It Started With A Chat At A Cocktail Party, Overstock Buys O.Co For $350K
We told you a big announcement of a record setting sale for a .CO was coming this week, and it didn’t take long.
I can give you a little background on the sale.
I had a conversation with a representative of OverStock at at a cocktail party which was an official event at the ICANN meeting in Brussels about domain names during which I brought up that it might be a good idea for Overstock to acquire O.CO since Twitter, at the time, had just acquired T.CO
Well you could actually see the light bulb go off over the guys head just like in the cartoons.
It was just something he never considered but once he heard it, he was very interested.
We had about a 15 minute talk after which I asked if he would like me to make a mutual introduction to the .Co registry to him, and now a little over a month later there is a record setting $350K sale for a .CO domain.
I’m sure all of you are glad to see that this sale was not a trademark sale or a “hack” as many of you guessed response to our tease post of Sunday.
Many readers guessed it would be Pepsi.co or cis.co.
I have to give credit to one reader Katrina who was first to comment “is this single char .co ?”, and Brady who agreed “it has to be a single character domain”, nice job guys.
Beyond The .CO registry and Overstock the next happiest person on earth has to be Lonnie Borck whose group purchased E.CO for just $81K just a month ago. I only went as high as $25K in the auction
This record setting price is over 4x more than what Lonnie paid.
In response to our post about the sale, most commentators thought at the time the purchase was high priced and a waste of money.
I told you at the time Lonnie was a smart guy.
Here is what Overstock had to say about the acquisition:
“The O.CO domain presented us with an unprecedented opportunity to add a meaningful online presence that will enhance recognition for the “O” brand, align with current marketing initiatives, and make it easier for shoppers to find our products and services online,” said Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne.”
“Dollar for dollar, it’s a homerun and well worth the investment because it reinforces among consumers that ‘O’ is synonymous with ‘Overstock’.”
We congratulate both the registry and Overstock.
Loading ...
Let’s see here is a sampling of the top Pool.com backordered domains today
youtub.co
ingdirect.co
yotube.co
reddit.co
hao123.co
Like I said it is going to be a TM nightmare.
Brad
“Like I said it is going to be a TM nightmare.”
For sure Brad, the lawyers will be laughing all the way to the bank and if you think domainers have a bad rep right now you ain’t seen nothing yet.co
This is going to get messy real fast.
Pool should get a prize for selling the most disney TM domains on their homepage throughout the year…they promote them all the time….pretty sad really.
I guess aero had to use a bitly link so nobody would realize they would be tricked into going to domaingags.
Looks like datacube guy has a lot of time on his hands to argue about something that is unknown to this point. Will it be a good investment or will it not? Time will tell but it’s just day one and verdict is out.
Not that you’re anything like Steve Balmer, but I remember when he said about Apple’s iPhone, “‘There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”
Argue til you’re blue in the face. Make thedomains.com light up with comments. Doesn’t mean squat.
Dear DomainStar – not the brightest in the sky, apparently. The link goes to my personal blog. If you don’t understand what, when, why etc. it’s only an opinion – but it’s only your own. Yes, I also run DomainGang.com and the link I posted has nothing to do with it.
I’m curious how they picked 350k as the “lucky” number. I assume it was not an auction but just a straight up purchase. Why not 100k or 500k?
Scary how most of the “for” .co arguments are similar to other failed extensions. If the “it’s a country code” argument is true then everything to the left of the dot should be in Spanish.
I’m wondering too is there a .co.co?
Boggles the mind just thinking about the new extensions in the pipeline…
Domainings’ rep for being squatters is about to go up exponentially…MOST names will be bought thinking some traffic will be crossing over from .com. A few good lawsuits and the rep of .co will be tarnished big time along with being a domainer in general.
The only light bulb going off for me is the guy that owns O.com
Why did Overstock buy the domain when they could have used the Founders Program for FREE? That’s what Twitter did. I guess someone failed to mention that option.
IMHO Overstock got taken for a ride on this….
There is no O.com, all the L.com are held by the registry itself other than X / Q / Z.
Yeah I guess at the end of the day Overstock.com is the big loser when they could have just had it for free like Twitter instead of paying $350K.
Brad
Let’s just wait until Oman starts to allow open regs with their .OM extension. We already have .CM and .CO, might as well go for the typo trifecta.
Brad
As an adjunct to my previous post re value; if you offered Overstock $1m today for o.co I bet you wouldn’t have to wait two seconds for a “no”. Want to argue prices or value with those guys, who’ve put their money where their mouth is?
