Miamiherald.com, just covered the .Co registry in a story entitled: “.CO sets sights on changing ‘the Fabric of the Internet”
The 4 page story starts out “For the millions of people who equate the Web with .com, . CO Internet is out to change that mindset.”
“The Miami company that manages and markets .co domain names is already making impressive gains — more than 1.4 million in 200 countries have hung their businesses, blogs, personal projects or dreams on a .co virtual shingle. Still, that’s just a tiny fraction of industry titan VeriSign’s 105 million .com registrants”.
“We want to change the fabric of the Internet,” Juan Diego Calle, founder and CEO of .CO Internet, said during an interview in .CO’s Brickell office. “We can only make that happen not by changing what happened in the last 25 years of the Web, which is owned by .com. We want to change the next 25.”
The story covers all the major players involved in the .Co registry including Jaun Calle., Nicolai Bezsonof and Lori Anne Ward and Eduardo Santoyo
Some of the more interesting quotes from the story:
“No one thought we would win against VeriSign,” said “When we went in and won, it was like, ‘all right, let’s go build a company.”
“Some single-letter names have gone for upwards of $1 million”
“Tech startups seemed to be a natural market because they are early adopters and naturally rebellious. “It’s the entrepreneur who is up at 4 in the morning with a great idea for his business and can’t find a domain name”
“Marquis names of the startup culture switched from .com to .co — beginning with AngelList ( Angel.co), the go-to site for connecting accredited investors with startups around the world”.
“Startup America ( s.co), Founder Institute ( fi.co), Launch Festival ( launch.co), and others followed suit. “CO is quickly becoming the hot new geeky TLD [top level domain] in Silicon Valley,” said 500 Startups founder Dave McClure, when announcing its change from 500startups.com to 500.coin 2011″.
“In South Florida, dozens of startups, including sewlove.co, nightpro.co, punchme.co and mijaresart.co have embraced the domain, as well as organizations such as Launch Pad Tech, Startup Florida, HackDay and SuperConf
“Unlike most domain registries that act more like a utility, .CO Internet wants to continue the relationship. When the team visits a city, for instance, it will hold a “co-er” dinner for local entrepreneurs with .co websites, said Wardi. Last month, a dinner in San Francisco had grown to 40 people and turned into a party at Bun Mee, a restaurant owned by a “co-er.”“When we would find someone building on the site, we’d get really excited, we’d email them, tweet at them, call them, and we’d say ‘we’re your domain registry, how can we help you?
“We want to eventually go down to a local level and make people realize they are part of a neighborhood. .Co is a neighborhood where everyone is taking advantage of awesome offers and helping each other”
“Looking ahead, Calle said at the recent Americas Venture Capital Conference that the company will address tackling other problems entrepreneurs face building businesses online. “What if setting up domain name, email and website could be done with one click? There are regulations and technology challenges. That is a problem we will tackle in the next five years.”
“It’s the entrepreneur who is up at 4 in the morning with a great idea for his business and can’t find a domain name,” –
So what happens when the “.co” is already taken as well ? – Then Jaun Calle has done his job and then no longer gives a damm about the “entrepreneur” – sorry just have to call the bullshit here 🙂
Jaun Calle and the rest of the non.com registries are all about 1 thing – selling domains – and believing their own bullshit in getting them sold.
How much money did he pay to get that dying paper to publish his BS.
http://www.miamiherald.co/ is BS
“So what happens when the “.co” is already taken as well ?”
Well then Juan group will be happy to sell them a domain in one of the new gTLD’s that Strat applied for
E-xxx-actly Michael – its not about the .co entrepreneur BS or whatever nonsense – its, as stated, about selling domains – and believing their own bullshit in getting them sold.
i think o.co is missing on the list, on the otherhand they are not a startup.
Hello MHB,
I think everybody can learn a lot by the overstock.com experiment and others. There is a 60% or more Bleed rate to to the .com VBF . All Prime .comVBF owners only wish someone will by the .co and benefit from the free advertising. By buying a .co you are immediately instating the law of diminishing returns. If you think this is Smart Knock Yourself Out, and likely Out of Business.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Brian
Same for me and same for you
We are in the domain business, he is just identifying his most likely customers
Michael.
