.Co Three Letter Domains 95% Sold Out, 3 Character .Co Domains 46% Sold Out

2011 February 14
by Michael H. Berkens

Over this week  there were repeated comments on this blog to the effect that all 3 letter (LLL.co) .Co domain names were registered or reserved, leaving none available.

We reached out to the .Co registry to confirm this and got the following information which is current as of February 9th

“The total number of 3-letter domains (LLL.co) registered is 16,551 out of a possible combination of 17,576 so close to 95% have been registered already.”

“Regarding the total possible number of registrable 3 character domains (mixture of letters and numbers):”

“Without IDN’s: you can register 26 letters plus 10 numbers, which adds to 36 possible characters, so there are a possible number of 46,656″

“We currently have 21,417 domains with 3 characters registered or  45.9% of the possible 3 characters domains registered.”

52 Responses leave one →
  1. 2011 February 14
    Tim permalink

    Ooooooohhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!……..whisky river, candy mountain. :)

    Spend, spend, spend on .co……you’ll be RICH……LOL.

  2. 2011 February 14

    I will be honest. I did buy .CO domain names as a speculative investment (so to speak since all domain purchases are speculative). I only purchased 11 .CO domains, during the preorder phases and have not dropped a single penny since.
    If I sold even one for $300 (which should not be very hard), then I would have broken even.

    In doing so I picked up 2 three letter word domain names. You always expect 3 LLL domains to sell out rather quickly and the return on those are generally pretty good no matter what extension (if you hand reg them).

    I am not at all surprised that theses will be sold out any time soon.
    But those are just my thoughts.
    Cheers

  3. 2011 February 14

    Hello Mike,

    Asking the .co registry for sensitive information like this is like handing the keys to the chicken coup to a fox. There is little doubt that you mean well by this post ,but we have our doubts. The major question is three years from now where will the current support for.co be?? We know where the support for .com will be!!

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  4. 2011 February 14

    wow this is pretty odd – I just wrote a post about the ways I find some LLL.CO domains

    anyways – i do feel like there will be a demand for LLL.CO domains soon. Not only are they shorter than .com but CO in general has been – and continues to be – extremely marketed

  5. 2011 February 14
    MHB permalink

    Jeff

    All I can do is ask for stats at the source.

    Whether you choose to believe them or not is an entirely different matter but I in fact do believe they relayed accurate information.

    I have asked for stats regarding number of registrations of .Co domains since the Super Bowl which they would not provide at this time.

    No one knows how many domains will be registered in 3 years just like no one knows where the Dow Jones will be 3 years from now.

    Everyone has to do their own homework and make their best guess

  6. 2011 February 14

    There are LLL sellout in .US, .BIZ and other secondary extensions. It means absolutely nothing for resale value. It just means LLL are the first things domainers target.

    Brad

  7. 2011 February 14

    No word on the tens of thousands of new registrations after the Super Bowl commercial?

    I’m still waiting for the press release from Juan stating how many .com oops, I mean .co domain registrations there were after the BIG commercial.

    Hmmm, maybe they are still waiting for the commercial to work?

  8. 2011 February 14

    Not all LLL are equal, premium ones were already reg since longtime, the remainings if any are LLL with z,y,q… in it. Also, it’s weird because I’ve scan and found today that none LLL.co where available for hand reg, even worst ones. So I think your results is from weeks ago.
    I’ve also invest on only LLL.co because we see that companies are interested with shorter URL just like overstock did. They would never get a LLL.com as already established by other companies or for sale at $xxx.xxx range prices. So .co is the best alternative IMO.

  9. 2011 February 14

    @hed

    Yes, this is the bottom line: solid alternative, availability. I want an acronym, don’t have $100,000, what shall i do? A .comer might say “Oh man, just register a good two word .com.”. but it’s not the same as having the acronym, IMO.

  10. 2011 February 14

    so, if we want to buy one of the LLL.co not registered yet, we must do 17,576 attempts?

  11. 2011 February 14

    … or 46,656 attempts to register a 3 letters .co …

  12. 2011 February 14
    MHB permalink

    Hed

    As said The response from .co was received on Friday

  13. 2011 February 14

    a crappy 4l dot com beats 3l dot co any day any time.

