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TheDomains.com

.Co Three Letter Domains 95% Sold Out, 3 Character .Co Domains 46% Sold Out

February 14, 2011 by Michael Berkens

Over this week  there were repeated comments on this blog to the effect that all 3 letter (LLL.co) .Co domain names were registered or reserved, leaving none available.

We reached out to the .Co registry to confirm this and got the following information which is current as of February 9th

“The total number of 3-letter domains (LLL.co) registered is 16,551 out of a possible combination of 17,576 so close to 95% have been registered already.”

“Regarding the total possible number of registrable 3 character domains (mixture of letters and numbers):”

“Without IDN’s: you can register 26 letters plus 10 numbers, which adds to 36 possible characters, so there are a possible number of 46,656”

“We currently have 21,417 domains with 3 characters registered or  45.9% of the possible 3 characters domains registered.”

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Filed Under: .CO

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

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Comments

  1. Tim says

    February 14, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    Ooooooohhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!……..whisky river, candy mountain. 🙂

    Spend, spend, spend on .co……you’ll be RICH……LOL.

  2. Slate says

    February 14, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    I will be honest. I did buy .CO domain names as a speculative investment (so to speak since all domain purchases are speculative). I only purchased 11 .CO domains, during the preorder phases and have not dropped a single penny since.
    If I sold even one for $300 (which should not be very hard), then I would have broken even.

    In doing so I picked up 2 three letter word domain names. You always expect 3 LLL domains to sell out rather quickly and the return on those are generally pretty good no matter what extension (if you hand reg them).

    I am not at all surprised that theses will be sold out any time soon.
    But those are just my thoughts.
    Cheers

  3. Jeff Schneider says

    February 14, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    Hello Mike,

    Asking the .co registry for sensitive information like this is like handing the keys to the chicken coup to a fox. There is little doubt that you mean well by this post ,but we have our doubts. The major question is three years from now where will the current support for.co be?? We know where the support for .com will be!!

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  4. chris says

    February 14, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    wow this is pretty odd – I just wrote a post about the ways I find some LLL.CO domains

    anyways – i do feel like there will be a demand for LLL.CO domains soon. Not only are they shorter than .com but CO in general has been – and continues to be – extremely marketed

  5. MHB says

    February 14, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    Jeff

    All I can do is ask for stats at the source.

    Whether you choose to believe them or not is an entirely different matter but I in fact do believe they relayed accurate information.

    I have asked for stats regarding number of registrations of .Co domains since the Super Bowl which they would not provide at this time.

    No one knows how many domains will be registered in 3 years just like no one knows where the Dow Jones will be 3 years from now.

    Everyone has to do their own homework and make their best guess

  6. Brad says

    February 14, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    There are LLL sellout in .US, .BIZ and other secondary extensions. It means absolutely nothing for resale value. It just means LLL are the first things domainers target.

    Brad

  7. Rob Sequin says

    February 14, 2011 at 1:45 pm

    No word on the tens of thousands of new registrations after the Super Bowl commercial?

    I’m still waiting for the press release from Juan stating how many .com oops, I mean .co domain registrations there were after the BIG commercial.

    Hmmm, maybe they are still waiting for the commercial to work?

  8. hed says

    February 14, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Not all LLL are equal, premium ones were already reg since longtime, the remainings if any are LLL with z,y,q… in it. Also, it’s weird because I’ve scan and found today that none LLL.co where available for hand reg, even worst ones. So I think your results is from weeks ago.
    I’ve also invest on only LLL.co because we see that companies are interested with shorter URL just like overstock did. They would never get a LLL.com as already established by other companies or for sale at $xxx.xxx range prices. So .co is the best alternative IMO.

  9. em says

    February 14, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    @hed

    Yes, this is the bottom line: solid alternative, availability. I want an acronym, don’t have $100,000, what shall i do? A .comer might say “Oh man, just register a good two word .com.”. but it’s not the same as having the acronym, IMO.

  10. iHPad and myHPad much better than TouchPad says

    February 14, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    so, if we want to buy one of the LLL.co not registered yet, we must do 17,576 attempts?

  11. iHPad & myHPad much better than TouchPad says

    February 14, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    … or 46,656 attempts to register a 3 letters .co …

  12. MHB says

    February 14, 2011 at 2:29 pm

    Hed

    As said The response from .co was received on Friday

  13. BullS says

    February 14, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    a crappy 4l dot com beats 3l dot co any day any time.

    6mts from now, dot co will be like mobi

  14. em says

    February 14, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    @Bulls

    So you’d rather have UXXS.com than XXS.co? You gotta be kidding me.

  15. Brad says

    February 14, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    @ em

    When it comes to crappy quality like QZJV.com vs QZJ.co I would prefer to have neither.