I appreciate your stream of consciousness posts — but your articles would read better if you added an extra line break at the end of each paragraph. Also when ending a sentence with a quote, add an extra space before starting the next sentence with another quote. Also, in many cases you do not need to jump to a new paragraph. For example,
Miamiherald.com, just covered the .Co registry in a story entitled:
“.CO sets sights on changing ‘the Fabric of the Internet”
would read better if it was just
Miamiherald.com, just covered the .Co registry in a story entitled: “.CO sets sights on changing ‘the Fabric of the Internet”.
Fred
Jeff
Startups are just that, getting any traffic is a goal they don’t have enough to bleed
You see companies starting up all the time with a non-.com or less than great .com because they don’t have the budget for it.
Sometimes they have to come back around years later and pay more but that’s the way it goes
Ok Fred I cleaned it up just for you
BTW this is what happens when you blog while watching a playoff game
)):
Michael –
“he is just identifying his most likely customers”
Agreed – and gullable
frustrated + frustrated + frustrated + frustratedall in the same room does not equal success – instead it equals a room of frustrated “entrepreneurs” – or whatever it takes to get them in the room.
Great game – would have preffered Seattle though – and as far as the Broncos yesterday – when it takes 2 OT’s to win or lose – it does not matter – neither is going anywhere 🙂
Still not cleaned up (the second part of the stories paragraphs all merge). But, thanks for sharing this story.
.co is an amazing story.
Juan + co (pun intended) have done an amazing job — especially with the tech community. The fact that new, hot, tech startups are branding (or re-branding) as .co says something. This bodes well for the new batch of gtlds…
Fred
Now I went ahead and checked out the HTML for you
Should be all good to go
Hi Fred –
At the end of the day – it is all about making money – yes
– and yes Juan & co are one for the text books on how to make money – but with their model – and how it is sold – personally I could not get to sleep at night 🙁
But past the latest “.co” stroke (no different than .mobi dick, .info, .cc or whatever past stroke) I would rather take the traffic and future “brand” from Donuts.com and maybe even my Dognuts.com over Donuts.co –
Brian —
With all due respect, that’s ridiculous. I have a new startup, looking for a name — and I would absolutely love to find a new .co to brand it. However — .mobi, or .dick (as you suggest) are just not appropriate.
The .co model makes sense — helps everybody out and hurts nobody. Its a welcome addition to an overcrowded domain space controlled by greedy domainers like Michael Berkins and Frank Shilling (KIDDING…..)
Brian
Denver should have kept Tebow at least he won his overtime playoff game for you guys
I love how this blog comments are a mix of random football commentary and domain talk
Michael: much better!
Now, just add a space between the end quote and the next quote:
Last month, a dinner in San Francisco had grown to 40 people and turned into a party at Bun Mee, a restaurant owned by a “co-er.”“When we would find someone building on the site,
Fred –
Obviously – You are not aware of the tebow talk in the berkens family 🙂
– and we even had tebow’s older brother rubbing salt in the wound after the game yesterday – ooch
“The .co model makes sense” – sure it does now – so did .mobi dick and the rest – remember around 12 years ago the .cc stuff – every radio station was promoting themselves as xyz.com and xyz.cc in the same breath – that was the point.
The entire stroke comes with Juan Calle’s “We want to change the next 25.” – nothing is going to change – he is just going to sell stuff that has no relevance to the brand of the internet “.com”
.co is the ccTLD for Colombia. It is just as likely to stand for .cocaine (quite fitting actually) as it is for .company or .community or any other flavor of the day. Juan and team have definitely done great marketing on .co.; but they are about to face a truck load of companies that will be marketing actual Global TLD’s…. and then good ole .com is still here. I highly doubt “CO Sets Sights On Changing The Fabric of The Internet” has any basis in reality.
.com is “the brand the internet” ?
really?
myspace used to be the brand of social. AOL was the king of the internet, before yahoo.
.com may be “the current brand” — for US audiences only I might add. Subject to change….
Next year…Seahawks will be SuperBowl Champion!!!
Rookie quarterbacks Rule!! and
dot com is KING
Bull
Next year Wilson won’t be a rookie anymore
“.com may be “the current brand” — for US audiences only I might add. Subject to change….”
I Can’t be the only guy who gets calls / emails from Europeans – they want out – in fact really really want out (especially .eu and their own country code) – they want the .com.
Lets follow the MySpace world –
The main guy that started MySpace, Richard Rosenblatt, sold to NewsCorp and took his dough and bought eNom from Paul Stahura & co. as part of forming Demand Media – now Paul and very deep investors own Donuts.co. Does that mean Paul and his investors will make a lot of dough – Yes – because that is what the guy does – sells domains (now to folks who cannot get the .com).
