.CO MARKET REPORT: A Look Back at Three Years of.co on the Domain Name Market

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1 .CO MARKET REPORT: A Look Back at Three Years of.co on the Domain Name Market The.CO domain extension launched to the world on July 20, Since that time,.co has achieved a great deal of success on a variety of fronts. From high registration and renewal rates to widespread development, notable use cases and successful consumer marketing and community building efforts,.co is often cited as a role model for the new generic top-level domains (new gtlds) that are now gearing up to launch..co s performance in the aftermarket. Based on our data and analysis, it is clear that in just three short years,.co has established itself as a highly successful domain extension, with strong average sales prices and overall performance on the market. The case of.co provides a great example of how a domain marketplace. However, no evaluation of a domain extension s performance would be complete without considering how well it performs on the secondary market. Last year, to commemorate the customers and our partners. The response was so positive that this year, in honor of.co s third anniversary, we ve decided to do it again. report to be both helpful and instructive. As the world s leading and largest domain name marketplace, Sedo has been able to consistently monitor and evaluate 1

2 The Growth of.co as a credible alternative to existing legacy domain extensions, like.com and.net. Exactly three years later, there are more than 1.5 million.co domain names registered by individuals and businesses in over 200 countries worldwide. Sales Success.CO is one of the most frequently traded domain extensions in the Sedo marketplace, currently ranked 10th out of nearly 160 domain extensions. Since.CO was introduced in 2010, secondary market sales of.co domain names have generated more than $2.6 million in gross sales revenue at Sedo. Domains Sold 1,600,000 1,400,000 1,200,000 1,000, , , , , M 1.0 M 500 K 233 K 1.5 M Mean Average & Median Sales Prices Despite its position as a newcomer in the domain space, mean average and median sales prices for.co domain names in the secondary market are high. The high average and median end users place in the.co extension..co started out strong in 2010, with a mean average sales price of $1,819 USD during launch year. In 2011 and 2012, the average sales price of.co domains remained fairly consistent in the $1,700 - $1,800 USD range. As of the end of June of 2013, the mean average sales price of.co domains in the Sedo marketplace was $2,486 USD. This means that the average sales price for.co domains increased by 37% since the TLD was introduced in

3 When you consider the.co TLD s performance against other key domain extensions, the results are quite impressive. As seen in the Mean Average Sale Prices of Popular TLDs in Sedo Marketplace co $ 1,819 $ 1,769 $ 1,750 $ 2,486.com $ 3,163 $ 2,775 $ 2,148 $ 2,053.me $ 1,704 $ 1,319 $ 2,030 $ 1,662.net $ 1,603 $ 1,602 $ 1,880 $ 1,337.org $ 2,040 $ 1,289 $ 1,315 $ 1,332.biz $ 879 $ 1,289 $ 879 $ 1,055.us.info $ 843 $ 795 $ 1,041 $ 990 $ 1,271 $ 896 $ 870 $ 780 disproportionately impact the mean average sales price for the extension. They are typically lower than average prices because they 3

4 sales price for.co domains has remained consistently strong since the launch in 2010, with a strong trend upward between 2012 and With a current price of $570 USD, the median sales price for.co domain names has increased by 14% since the TLD was introduced three years ago. Top 10 Public.CO Sales The top 10 reported sales of.co domains on Sedo s marketplace since July of 2010 were: DOMAIN PRICE Median Sale Prices of Popular TLDs in Sedo Marketplace e.co business.co fx.co $ 81,000 $ 80,000 $ 50,000 TLD com.co.net.us.org.me.biz.info $ 550 $ 595 $ 455 $ 593 $ 407 $ 415 $ 650 $ 310 $ 555 $ 510 $ 326 $ 424 $ 480 $ 642 $ 510 $ 515 $ 392 $ 395 $ 650 $ 570 $ 499 $ 485 $ 400 $ 393 $ 390 news.co forex.co internet.co men.co music.co (tie) $ 50,000 $ 45,000 $ 46,087 $ 40,000 $ 40,000 $ 32,000 $ 30,000 $ 30,000 $ 30,000 4

5 End User Adoption While initially delegated as the country code TLD for Colombia, its introduction in According to the.co Registry, slightly over 53% of.co domain registrations come from registrants in the United States. Approximately 10% of.co domain registrations come from the United Kingdom, 9% come from Colombia, and about 4% each from Australia and Canada. The remaining.co registrations are spread throughout the world. branded URL-shorteners. Here s a brief list of big brands relying on short URLs from.co to connect with their customers via social and mobile media. amex.co buswk.co engt.co nssn.co sbux.co virg.co cs.co thd.co The.CO domain has seen a consistent level of customer use and development around the world, and seems to be as well as startups. A sample of use cases can be found on the.co website at Beyond small businesses and startups, major brands are also increasingly embracing.co. For example, Walmart recently launched Goodies.co through Walmart Labs, an innovative food discovery and subscription service. Likewise, Twitter recently launched Vine.co, which has since become the most popular video-sharing app in the world..co has also found a solid niche with big brands using.co domains to complement their existing web addresses with 5

6 A large number of developed, end user.co sales have also taken place on the Sedo marketplace. Here are a couple of examples: is a new form of web interaction. It is not a social network. It is not a review site. It is not an online dating site, nor is it a people search engine. However, it combines the Farm.co.CO Membership Program Farm.co is a creative media agency based in Europe that was able to rebrand its long and cumbersome domain name www. creativemediafarm.com with the short and memorable farm.co. Mirror.co In 2012,.CO launched a membership program to provide valuable networking, promotion and support to help.co users to build and grow successful businesses. The.CO membership program gives.co customers the tools, resources and support they need to take action on their ideas and to succeed. As part of the program,.co has hooked people up with coveted tickets to events like Startup Weekend and Lean Startup Conference, access to co-working spaces in key cities, promotional support, and more, all for free. opened its doors. All of the offers in the.co membership program are intended to reinforce the power of the growing.co community and to create opportunities for people to in real life too. 6

7 The Future of.co The.CO domain extension continues to grow steadily in total registration numbers, customer use cases, and secondary market interest and volume. As the TLD enters its fourth year on the Sedo marketplace, it has achieved average sales prices that are on par with and in some cases surpass the most wellestablished legacy gtlds, including.com,.net and.org..co is also a great case study of what it takes to successfully launch and build a new domain extension. Thanks to successful consumer marketing and community building efforts, including the newly launched membership program,.co is increasingly entrepreneurship. In addition to a solid launch and marketing plan,.co has worked closely with Sedo to promote and sell premium.co domain names, and to help build value in the secondary market for.co domains. About Sedo Sedo, an acronym for Search Engine for Domain Offers, is largest database of domain names for sale, with more than 17 million listings. The success of Sedo s model has attracted a global base of more than 2 million members. For more information about Sedo, please visit With the onslaught of new TLDs that will soon be added to the Internet, it seems that.co offers a solid playbook that can be followed to help ensure any new TLDs success on the secondary market and beyond. About.CO.CO is the domain name of choice for innovators and entrepreneurs all over the world. Since launching in 2010, the.co domain has been registered by more than 1.5 million people and companies in more than 200 countries. From startups and small businesses to big brands and multinational corporations,.co is where big ideas belong on the Web. For more information about.co, please visit 7