    Brad

  16. BullS says

    February 14, 2011 at 3:00 pm

    em… I have sold many 4L dot com ( high $XXXXx) that most of you think they are junks because they are not pronounceable in USA English but valuable in other countries.

    This is what I called international experience living in other countries.

  17. jp says

    February 14, 2011 at 5:01 pm

    They probably are all gone, the only ones not considered registered by co are prolly the reserved and restricted ones.

  18. cm says

    February 14, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    nice to see this working:

    TheDomains.Co

  19. cm says

    February 14, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    plus it looks damn good…

  20. first domains funded NewSpaceAgency says

    February 14, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    “TheDomains.Co”

    but used (as great part of .co) only to redirect to a .com

  21. cm says

    February 14, 2011 at 6:59 pm

    no problem with that…
    I just like typing .Co
    Looks are a fringe benefit.

  22. 3DPokerNetwork.com says

    February 14, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    Who cares how many .cos are sold Why the big pub to try to get us to buy a .co name? When the 3D Internet hits all.co’s are worthless period.

  23. Landon White says

    February 14, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    @ Rob Sequin

    Hmmm, maybe they are still waiting for the commercial to work?
    —
    Great Line 🙂

    @ Slate
    —
    I will be honest.

    Does that mean every thing you said before about .CO junker was dishonest!

    LMAO

  24. Slate says

    February 14, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    @Landon White
    Nope!
    I just state my opinion on the SPECULATIVE investing that is known as domaining.
    I dont always state how many domains or what domains I have gathered.

    The people that I am always curious about are those who give their opinion on blogs/forums such as this but never really show who they are.

    Just my thoughts.
    Cheers

  25. first domains funded NewSpaceAgency says

    February 14, 2011 at 10:24 pm

    how many one and two letters .co domains are still available?

  26. domo sapiens says

    February 14, 2011 at 10:38 pm

    what is the % “end-user” improvement?
    hoarding by the hands of speculators usually becomes the kiss of death for any new extension.

  27. MHB says

    February 14, 2011 at 11:59 pm

    First

    To my knowledge all one & two character domains were either grandfathered in and take or reserved by the registry

  28. first domains funded NewSpaceAgency says

    February 15, 2011 at 12:25 am

    e.g. according to who.is the 3D.co domain is still inactive

  29. Robert Cline says

    February 15, 2011 at 2:34 am

    LLL.CO

    Threee letter domains are iconic, usually operated by large well known companies. I have begun compiling the largest LLL.CO database. Here is a list of just a few that are already up and running.

    http://hnw.co/
    http://www.cos.co/
    http://www.tsi.co/
    http://www.ecf.co/
    http://www.csd.co/
    http://nwb.co/
    http://www.llc.co/
    http://www.rov.co
    http://www.lyh.co/
    http://qiq.co/
    http://ww.ogl.co/
    http://surfing.cbd.co/?tag=llc
    http://pwl.co/
    http://bmt.co/
    http://iws.co/
    http://www.wdc.co/
    http://www.roe.co/
    http://www.tga.co/
    http://www.pbf.co/
    http://www.sra.co/
    http://www.stb.co/
    http://ipe.co/
    http://0rz.co/
    http://www.jak.co/
    http://www.l10.co/
    http://www.tde.co/
    http://jdr.co/
    http://www.ceu.co/
    http://www.ivp.co/
    http://hau.co/
    http://www.s60.co/
    http://www.xyg.co/
    http://www.1ct.co/
    http://apa.co/index.htm
    http://www.hia.co
    http://www.bnr.co/
    http://www.1st.co
    http://www.adp.co
    http://www.apc.co
    http://www.app.co
    http://www.amd.co
    http://www.bmr.co
    http://www.bza.co
    http://www.cpn.co
    http://www.chd.co
    http://www.dfj.co
    http://www.dmd.co
    http://www.fjz.co
    http://www.hau.co
    http://www.lgz.co
    http://www.ijs.co
    http://www.ini.co
    http://www.ipe.co
    http://www.ivp.co
    http://www.ivs.co
    http://www.jco.co
    http://www.kro.co
    http://www.loc.co
    http://www.mjs.co
    http://www.mfg.co
    http://www.now.co
    http://www.new.co
    http://www.nos.co
    http://www.nwc.co
    http://www.ner.co
    http://www.nws.co
    http://www.pbn.co
    http://www.pxl.co
    http://www.qi2.co
    http://www.syn.co
    http://www.swb.co
    http://www.sra.co
    http://www.vwp.co
    http://www.u10.co
    http://www.wds.co
    http://www.xch.co

    One thing you will instantly realize when you look at all these sites are that LLL.CO are owned by large reputable companies for the most part. This tells us that owning an LLL.CO is an instant ticket or at least a great foot in the door of something big.

    And this is just the ones that I know about after 2 days of research. Of course there is at least 10x more that I don’t know about.