Kind of like selling tickets in minor league sports team – does not change anything – in fact make the major leagues (.com) worth that much more 🙂
“The main guy that started MySpace, Richard Rosenblatt”
Incorrect.
Myspace was started by Chris de Wolfe and Tom Anderson. Richard Rosenblatt was brought on at the very last year, before the sale.
FYI.
OK Fred –
Whatever – But Richard Rosenblatt is the guy that really put MySpace on the map – not the founders – and in doing so made himeslf and others all the dough.
Spot the home team 14 points and then win last week, spot the home team 20 points and then take the lead with 32 seconds in the game — yeah, the Seahawks are for real.
I live in the North West and that game was a rollercoaster – I considered turning it off after the half, glad I didn’t. The local announcer here mentioned that West Coast teams have won two east coast road games in a row, in the playoffs, once in football history. The game was at 10 AM Seattle time, and that is why they were so slow starting.
.CO will collapse catastrophically, just like Mobi, once the promotion stops. Will it stop? Are they actually making money or are they convincing the Colombian Government to keep on investing more money?
Quote: “Jaun Calle and the rest of the non.com registries are all about 1 thing – selling domains” Nope. Jaun Calle is all about making money for Jaun Calle. There is a difference.
“or are they convincing the Colombian Government to keep on investing more money?”
That is a scarry thought – almost as scarry as individuals we no longer hear from anymore cleaning out the bank account, maxing out the credit cards and taking out a second mortgage in the name of non.coms.
Brian
Scary has one R.
“almost as scarry as individuals we no longer hear from anymore cleaning out the bank account” is not english.
Fred
Fred –
Anyone new to this blog would not be aware of the incredible “.co” nation in the past – equating “.co” to nothing shy of the “second coming” – so even with spelling errors, phonics lessons and improper conjugation you could probably search TheDomains on the web or look at past threads and find many folks (.co and other non.com’ers) “we no longer hear from”.
Some have made desparate pleas on TheDomains to Juan Calle to lower the renewal rates and other stuff – not exactly good PR considering “.com may be the current brand” – to use your words.
That is all friend
One advantage of country code domains over new gTLD is: 2-letter vs 3-letter or more. You can’t fault adminstrators of country code domains for making hay promoting their “alternative extension,” while ICANN delays!
when will the Miami Herald will change it’s own fabric and rename itself :
the Miamiaherald.co ?
Answer: never
the old boy’s Miami network at work, first Univision now this…
in the meantime the secular world remains clueless…
Just a note: I am debating “Domo Sapiens” “bullS” and “BrianWick” — none of which have uploaded photos.
I am sure the “Miami Herald” will not rebrand from .com to .co
But others will — and have.
Nothing sacred about .com (or AOl, yahoo, or myspace). Things change.
Fred
Fred Krueger– you want to see my photo…go ahead and click “BullS”
Not only I am damn good looking, I have the “website of the Year”
Go Hawks!!!
Fred @
If you are looking for a .co contact me,i’m sure i will find you a good one for free.
the article should place the warning “wishful thinking” with every sentence
.co variation is not on an iPhone prediction text, you lose.
@ Fred.
You sound like an English teacher. lol
I’ve witnessed Mr. Berkins make plenty of spelling and grammatical errors, but I never say anything. I imagine it’s hard to proof read when you’re sitting on a beach in the south of France. No? Not even close?
That said, I’m with you. .Co has proven itself to be viable. It’s when they start talking about .Co surpassing .Com that the “greedy” .Com domainers, as you so aptly put it, get upset. Because now, you’re messing with their profits. Correction… potential profits.
.Com, and it’s respective domainers, are the bullies of the schoolyard. I’m with .Co on this one. I like taking on the big guys.
Oh hell, here we go. It’s Berkens. I know, I know. Bring the pain.
12 years ago Clear Channel promoted the hell out of .cc as the “next .com” on all its radio stations – and it did gain some limited traction.
But it was that limited success that ultimately confused the consumer – and therefore, its limited success, ultimately was the cause of its own failure 🙂 – but I am sure the .cc registry still makes enough money.
But it certainly sounds like Juan Calle has found a whole new generation “bruilliant “Robert Cline” suckers – where possibly (Per Accent) the Colombian Government is the new “Clear Channel”
Hey guys if we are all going to make some typo’s lets at least get the authors name right
berkens
otherwise your emails are going to bounce.
Thanks Paul