whole point/attraction for these bigger cos
Auction will follow superbowl ad — should make this one for the record books
Actually…none of the above
It will be bought by a domainer
As usual, more PR drivel from registries that may as well be printing money..
LOL @ the usual brainwashed domain scrubs..
Companies compete by producing better software/hardware that customers want – NOT buying domains (as promoted by registries) that Fortune Top 100 cos don’t care about (other than as defensive reg)
And as par for the course, promoters of .TV are out in full force regardless of the thread title..
@Aggro,
After reading your post, I re-read the rest of the posts, trying to find who was promoting .TV – didn’t see it…it was a naturally flowing “conversation” that included some .TV references, based on previous posts.
Are you a .TV-hater 🙂
– TBC
I just did a little experiment, based on “Good Domain’s” post:
The following domains resolve:
Google.com
Google.net
Google.org (Philanthropy site)
Google.info
Google.biz
Google.bz
Google.mobi (Google Mobile site)
Google.tv
Google.cm
Google.cn (Google China)
This is the only extension I could find that DOES NOT RESOLVE:
Google.co
Very telling, indeed…
– TBC
5D
Well I,’m sure of all the extensions listed above .co is the most recent acquisition.
According to Alexa Google.co is ranked 27,000 so its gets a nice amount of traffic, so I’m going to assume they are not intentionally not turning that domain on, rather its a issue inside of Google that someone has failed to activate it on their server.
I mean if they didn’t own the domain in that extension that would be telling but the fact that they choice to lock up the domain is more telling.
@MHB,
Not spending 2-minutes to point the number 27,000 ranked url in the world to your home page is no mistake, IMO.
Maybe they view .co as nothing more than a hack of .com that’s being disguised as an alternative to .com?
– TBC
I’ve got nothing against .co, but I just can’t envision a scenario where it’s eventually put into mainstream business-use. I see .biz, .cc. & .info and being more valuable than .co.
– TBC
I did not think of apple either…. who cares about this domain…. someone stupid will pay a lot for nothing.
wow… pat yourself on the back if you own some .co’s… and then go to the store to buy some birdseed for the pigeons.
Todaro@
you are funny,man !!!
I just ckecked “birdseed.co” but i was not that lucky to get it 🙁
“i” isn’t an Apple property …
@ Rich
I just checked “birdseed.co” but i was not that lucky to get it 🙁
=============
birdbrain.co is still available for your home page 🙂
Folks—back to the basic
Dot com is KING. The rest is just imaginary make up mumbo jumbo names.
Will take dot com any day any time
To the crowd,
What’s worth more:
SandCastles.com
SandCastle.co
SandCastle.tv
Just curious to see what the group think is, notice the .com has the plural, i.e. “s”.
– TBC
Sandcastles.com is worth many, many times more than either of the other two domains. How is it being a plural worth discussing?
I guess I am too ignorant to understand this so someone please explain to me why there are some who have such an aversion to the .CO extension.
There are some who claim that its nothing more then a cctld and will never amount to anything more because .CO stands for COlombia (in the cctld world).
But to that I have to point out .TV and .ME (and you could also include several others like .DE, .FR, .IT, .co.uk, .IN, .co.in…). Correct me if I am wrong but these cctlds have some sort of intrinsic value.
I remember reading that .ME just had over $400k in sales at a recent auction. Am I wrong about that?
And I am pretty sure there are many where who will gladly sing the praises of .TV
Now .ME was presented as a extension “All about me!” Not highly usable to the average business who are the ones who are the economic power behind large sales but still the domains sell for more then the registration price making them a profit maker.
Same with .TV. It was marketed for sites that are either in the television industry or that feature videos of some sort. Still they sell for more then the registration price and hold some value even though they also have limited appeal towards many businesses.
Both are cctlds that have been marketed as something else outside of their country. These two examples hail from widely unknown countries to many people.
.CO is also a cctld that is being marketed as something else. The market that it is after has a broader appeal then the limited television/video world and personal (me) domains.
Still there are many who display some sort of hostility towards the extension.