Action vs. Opinion – one’s worth something; ones worth nothing.
This is one L.co that is now out of circulation for speculators, forcing the price up for the remaining ones.
Since the objective of texting is never to spell out an entire word – I now see where they see they might see the value.
Sample mobile text:
“Hey just went to o.co for a great deal on stuff i did not really need !!!”
This is where I can accept Overstock using it as a co-brand
Interesting to hear what portion of you have .com portfolios…probably the majority of naysayers.
Was every girlfriend or boyfriend you ever had in the past, that didn’t work out, mean that your future dating is doomed? Of course not. Once again, you can never base future precictions on past results. you may come across 50 failures until you achieve the one success. Such is life. Even if .co would suffer a catastrophe of some kind, I would still go onward, lessons in my saddle. If knowing the future from the past, in terms of domain popularity, were possible, we’d all be rich in the stock market in some way.
I don’t hear a lot of facts going on here…but a lot of whining and negative sentiment, yep, just negative sentiment, not much more substance. The facts are beginning to unfold with this recent sale.
And if you have a portfolio consisting mostly of .coms, please don’t be threatened…nothing will touch .com anytime soon. But big brother has to make room for new healthy babies.
The same was said about .mobi dick – who has been sent back out to see.
but per a prev comment I can see Overstock liking “o.co” as a texting abbreviation/shortcut
Brian,
Can you explain all the similarities between .mobi and .co, other than the usual “its a start-up,.com is king, yakety yak? Or are you just talking about the hype levels for both?
Mobi. Dick went back out to seA and I went to the dis.co to celebrate.
Brad,
Best of luck to you and all the rest of the non.com kings !!
I will look forward to any non.com brands built out where that same brand does not also hown the .com
I agree with what Em John wrote a few posts back. Can you please explain the similarities between .mobi and .co?
Now I am fairly new to watching domains but I just dont see how .mobi and the hype behind it can compare to the driving force behind .co.
They both have very distinct mission statements.
.CO has been around for a while (although mostly consolidated) to just Colombia. Its has also been used in major extensions for a while (.co.uk, .co.in just to name 2 off the top of my head).
.CO has directly come out AGAINST being used as a .com typo extension and as we all know, there is very little hope for a typo extension (reference .cm … who by the way had absolutely no backing)
I dont mean this to sound obnoxious, I am just trying to make scenes of this old domain being revitalized and the vitriol against it.
Cheers
Fact#1:
How many ads to you see for a .mobi (or a non.com in general)- only those where the owner also owns the .com – I recently saw an ad for Yahoo.mobi.
Fact#2:
How many UDRP cases involve a non.com ? Only those where the owner already owns the .com.
The biggest mistake those new to the Internet make is only looking at the term to the left of the dot and trying to find / manufacture an ill advised rare expection to the undisputable 2 facts above.
There is no “next .com” or “new 2nd place to a .com” – something registrars try to sell those new to the Internet under ground floor land rush nonsense.
IMO .co will add value to generic .com domains because over time the owners of some developed .co websites will probably notice a solid portion of traffic from their ad spend and other promotions will leak to the .com equivalent (increasing rev and value to that .com), and some of them may thus see the potential benefit of buying the .com, ie. another potential end-user purchase.
So plenty of .co registrations IMO is good for .com.
.co = ghost town
.com is still a mess and filled still of half-developed destinations.
What makes anyone think .co can make it?
This is one of the stupidest purchases I have ever heard of. I would understand it as a defensive purchase but they way overpaid for this garbage.
Brian,
i really can’t see what your arguments have to do with .mobi vs .co ?! There is no argument because the two were marketed differently and have very different pasts. So yahoo.mobi exists…and? Stock tips are coming…I can feel it….LOL
There have been many people, including myself, who have been waiting for.co to come out for a long time…because its an intuitive name (and real short to boot). No matter what past results have produced for .tel and .mobi and .me, .co is still a nice-looking extension which will be used in a variety of ways.
Samir,
Defensive purchase and garbage!? At least give some reasons or a justification for what you say….Fancy words only go so far.
350k sounds like alot but i cant remember ever going to overstock . com . I think this was money well spent for a company this big.
Lol at the comments.
I got 2. Amish.co and Conditioners.co
Lol at the comments.
I got 2. Amish.co and Conditioners.co
Good luck to everyone.
It’s funny that Overstock bought a overstock domain. Is there going to be a
.ne and a .or soon? Waste of money buying a typo domain especially when the internet is going 3D.
@ dmpartners – how the hell is the internet going into 3D ?