  30. Joe says

    February 15, 2011 at 6:28 am

    @First
    – – –
    “TheDomains.Co”

    but used (as great part of .co) only to redirect to a .com
    – – –

    Great part? I don’t think so. This is valid for any extension: if you have a website on a somewhat long domain and you also own a shorter one, you can point it to the first one for the joy of your users: dnw.com and dnw.co -> DomainNameWire.com for example. In the case of TheDomains.co the difference is only one letter, but one may prefer using it because it’s still shorter and faster to type 😉

  31. David says

    February 15, 2011 at 7:06 am

    Hi,

    I am a domainer in the UK and to date I have not seen a single business ad showing a dot co address. If people here saw a van with a dot co web address on it, they would think that the last part of .co.uk had been missed off.

    This in general would also apply in the US where the general public expect a full .com, not one with the m missing.

    It seems therefore that most dot co domains are going to speculators, but will they ever be truly worth anything to businesses in view of the fact that their customers already expect .com, .co.uk etc.

  32. cm says

    February 15, 2011 at 7:28 am

    something to think about…

    Before the internet, companies were choosing to use co. and not com. on
    their signs because it was short and looked good.
    Not many companies used the letters com before the internet.
    Companies had to use .com because it was the
    best alternative at the time.

  33. Joe says

    February 15, 2011 at 7:29 am

    @David

    I’m not saying .CO will become this ot that, but things always need to be seen long term. Obviously established habits cannot be changed overnight.

  34. David says

    February 15, 2011 at 7:45 am

    The whole premace of the .co registry seems to be based upon their notion that the general public are, or will become too lazy to add the letter m when typing a web address.

    Any business trying to build a reputation with .co will I think be thought of as having some kind of Mickey Mouse web address or worse, be thought of as a Mickey Mouse set up in general. Yes before the internet the abbreviation Co was normal, but we are not in the pre-internet world and we never will be again.

  35. BFitz says

    February 15, 2011 at 7:50 am

    @MHB
    Thanks for the new post and information. Sorry for the same old comments…

  36. Gazzip says

    February 15, 2011 at 8:38 am

    “Please give me your opinion. Thanks.”

    I would sell it Robert, at least it’ll pay for the others.

    If .co is anything like all the other extensions then things will quiet down pretty quick when the next “new” ext hits the block and the buzz moves on to that.

    my 2 cents, good luck

  37. cm says

    February 15, 2011 at 9:33 am

    RicksBlog.Co
    ElliotsBlog.Co
    Sedo.Co
    GoDaddy.Co
    DomainMonster.Co
    TheDomains.Co

    …if it gets you were you want to go…

  38. Chris says

    February 15, 2011 at 10:06 am

    @cm

    _____

    It only makes sense that all those people have their respected CO domains registered. It makes thing easier for the blog owners since some chump cant try to reg those domains

  39. cm says

    February 15, 2011 at 10:16 am

    Chris,
    I agree with that.

    But it is a domain that can be used…not just sit as protection.

  40. David says

    February 15, 2011 at 10:42 am

    If you need to buy .co as some form of defensive protection, then why not buy every other TLD in the world. But who would be that bothered?

  41. Brad says

    February 15, 2011 at 10:48 am

    @ David

    Not every extension is clear .COM typo.

    Brad

  42. cm says

    February 15, 2011 at 11:11 am

    The debate about which came first typo can be argued either way.

    .ao
    .aom

    .bo
    .bom

    .co
    .com

    .do
    .dom

    each of the above can exist distinctly

  43. Brad Mugford says

    February 15, 2011 at 11:36 am

    @ cm

    There is no way around the fact that many of the “brand protection” buys are because of the obvious typo aspect. There is a reason many companies own .CO and not .BIZ

    Brad

  44. Brad Mugford says

    February 15, 2011 at 11:37 am

    And the argument to which came first. Give me a break. There were 90M+ .COM regs when .CO was repackaged and released.

    Brad

  45. first domains funded NewSpaceAgency says

    February 15, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    “This is valid for any extension”

    true, this is what I do with all non .com domains I use for real sites

  46. cm says

    February 15, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    yes Brad, I realize that.

    The two “good is a noun” satements I discoverd today:

    1. “Companies had to use .com because it was the
    best alternative at the time.”

    2. “…if it gets you where you want to go…”

  47. Dotbay.net says

    February 20, 2011 at 1:44 am

    Hi !

    I just whant to tell Domainers that Im Using 4 LLL.co and all my friends Love the Idea !

    Its shorter and easy to remember 3 Letters !

    If you tell your friends to go on LLL.tk , LLL.biz , LLL.ws …. Chance is that they will not remember the extention !

    LLL.co is simple ! Its like dot Co(m) !