    6mts from now, dot co will be like mobi

  14. 2011 February 14

    @Bulls

    So you’d rather have UXXS.com than XXS.co? You gotta be kidding me.

  15. 2011 February 14

    @ em

    When it comes to crappy quality like QZJV.com vs QZJ.co I would prefer to have neither.

    Brad

  16. 2011 February 14

    em… I have sold many 4L dot com ( high $XXXXx) that most of you think they are junks because they are not pronounceable in USA English but valuable in other countries.

    This is what I called international experience living in other countries.

  17. 2011 February 14

    They probably are all gone, the only ones not considered registered by co are prolly the reserved and restricted ones.

  18. 2011 February 14

    nice to see this working:

    TheDomains.Co

  19. 2011 February 14

    plus it looks damn good…

  20. 2011 February 14

    “TheDomains.Co”

    but used (as great part of .co) only to redirect to a .com

  21. 2011 February 14

    no problem with that…
    I just like typing .Co
    Looks are a fringe benefit.

  22. 2011 February 14
    3DPokerNetwork.com permalink

    Who cares how many .cos are sold Why the big pub to try to get us to buy a .co name? When the 3D Internet hits all.co’s are worthless period.

  23. 2011 February 14
    Landon White permalink

    @ Rob Sequin

    Hmmm, maybe they are still waiting for the commercial to work?

    Great Line :-)

    @ Slate

    I will be honest.

    Does that mean every thing you said before about .CO junker was dishonest!

    LMAO

  24. 2011 February 14

    @Landon White
    Nope!
    I just state my opinion on the SPECULATIVE investing that is known as domaining.
    I dont always state how many domains or what domains I have gathered.

    The people that I am always curious about are those who give their opinion on blogs/forums such as this but never really show who they are.

    Just my thoughts.
    Cheers

  25. 2011 February 14

    how many one and two letters .co domains are still available?

  26. 2011 February 14
    domo sapiens permalink

    what is the % “end-user” improvement?
    hoarding by the hands of speculators usually becomes the kiss of death for any new extension.

  27. 2011 February 14
    MHB permalink

    First

    To my knowledge all one & two character domains were either grandfathered in and take or reserved by the registry

  28. 2011 February 15

    e.g. according to who.is the 3D.co domain is still inactive

  29. 2011 February 15

    LLL.CO

    Threee letter domains are iconic, usually operated by large well known companies. I have begun compiling the largest LLL.CO database. Here is a list of just a few that are already up and running.

    http://hnw.co/
    http://www.cos.co/
    http://www.tsi.co/
    http://www.ecf.co/
    http://www.csd.co/
    http://nwb.co/
    http://www.llc.co/
    http://www.rov.co
    http://www.lyh.co/
    http://qiq.co/
    http://ww.ogl.co/
    http://surfing.cbd.co/?tag=llc
    http://pwl.co/
    http://bmt.co/
    http://iws.co/
    http://www.wdc.co/
    http://www.roe.co/
    http://www.tga.co/
    http://www.pbf.co/
    http://www.sra.co/
    http://www.stb.co/
    http://ipe.co/
    http://0rz.co/
    http://www.jak.co/
    http://www.l10.co/
    http://www.tde.co/
    http://jdr.co/
    http://www.ceu.co/
    http://www.ivp.co/
    http://hau.co/
    http://www.s60.co/
    http://www.xyg.co/
    http://www.1ct.co/
    http://apa.co/index.htm
    http://www.hia.co
    http://www.bnr.co/
    http://www.1st.co
    http://www.adp.co
    http://www.apc.co
    http://www.app.co
    http://www.amd.co
    http://www.bmr.co
    http://www.bza.co
    http://www.cpn.co
    http://www.chd.co
    http://www.dfj.co
    http://www.dmd.co
    http://www.fjz.co
    http://www.hau.co
    http://www.lgz.co
    http://www.ijs.co
    http://www.ini.co
    http://www.ipe.co
    http://www.ivp.co
    http://www.ivs.co
    http://www.jco.co
    http://www.kro.co
    http://www.loc.co
    http://www.mjs.co
    http://www.mfg.co
    http://www.now.co
    http://www.new.co
    http://www.nos.co
    http://www.nwc.co
    http://www.ner.co
    http://www.nws.co
    http://www.pbn.co
    http://www.pxl.co
    http://www.qi2.co
    http://www.syn.co
    http://www.swb.co
    http://www.sra.co
    http://www.vwp.co
    http://www.u10.co
    http://www.wds.co
    http://www.xch.co

    One thing you will instantly realize when you look at all these sites are that LLL.CO are owned by large reputable companies for the most part. This tells us that owning an LLL.CO is an instant ticket or at least a great foot in the door of something big.