I just dont get it. I have to admit its beyond me and I am in need of someone to break it down for me simply because I must be a stupid man.
So please if you know the answer of why many claim that the .CO extension is worthless, I would love to be clued in. I would like to know why this extension would be inferior to that of .TV, .ME, .DE, .CO.UK… ect.
I am up for any sensible explanation on why someone should not seek out strong sensible names in the .CO extension to be held onto and sold later (just like most do with many of the other cctld extensions).
I am just curious.
Cheers and thanks for your help.
(PS… I did NOT invest in this speculative extension save the 11 .CO domains that I purchased on the launch day.)
“International Coffee Association which uses ico.org”
best i.ca if allowed by Canada
lanndon white @
I just did that,thanx.
Who said that we can not work together? So much harmony on this domain industry…
@ Slate,
You are right on brother… And let me add to that:
What TLD do you know of that says “we are auctioning a single stupid name” and that alone generates 40+ comments on a blog? What TLD do you know of that says: “we are doing the Superbowl” and it generates 150+ worthless comments on a blog?
That’s when you know you’re on to something big. It’s a thing of beauty!
ps: read the DNJournal.com profile on the .CO dude.
After superbowl .co will take off again and keep going sure hope it does. Godaddy just needs to tell superbowl to get superbowl.co, I mean come on…
Donny1
oh… i can’t resist proving my point further:
Check this out: 60 comments, on news that everyone already knows:
http://www.elliotsblog.com/overstock-unveils-new-o-co-logo-9223
It’s a thing of beauty.
I think it would be awesome if Apple bought i.co. It would bring more confidence to the .co name. More and more people will start to realize that .co is the way to go. Its new, its fresh and it sounds good. How much do you guys think LLL.co’s are worth by now?
David
LLL domains depend largely on what letters you have, if they make a word or not and a few other things (like if there are any LLL domains left). That is true no matter what extension you have.
Considering that there are only 17,576 possible 3 letter combinations, 46,656 possible combinations for 3 characters.
If they have all been registered, then surely the price will be boosted especially if you have a 3 letter word.
Cheers and all the best.
In My Humble Opinion, this name is worthless. Unless apple takes it for shorten urls.
If anyone pays over 100k for this name (except apple, wont make much money with it, unless apple buys it from them)
Because Apple is one organization who can put this name to use, otherwise, its useless and wont have any value even if other party develop it.
This name is only worth something to apple, and other people wasting money will regret.
Thats just my opinion.
I am not sure why Apple would really want or need it to be honest.
Brad
More is better.
I.co would be a nice addition to anyone’s advertising arsenal.
also a big company can’t buy all single letter domains of all TLDs
@ Francois “Look likes the only traffic the domain gets is
when an ad campaign is done. Look yourself Alexa graph and compare
with one of your sites that have almost no traffic:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/i.co#trafficstats” Yeah, pretty much.
If you look @ Alexa – 3 month +1060% and Compete.com
(http://siteanalytics.compete.com/i.co) it is pretty obvious the
“traffic” coincides with the marketing. The natural traffic on this
domain appears to be very low. Brad
Sorry, scrubs. Apple is waiting for i.COM – NOT some 3rd
rate imitation. If & when i.COM becomes available (by
auction), there will be no more retarded threads such as this one.
And the chump who buys i.co will see its value plummet. Face it,
the value of i.CO at this point is in the preception that Apple is
the ultimate end user (& who will pay the highest assuming
some speculator gets it). LESSON: similar to Cowboys.com (thinking
Dallas Cowboys would come knocking at any cost to take it off the
motley crew of domainers…with their fantasy development plans
yada yada..cowboy wear…blabla… Fast forward to today &
what is Cowboys.com…? “This Premium Domain is for Sale Contact
Dave Evanson dave.evanson@sedo.com” PATHETIC…bwahahaha..
What about the newspaper? You know… the paper called “i” as owned and published by the publishers of The Independent. It would be the perfect short URL for them or perhaps even for their website. It is easier to remember than the newspapers homepage currently at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-independent-launches-iii-2109899.html
I think apple will buy it