And how the hell did you get apples to oranges…I mean from investing (or speculating) in dot COM and dot CO to the internet going into this THREE DIMENSIONAL atmosphere ?
I’d really love to hear your explanation, lol.
I do feel like looking for the little plastic box holding the blue pill and the red pill.
Any idea how much is O.com? Bad energy in o.co. Sounds like zero of columbia. My humble opinion (eternal newbie)
o.co is not bad energy, and o.com is RESERVED. No one owns it. Only 3 1-letter .coms, 2 1 letter .nets and 1 1 letter .orgs are registered:
Q.com (quest.com)
X.com (Paypal / X.com Corp)
Z.com (Nissan Car company)
Q.net (Privately owned)
I.net (A domainer that owns COOL.com, FMA.com Etc. [Future Media Architects, Inc.])
X.org (X.Org Foundation)
Anyway o.co is actually a good sounding term, it rimes. I just wish I had .co.co.
attila
Do your homework pal and stop popping pills. The 2d internet will soon turn into The Immerse 3D Internet like it or not . So any 2d.coms or 2d.co’s , nets orgs etc will be worthless and obsolete. Adobe’s next Flash package will be Full HD 3D. Windows 8 OS will be 3D and Intel is working on 3D as well. The only domains anyone should be buying right now are 3D.coms period.
DM Partners, I know what you are saying, and I have seen the M$ Surface computer system too, but it will be many years till that system will be able to be used, let alone affordable in most homes. I hear that they were going for 10K in 07, so I don’t think any average family would have that find of cash to even buy one.
see surface.com
I think people are confusing what 3D actually is. Just because the graphic looks 3D doesn’t mean it is full 3D.
The computer Microsoft displays at Surface.com is only the OS and while it might be 3d, that does not mean the “websites” you view will be in 3D let alone support it. Also 3D websites are 6~10 years away and we all still need survive 2012.
Only pills I am popping are those that a Chinese doctor gave me for my ear infection.
Exactly. And what exactly does it mean that “The only domains anyone should be buying right now are 3D.coms period.”? How are our domains any different then “3D .coms” would be should 3D come to be in every household? So should we all register domains like “hairconditioners3d.com”, “email3d.com”, “website3d.com”? Why could hairconditioners.com not have a 3d website just as easily as hairconditioners3d.com could? I see no reason why 3d would de-value any generic domain name. And weather he is talking about Surface or not, 3d should play no part in a domain name’s value.
and the only pills I have are for acid reflux and sometimes Ativan.
If Overstock just bought the domain it be used as the Corporation Main site… what a waiste of money…. what an expensive useless toy, if I was an investor I would be Pissed off.
If Overtock bought the domain to re-Brand itself as O.co
what a huge mistake that’ll be (no advertising guru in the right mind would recomend that)
it will rival only the now infamous 1985 “New Coke” advertising of the century fiasco, additionally the “Traffic Hemorrage” to O.com will be of “Biblical proportions”…
http://thefastertimes.com/business/2010/04/23/the-new-coke-fiasco-at-25/
I have never witnessed such a succesful “smoke and mirrors” c.c tld launch and advertising campaign in the history of domaining ,in this day in age when most end users as a “spanish friend” points out… are still clueless about .info
Go figure!
Correction:
I should have posted:
“If Overstock just bought the domain to be used as the Corporation …”
Domo Sapiens
The fact that they got the o.co name is only so they can buy/sue for the o.com domain name as a trademark, simular to Yahoo wanting Y.com. Overstock already expressed interest in O.com before, and this is just one more step in that direction.
Regarding Overstock claiming exclusive rights in “O” – when I see a Big O – or hear of a big O – I think of a big orgasm – is Overstock now just a big Orgasm ?
brian,
Where does the “a big” come from? LOL I’m ot sure overstock wants to be called The Big O….LOL
http://www.marketingvox.com/why-350000-for-oco-overstock-president-jonathan-johnson-explains-047388/
“We had a short window to do this, so we grabbed it and trust we will find a use for it.”
If I owned Overstock.com shares I would SELL SELL SELL
Where is my “scenario” MBH? Was it too much? OK. Vive le .co maybe you like me now.
Nocrops
If you referring to this question you asked earlier:
Any idea how much is O.com?”
Its a reserved domains by Verisign the registry and if it were to ever go to auction my guess would be $5M +
MHB – IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) has those names not Verisign. I think they work together, but it is the IANA group that actually has the L.ext names. (that is except the Q, X and Z.com domains, as well as few names like I.net, Q.net, X.org)