I have been getting emails every couple days about the release of 1.8 million .uk names.
The website TheUKdomain.UK has laid out the plan for acquiring these names.
Starting from 1 July 2019, any previously reserved .uk domains that have not been registered will be available on a first-come, first served basis in a two stage process:
Stage One
A release process, running from the 1st to the 5th July inclusive, will make previously reserved names available in batches (one per day), at or after 14.00 BST (UTC+1).
The release schedule for Stage One is as follows:
1st July – Batch 1: Domains beginning 0-9, a-b
2nd July – Batch 2: Domains beginning c-f
3rd July – Batch 3: Domains beginning g-m
4th July – Batch 4: Domains beginning n-s
5th July – Batch 5: Domains beginning t-zThose interested in securing a particular .uk domain should contact a participating registrar.
Many offer a ‘pre-order’ service, which allows you to express an interest in a particular domain name, which the registrar will attempt to secure on your behalf. They will usually provide this service on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis or refund fees, in whole or in part, if the name is not secured.
A list of registrars participating in the release can be found here. If you would like to find out if a particular .uk domain that was previously reserved will be released please search for it here.
Looking at the recent sales pattern for .co.uk domains, the trend is down.
.Co.uk and .de have been two of the most successful cctlds for sales over the years. But in the last few years .co.uk has seen a sales dip.
No .co.uk sale that makes the top 50 .co.uk sales of all time has happened since 2016. Only 4 sales in 2016 made the top 50 but there were two big sales Furniture.co.uk at $650,000 and Purple.co.uk at $158,035.
2017 sales data provided by Namebio shows:
182
Total Sales
$598.3k
Dollar Volume
$3,287
Average Price
2018 sales data:
225
Total Sales
$542.2k
Dollar Volume
$2,410
Average Price
2019 sales data at the half year point:
57
Total Sales
$194.5k
Dollar Volume
$3,411
Average Price
Would love to hear from some UK domain investors and business owners if they will be jumping into the .uk mix?
No way. As a warehouser, cyberscammer and parasite I will not participate on a auction frenzy to fill the pockets of those who work against me.
WOW!
Not impressed.
I did more personal sales with just 1 dot com domain sale than the entire extension over 3 years combined.
If I add the other sales, oh my!
Work harder for less on a smaller market that makes it exponentially more difficult to make money to begin with. Limited market. Not worldwide. No reason for outsiders to buy in.
Good luck to those that see something different!
Yes maybe you did but many people are good at selling domains we have sold thousands of co.uk domains but yes we didn’t need .UK and even when we do have the .UK they don’t want it I still invest hard in .com and much prefer but co.uk has been great for me !
yes yes yes… if you read the blogs and are aware of my comment history then YES! but i do many stupid stuffs. (my real answer is NO)
i just bought my .uk in the pre because of my premium .co.uk was more a defensive move, since the uk
is leaving europe. i think .uk make more sense then co.uk
The UK leaving the EU may make the term “UK” pretty defunct. In the next decade the UK could consist of only England and Wales. At least someone can make money launching an all new extension .ENG! So many garbage extensions have been launched over the last few years I had to check to see if DotEng already existed and found this – http://www.doteng.org/
There are a couple of .UK’s I want but only for development purposes and not for resale.
Anthony you’re in a dreamworld. The Scots had a referendum and they didn’t want it. Just cause Nichola sTURDgeon’s political career revolves around droning on about having a second one two seconds after the last one doesn’t mean you should too. Stop being a whining remoaner… we want to leave the EU, you’re lying to yourself if you think otherwise.
As if the Scots would want to leave the historic and awesome UK UNION to be part of the EU. What stupidity. Stop wanting a referendum every two seconds and focus on something more important like regging a few .UK names.
Oh, and we have an extension, it’s .GB, we don’t need .ENG. Looks like that project’s a complete flop.
These will be good for end-users to purchase direct from the registry. Since the domain investor community won’t be hijacking (just how I feel when I’m searching for a domain and someone else beat me to it) the good names.
Did a quick search for terms ending in UK, just to see if there were any EMD possibilities – nada!
Btw – EMDs are actually doing quite well in the SEO rankings.
Not sure how this one works. If your .uk name is available, do you get the name if no one else pre-registered it?. And if there are other applicants, there’s a bidding war type arrangement?
Seems a bit complicated, but maybe I missed something. It says “first come, first get” — so I assume all those who pre-registered at the start of the day in London got a jump on the premiums.
I realize the .com is where the top resell value is, so prob best to keep playing in that sandbox.
If anyone can provide some answers to my questions, it would be appreciated, as I did ‘apply” for 2 names, on a lark,. I didn’t get any spam on these registrations, but I’m getting a few emails per day on the NameJet. Maybe because I don’t own any co.uk domains.
@Raymond,
I’d imagine you get emails about all domain-related events, new extensions, sales, etc, as one of the leading domain bloggers.
Dot uk domains may well supplant .co.uk in usage and popularity. It is not surprising that sales and values of .co.uk domains would decline in the years preceding dot uk’s arrival. Everyone in that market has known it was coming. So any sales analysis for .co.uk really needs to account for that very important factor that is likely depressing demand.
There is near zero demand for .uk. Good luck to anyone who think it supplant .co.uk.
I’m in the UK and buy domains for several reasons but I absolutely must see a money making opportunity for every single registration I make. I think very in depth about this industry and I see NO value in this new .uk extension at all, however, the .co.uk domains are very valuable to me and will reign supreme here in the UK just as .com does in the USA.
I dumped 99% of my .co.uk domains about3 years ago some them had since 1999. Two reasons for this first when Nominet increased price by 100% overnight it told me that things getting out hand in UK namespace. Also with brexit going to kick in you really need .com if your doing business on global market. WE started to focus more on .com and increase buying up .com domains. Pleased with sort names we have manged to pick up.
There is another factor being Scottish as soon Scotland becomes independant its just a matter of time then will no such thing as United Kingdom any longer thus making the .UK name space wrong. Then add the .UK domain ect into market this extention should have been given to .Co.uk owners but greed took over and now your being sort blackmailed into taking the ext just to protect what you have built up over the last 20 years.
Yes its a total messed up extention not worth the value it one had due to stubid politics and little England mentality by the politicians and brexiteers. Now makes buying .co.uk &.UK domain more than .Com and .com is domain with the value. as domainer and business owner. just sometimes you have to mark hard choice of deleting domains that you dont see any value in any longer.
The UK will still exist if Scotland leaves. It only came into existence when Great Britain united with Ireland. When Ireland left, the United Kingdom remained in existence (Breat Britain and Northern Ireland). It is Great Britain that will cease to exist.
Brexit may well boost uptake of .co.uk as businesses look to underline their British credentials.
What I do find interesting is how other country extensions are far more popular: an English word in the .de extension will regularly sell for more than the same word in .co.uk.
I will be investing. Ill show you how I do.
But We need UK address to reg .uk name?
The release schedule for Stage One is as follows:
1st July – Batch 1: Domains beginning 0-9, a-b
2nd July – Batch 2: Domains beginning c-f
3rd July – Batch 3: Domains beginning g-m
4th July – Batch 4: Domains beginning n-s
5th July – Batch 5: Domains beginning t-z
lol tisk tisk tisk
A perfect illustration for how fxxxing crooked the domain name business is.
Batches?
lol just keeps gettin better!