    And this is just the ones that I know about after 2 days of research. Of course there is at least 10x more that I don’t know about.

  30. 2011 February 15

    @First
    - – -
    “TheDomains.Co”

    but used (as great part of .co) only to redirect to a .com
    - – -

    Great part? I don’t think so. This is valid for any extension: if you have a website on a somewhat long domain and you also own a shorter one, you can point it to the first one for the joy of your users: dnw.com and dnw.co -> DomainNameWire.com for example. In the case of TheDomains.co the difference is only one letter, but one may prefer using it because it’s still shorter and faster to type ;)

  31. 2011 February 15
    David permalink

    Hi,

    I am a domainer in the UK and to date I have not seen a single business ad showing a dot co address. If people here saw a van with a dot co web address on it, they would think that the last part of .co.uk had been missed off.

    This in general would also apply in the US where the general public expect a full .com, not one with the m missing.

    It seems therefore that most dot co domains are going to speculators, but will they ever be truly worth anything to businesses in view of the fact that their customers already expect .com, .co.uk etc.

  32. 2011 February 15

    something to think about…

    Before the internet, companies were choosing to use co. and not com. on
    their signs because it was short and looked good.
    Not many companies used the letters com before the internet.
    Companies had to use .com because it was the
    best alternative at the time.

  33. 2011 February 15

    @David

    I’m not saying .CO will become this ot that, but things always need to be seen long term. Obviously established habits cannot be changed overnight.

  34. 2011 February 15
    David permalink

    The whole premace of the .co registry seems to be based upon their notion that the general public are, or will become too lazy to add the letter m when typing a web address.

    Any business trying to build a reputation with .co will I think be thought of as having some kind of Mickey Mouse web address or worse, be thought of as a Mickey Mouse set up in general. Yes before the internet the abbreviation Co was normal, but we are not in the pre-internet world and we never will be again.

  35. 2011 February 15
    BFitz permalink

    @MHB
    Thanks for the new post and information. Sorry for the same old comments…

  36. 2011 February 15
    Gazzip permalink

    “Please give me your opinion. Thanks.”

    I would sell it Robert, at least it’ll pay for the others.

    If .co is anything like all the other extensions then things will quiet down pretty quick when the next “new” ext hits the block and the buzz moves on to that.

    my 2 cents, good luck

  37. 2011 February 15

    RicksBlog.Co
    ElliotsBlog.Co
    Sedo.Co
    GoDaddy.Co
    DomainMonster.Co
    TheDomains.Co

    …if it gets you were you want to go…

  38. 2011 February 15

    @cm

    _____

    It only makes sense that all those people have their respected CO domains registered. It makes thing easier for the blog owners since some chump cant try to reg those domains

  39. 2011 February 15

    Chris,
    I agree with that.

    But it is a domain that can be used…not just sit as protection.

  40. 2011 February 15
    David permalink

    If you need to buy .co as some form of defensive protection, then why not buy every other TLD in the world. But who would be that bothered?

  41. 2011 February 15

    @ David

    Not every extension is clear .COM typo.

    Brad

  42. 2011 February 15

    The debate about which came first typo can be argued either way.

    .ao
    .aom

    .bo
    .bom

    .co
    .com

    .do
    .dom

    each of the above can exist distinctly

  43. 2011 February 15

    @ cm

    There is no way around the fact that many of the “brand protection” buys are because of the obvious typo aspect. There is a reason many companies own .CO and not .BIZ

    Brad

  44. 2011 February 15

    And the argument to which came first. Give me a break. There were 90M+ .COM regs when .CO was repackaged and released.

    Brad

  45. 2011 February 15

    “This is valid for any extension”

    true, this is what I do with all non .com domains I use for real sites

  46. 2011 February 15

    yes Brad, I realize that.

    The two “good is a noun” satements I discoverd today:

    1. “Companies had to use .com because it was the
    best alternative at the time.”

    2. “…if it gets you where you want to go…”

  47. 2011 February 20

    Hi !

