Sedo, on the 2nd anniversary of .Co, unveiled a report that highlights the success of the .co extension since its introduction two years ago today, on July 20, 2010.
Here are some of the highlights:
The total value of .Co sales at Sedo since July 2010 is 1.64 million USD;
- .Co was the 9th most frequently sold TLD at Sedo in 2011;
- Since its introduction, .Co has held a strong average sales price above 1,800 USD, and is currently second only to .com in mean average sales prices;
- The top .co sale at Sedo to date was e.co, at 81,000 USD.
The Average & Median Sales Price of .Co domain names:
2010 2011 2012
Median $500 $360 $500
By comparison for 2011 the average sales price for a .com domain name on Sedo was $2,775.
“”The mean average sales prices for .co domains show a very solid start in the secondary market. From its launch in July through the end of 2010, .co names had an average price of 1,819 USD.
“2011 showed a stable market, and 2012 to date has the best mean average yet for .co sales. For a new TLD, this is a strong and stable showing on the market.
“Median sales prices also help to assess the true value of a TLD, as they exclude particularly high or low value sales that could otherwise impact the mean average for the extension. The median sales price for .co domains has also remained steady, showing that demand for the TLD has not waned.”
“The numbers say it all,” said Juan Diego Calle, the CEO of .CO Internet, “Sedo’s report confirms that in just two short years, the .CO domain has become a major force to be reckoned with on the global domain market. It’s exciting to imagine how these numbers will grow in the next five to ten years as the .CO TLD becomes even more widely adopted, developed, monetized and marketed by end users worldwide.”
The .CO ‘fever’ among domainers has been slowing down, no doubt about that. However, one thing I have been noticing for the last couple of years is that you always have at least a couple of .CO sales in Sedo’s weekly report. I’d say that what has changed is mainly the infamous hype that made some people invest 5 or even 6 figures in the extension, so we will very rarely see huge sales again, but you will always have a market for (not necessarily premium) quality keywords at 3 or even 4 figures, which, for a $xx investment, still represents a nice ROI.
Personally, all my .CO sales have been low to mid $xx purchases sold at Sedo auctions (so no time spent contacting people) in the low to mid $xxx, with the latest being OnlineForex dot CO handregged at $25 and sold at $330 a few weeks ago. I know the .com sold for $45,000, but I’m still happy with my sale.
A little misleading because ultra-premium keywords are trading in .co while in .com and other extensions like .net and .org such keywords would sell for much more but are already developed or reserved.
@Greg:
Why misleading? It is exactly the nice thing about .co that you can actually register/buy and sell ultra-premium keywords, achieving nice prices, while with .com all these keywords were taken long ago and are not on the market or are to purchase only with an attached company for 7-8 digit prices… out of range for the most domain investors.
The measure of sucess would be how many domains with a high Alexa ranking are .co’s. I don’t really see too many and most attempts at marketing .co web sites don’t seem to do that well.
i LOVE the e.co site… well worth the money 🙁
but all figures are very poor … no high priced domain sales lately (apart the awesome Face.com)
Juan Calle ended the conversation stating that he thought the new set of TLDs would outperform this extension which is why their marketing strategy is changing.
He went on to say that he expected 90% of some of the names that were registered to not get dropped on the 2 year anniversary and that he thought to mention this now because the timing was right.
He also reaffirmed his position that investors and squatters really aren’t always the same thing most of the time.
Now I understand the brown paper bag over your head
Hello MHB,
What might be a reasonable answer that I or anyone else might get from you as far as the .co avalanche of UDRPS from .COM holders?
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
The problem with comparing an outlier TLD like .co with a core TLD like .com is simply this: volume. More .com domains and net/org/uk/de domains would sell each month than would probably sell each year in .co ccTLD. The .com TLD is also a freer market than .co ccTLD where many premiums were sold well ahead of the landrush or are still being held by the registry.
There is really only one metric that establishs the value of a TLD and that metric is usage. Do people use their .co domains for working websites? Is the usage of .co domains for active and unique websites higher than any of the other newer gTLDs or TLDs launched in the last few years?
The second anniversary of the landrush is critical for new TLDs because that’s when many domainers make the decision on whether to hold or drop. Auto-renew can help to skew this figure but .co growth was, to a large extent, driven by speculation and the hope of acquiring a cheaper version of a .com domain. The last web survey of .co websites that I did in February 2012 showed that .co had some development but it had a lot of brand protection activity from small businesses. This is different from the big brand protection which is often backed by trademarks and other intellectual property rights. Many of these small business brand protection domains were being forwarded to the business’s main website in other TLDs. While domainer registrations tend to be volatile, these small business brand protection registrations are relatively stable but if the numbers of this type of registration start to drop in the next few months, then it would indicate that .co is losing ground in a very important part of the market.
.COM.CO
IS THE BEST BEACAUSE YOU GET BOTH!!!