    I own :

    HBH.co
    XLM.co
    MZN.co
    XBR.co

    IM LOVING IT ! XD

  48. Robert Cline says

    February 20, 2011 at 2:46 am

    @Dotbay

    I agree. LLL.CO s are the best domain names in my opinion.

    They feel really good when you type them in. I am compiling all LLL.CO s here:

    http://hnw.co/
    http://www.cos.co/
    http://www.tsi.co/
    http://www.ecf.co/
    http://www.csd.co/
    http://nwb.co/
    http://www.llc.co/
    http://www.rov.co
    http://www.lyh.co/
    http://qiq.co/
    http://ww.ogl.co/
    http://surfing.cbd.co/?tag=llc
    http://pwl.co/
    http://bmt.co/
    http://iws.co/
    http://www.wdc.co/
    http://www.roe.co/
    http://www.tga.co/
    http://www.pbf.co/
    http://www.sra.co/
    http://www.stb.co/
    http://ipe.co/
    http://0rz.co/
    http://www.jak.co/
    http://www.l10.co/
    http://www.tde.co/
    http://jdr.co/
    http://www.ceu.co/
    http://www.ivp.co/
    http://hau.co/
    http://www.s60.co/
    http://www.xyg.co/
    http://www.1ct.co/
    http://apa.co/index.htm
    http://www.hia.co
    http://www.bnr.co/
    http://hnw.co/
    http://www.cos.co/
    http://www.tsi.co/
    http://www.ecf.co/
    http://www.csd.co/
    http://nwb.co/
    http://www.llc.co/
    http://www.rov.co
    http://www.lyh.co/
    http://qiq.co/
    http://ww.ogl.co/
    http://surfing.cbd.co/?tag=llc
    http://pwl.co/
    http://bmt.co/
    http://iws.co/
    http://www.wdc.co/
    http://www.roe.co/
    http://www.tga.co/
    http://www.pbf.co/
    http://www.sra.co/
    http://www.stb.co/
    http://ipe.co/
    http://0rz.co/
    http://www.jak.co/
    http://www.l10.co/
    http://www.tde.co/
    http://jdr.co/
    http://www.ceu.co/
    http://www.ivp.co/
    http://hau.co/
    http://www.s60.co/
    http://www.xyg.co/
    http://www.1ct.co/
    http://apa.co/index.htm
    http://www.hia.co
    http://www.bnr.co/
    http://www.1st.co
    http://www.adp.co
    http://www.apc.co
    http://www.app.co
    http://www.amd.co
    http://www.bmr.co
    http://www.bza.co
    http://www.cpn.co
    http://www.chd.co
    http://www.dfj.co
    http://www.dmd.co
    http://www.fjz.co
    http://www.hau.co
    http://www.lgz.co
    http://www.ijs.co
    http://www.ini.co
    http://www.ipe.co
    http://www.ivp.co
    http://www.ivs.co
    http://www.jco.co
    http://www.kro.co
    http://www.loc.co
    http://www.mjs.co
    http://www.mfg.co
    http://www.now.co
    http://www.new.co
    http://www.nos.co
    http://www.nwc.co
    http://www.ner.co
    http://www.nws.co
    http://www.pbn.co
    http://www.pxl.co
    http://www.qi2.co
    http://www.syn.co
    http://www.swb.co
    http://www.sra.co
    http://www.vwp.co
    http://www.u10.co
    http://www.wds.co
    http://www.xch.cos
    http://www.200.co
    http://fxd.co/

  49. the first domains funded NewSpaceAgency says

    February 20, 2011 at 4:32 am

    MZN.co can be the short-URL for (e.g.) for Mark Zuckerberg Networks

  50. _garth says

    March 18, 2011 at 3:11 am

    .co will go the way .mobi – sounds good in principle but ultimately search rules and that points on web and smartphone to .com

    no one promotes a .co because perception is that “real” company has a .com

    it’s legitimised “protection money” – every single non-country-based domain release since CNOs has been purely an exercise in marketing – and will most likely continue to be. so they’re useless apart from flipping domains for profit in the name of “protection”

  51. Dotbay says

    March 18, 2011 at 11:24 am

    GARTH ”no one promotes a .co because perception is that “real” company has a .com” …..

    Godaddy and Name.com made SuperBawl Comercial ! Why do you think haf millions .co domains are sold ?

    ITS A BIG BANG ! Just remove ”m” and you have a shorter link !

    .com (comerce,comunications,)
    .co (compagnies,corporated,)

    Emul.co(nsole) That’s what I saw when I purchased the name…

    You can use .co as you want!

    It will never become like .mobi or .tell

    Its one of the bigest chance you have to buy some Hight value domain names for regs cost!

  52. Andrei says

    July 1, 2011 at 4:16 am

    @botbay

    .co stands for COmmerce, COmmunity, Communication, COrporation, COrporated, etc so STFU !


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