    I just whant to tell Domainers that Im Using 4 LLL.co and all my friends Love the Idea !

    Its shorter and easy to remember 3 Letters !

    If you tell your friends to go on LLL.tk , LLL.biz , LLL.ws …. Chance is that they will not remember the extention !

    LLL.co is simple ! Its like dot Co(m) !

    I own :

    HBH.co
    XLM.co
    MZN.co
    XBR.co

    IM LOVING IT ! XD

  48. 2011 February 20

    @Dotbay

    I agree. LLL.CO s are the best domain names in my opinion.

    They feel really good when you type them in. I am compiling all LLL.CO s here:

    http://hnw.co/
    http://www.cos.co/
    http://www.tsi.co/
    http://www.ecf.co/
    http://www.csd.co/
    http://nwb.co/
    http://www.llc.co/
    http://www.rov.co
    http://www.lyh.co/
    http://qiq.co/
    http://ww.ogl.co/
    http://surfing.cbd.co/?tag=llc
    http://pwl.co/
    http://bmt.co/
    http://iws.co/
    http://www.wdc.co/
    http://www.roe.co/
    http://www.tga.co/
    http://www.pbf.co/
    http://www.sra.co/
    http://www.stb.co/
    http://ipe.co/
    http://0rz.co/
    http://www.jak.co/
    http://www.l10.co/
    http://www.tde.co/
    http://jdr.co/
    http://www.ceu.co/
    http://www.ivp.co/
    http://hau.co/
    http://www.s60.co/
    http://www.xyg.co/
    http://www.1ct.co/
    http://apa.co/index.htm
    http://www.hia.co
    http://www.bnr.co/
    http://hnw.co/
    http://www.cos.co/
    http://www.tsi.co/
    http://www.ecf.co/
    http://www.csd.co/
    http://nwb.co/
    http://www.llc.co/
    http://www.rov.co
    http://www.lyh.co/
    http://qiq.co/
    http://ww.ogl.co/
    http://surfing.cbd.co/?tag=llc
    http://pwl.co/
    http://bmt.co/
    http://iws.co/
    http://www.wdc.co/
    http://www.roe.co/
    http://www.tga.co/
    http://www.pbf.co/
    http://www.sra.co/
    http://www.stb.co/
    http://ipe.co/
    http://0rz.co/
    http://www.jak.co/
    http://www.l10.co/
    http://www.tde.co/
    http://jdr.co/
    http://www.ceu.co/
    http://www.ivp.co/
    http://hau.co/
    http://www.s60.co/
    http://www.xyg.co/
    http://www.1ct.co/
    http://apa.co/index.htm
    http://www.hia.co
    http://www.bnr.co/
    http://www.1st.co
    http://www.adp.co
    http://www.apc.co
    http://www.app.co
    http://www.amd.co
    http://www.bmr.co
    http://www.bza.co
    http://www.cpn.co
    http://www.chd.co
    http://www.dfj.co
    http://www.dmd.co
    http://www.fjz.co
    http://www.hau.co
    http://www.lgz.co
    http://www.ijs.co
    http://www.ini.co
    http://www.ipe.co
    http://www.ivp.co
    http://www.ivs.co
    http://www.jco.co
    http://www.kro.co
    http://www.loc.co
    http://www.mjs.co
    http://www.mfg.co
    http://www.now.co
    http://www.new.co
    http://www.nos.co
    http://www.nwc.co
    http://www.ner.co
    http://www.nws.co
    http://www.pbn.co
    http://www.pxl.co
    http://www.qi2.co
    http://www.syn.co
    http://www.swb.co
    http://www.sra.co
    http://www.vwp.co
    http://www.u10.co
    http://www.wds.co
    http://www.xch.cos
    http://www.200.co
    http://fxd.co/

  49. 2011 February 20

    MZN.co can be the short-URL for (e.g.) for Mark Zuckerberg Networks

  50. 2011 March 18

    .co will go the way .mobi – sounds good in principle but ultimately search rules and that points on web and smartphone to .com

    no one promotes a .co because perception is that “real” company has a .com

    it’s legitimised “protection money” – every single non-country-based domain release since CNOs has been purely an exercise in marketing – and will most likely continue to be. so they’re useless apart from flipping domains for profit in the name of “protection”

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