In a press release today by .CO Internet S.A.S., citing “extraordinary demand for the impending .CO domain launch”, the LandRush phase for the .CO roll out has been extended until July 16th noon EST.
Some interesting points to note (some of which are from sources not contained in the release):
15,000 land rush application have been received at somewhere between $200-$300 per, totaling $3 Million-$4.5 million in land rush application fees.
More than 1,000 domains already have multiple landrush applications meaning that they will go to auction.
Additionally more than 11,000 applications (trademarks) were received through Sunrise, at several hundred a pop as well (depending on the registrar).
All and all its looking like a very successful launch.
So far no info on the number of pre-registrations but with 26K through Sunrise and land rush already booked with plenty of multiple application, I’m going to predict numbers into the six figures in total application as soon as general registration opens.
Here is the official release:
“”Due to extraordinary demand for the impending .CO domain launch, .CO Internet S.A.S. (www.COinternet.co), the registry operator of the .CO domain, today announced it has officially extended the deadline for people and companies to secure high-priority .CO domain names prior to their availability to the general public on July 20. The deadline for the “Landrush” phase will be extended through Friday, July 16th at 12:00 pm (Noon) EDT.
To date, .CO Internet has registered or taken applications for more than 26,000 .CO domain names, many of which have been secured by the world’s top global brands and Fortune 500 companies, such as: Amazon, American Express, Apple, BMW, Cartier, Canon, CNN, Coca-Cola, Disney, Ebay, Exxon, Facebook, Ford, Google, Hilton, Honda, IBM, IKEA, Kodak, McDonalds, Microsoft, MTV, Nestle, Nike, Nokia, Panasonic, Pfizer, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Toyota, Twitter, Unilever, Visa, Yahoo and many more”
“The company expects to receive several thousand more applications prior to the end of the Landrush period.”
“The response to the new .CO domain offering has been overwhelming. To keep up with the demand, our registrar partners have asked us to extend the deadline for the Landrush phase to give more people the opportunity to secure their desired domains before they are released to the general public,” said Nicolai Bezsonoff, chief operating officer of .CO Internet. “July 16th will be the last opportunity for corporations, major brands, start-ups and individuals to secure their desired domains early.”
“On July 20, all unclaimed domains will be added to the general pool and released on a first-come, first-served basis.”
“During the Landrush phase, organizations and individuals wishing to secure early access to high-priority, high-value .CO domain names may do so – for a premium – through one of 10 .CO Accredited Registrar partners, including GoDaddy.com, Register.com, Network Solutions, eNom, InternetX, Dotster, Melbourne IT, OpenSRS, My.co, and Dominio Amigo, or any of the resellers within each registrar’s extended networks.”
:.CO domains registered during the Landrush phase are priced at a premium to reflect their high value and high demand, with prices averaging between $250 to $300, depending on the registrar. If more than one Landrush application is received for a particular domain name, it will be auctioned to the highest bidder.””
What I really want to see is how long after it’s live before we see a tv commercial directing us to a .co website, and then the same for a major corp. Guesses anyone?
Don’t know how long it will be before we see a commercial but we know twitter is going to be using t.co just for starters
IMNSHO this extension is a complete and total waiste of money, surely there will be a few “greater fool” sales here and there …
it doesn’t make sense , people trying to sell the “snake oil” premise of .co DOT CO beign synonymous with Coorporation, company, Commercial etc etc (When .com serves as the standard for that ) promoting the reinvention of the wheel, feat that couldn’t be achieved by much better sounding more intuitive and already better postioned (daily use) extensions such as : .info .mobi and .tv
Everytime a new extension or TLD comes out (nowa nd the future) the “QuasiValue” of the other alternative gets diluted.
DOT CO sounds awkward becuase it is awkward.
Ask 100 people to go to travel.com when they get home and see where 99 will land…
Deja Vu: The only ones that will make money here will be the registrars / brokers and one or 2 domainers plus the insiders that already have the good names .
I see you guys here in a year and in 2 years , I put my slightly tarnished reputation on the line.
frankly, I don’t think that .co is an interesting TLD and (probably) I’ll never buy a .co
be a .com TLD without the “m”, doesn’t automatically make it a so amazing TLD
the .co TLD will be (mainly) the land of typosquatting and parked domains
MHB, thanks for the post!
For anyone interested in .CO, you should check out http://www.Opportunity.co – we are using that site to launch a big advertising initiative with the goal of reaching end-users (registrants) by showcasing different companies using a .CO. Obviously it will grow over time, but the site is starting to look cool.
As always, your feedback is welcome “juan AT cointernet .co”
Ya know, I’ve read way too many of these comment sections where “hurt” people (no one made you register .mobi) vent their past frustrations and simply imply that no other extension other than .com has merit.
.co can be taken exactly as it is: a nice looking extension that is a cctld and will probably do well in terms of sitting just behind .de and .co.uk for country extension popularity and usability.
THERE IS NO COMPETITION WITH .COM! Why not then compare .ca or .in with .com? No chance. It’s like comparing a mansion with a condo…a totally different league. But that doesn’t mean the condo isn’t nice or has some value or that the minor leagues in baseball don’t have a right to exist …of course they do. Of course everything in the beginning is a lot of hype because that’s what most advertising is! If you approach the .co soberly you’ll see it is just a nice extension that is nice to pronounce and people will want it in moderate quantities in terms of nice keywords, brands and so forth. Plus you really can’t compare this launch with .mobi or .tel because .co is a cctld and will have great relevance in Colombia given it’s shortness. There are 50 million people in Colombia with ever increasing Internet users there and that fact alone already makes .co a success. It won’t be going anywhere because it’s a cctld for Colombia with pre-popularity (nothing like .cm which had too many structural problems). The cointernet.co team has done a very professional job in organizing the dissemination of this extension and they deserve kudos for their acumen.
It is said in German business circles that the beginning days of a project are the most important over all the others in order to get it off the ground properly. I find this to be true and I laud cointernet.co for doing this launch with class.
PS Negative speculation is so uncreative…sorry again about .mobi
I feel that many users that don’t know the .co domain could believe that it’s a badly written domain, so, they might (simply) add an “m” at the end of .co going to ANOTHER website… 🙂
.co is a very promising extension. I think it will be a hit and a real alternative to .com
the first year of .co selling should say us everything about its real future
.co is Fools Gold.
you guys also said .mobi would be winners……… 😉
and .eu
and…. the list goes on
Jeff
Point me to a post on my blog where I said .mobi would be a winner.
Give me a citation
Go ahead.
Deja Vu: The only ones that will make money here will be the registrars / brokers and one or 2 domainers plus the insiders that already have the good names .
Of course they extend it, 300$ a domain… it’s not every day there’s a cash grab like this for poor registrars.
IMHO .co domains are just like .ws, .info, .me like domain extensions. All this hype/PR is gonna settle down very soon.