Ok so I’m the first to admit when it comes to ccTLD’s, I’m far from an expert and have very few ccTLD domains.
However I know what I see.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to watch some Sky TV (equivalent to Directv or Dish in the states) out of Mexico.
Sky has some US programming like ESPN, but all the commercials are from Mexico for a Mexican audience (of course they have a ton of spanish programming as well).
Here’s what I noticed when it comes to domains and TV commercials in Mexico.
99% of the commercials that promote a website promote the ccTLD and not the .com, and 100% of the commercials that promote a ccTLD site use the 2nd level ccTLD of .com.mx and 0% are using the 1st level of .mx.
I have seen a lot of .MX domains hitting the auction market over the last couple of months and I even picked a couple up over at Bido.
But now that I’ve had the opportunity to watch a little TV from Mexico what I see is every company’s that has both the .com.mx and the .mx versions are using the .com.mx to advertise.
Of course for a non-ccTLD expert, this is counter intuitive.
I would expect that companies would use a 1st level ccTLD over a 2nd level, but that’s Not what I saw, time and time again.
Check out Chevrolet.mx for example, you will see it redirects to chevrolet.com.mx, its official site in Mexico.
Google uses Google.com.mx.
Google owns Google.mx, but they don’t even forward it to Google.com.mx, the domain simply doesn’t resolve.
What does this all mean for .Mx domains?
That’s for you ccTLD experts to figure out.
However it would seem if all the big boys are using .com.mx it should be pause for concern as to the value of .mx domains.
After all that’s why none of us like .Travel, you never see it in use.
One of the reasons I never played in the ccTLD market is I thought you really need a feel for the language and culture which I never had for another country.
In the case of .Mx that might really come in handy.
It was the same with .in and .co.in.
I went to a crowd of indian engineers at a tech company and asked which they preferred using.
They said ” .co.in, even Google uses .co.in”
So, no matter the hype surrounded with .in I refused to go with the domainer crowd as the rest of world was going another way.
I would say buy .mx to sell mainly to OTHER domainers in the aftermarket, buy .com.mx to use for the endusers IMHO.
BTW, I have very few ccTLDs. I stick with what I know best, and thats .com with a tiny .net and .org sprinkled in there.
John
unplain.com
Good point. So far I have noticed more traffic to the .com.mx names. The .mx names are getting traffic but not quite as much as the .com.mx.
I also noticed even English words in the .com.mx extension getting some traffic.
Pharmacy.com.mx is getting sales this month. (most traffic as well)
Cigarro.mx – is selling cigars.
Fone.mx – is making a bit as well.
Hopefully they will get better traction in the future with more tweaking, etc. I also picked some up at Bido as well. It is a cheap experiment for premium keywords. Many good keywords both in Spanish and English are still available for reg fee.
Some naysayers have questioned the English words with .mx or other foreign extensions. But if you don’t speak in the native tongue then most people are typing in the English word with the country code at the end.
Just an observation.
Best.
My wife is from Mexico and I visit the country a lot to see her relatives. Here is what I see/hear advertised in this order which includes tv, newspapers, radio down in Mexico.
1) .com
2) .com.mx
3) .tv
4) .net, .org
.Com is solid, .com.mx strong for Spanish words, .tv was non-existent a few years ago but it really coming on strong and growing in Mexico.
.mx-dead, very similiar to .us in United States. If you can get the best keywords like, Sexo, Pelicula, Juegos, Musica, than I would take a shot otherwise I don’t see it’s long-term potential.
Thanks, Jim
no
Jim
How would you know that unless you spent some time in the country?
I’m the owner of VideosDeMusica.mx (spanish for ‘Music Videos’, with high search volume as per Adwords Keyword Tool). I’ve been asking the same question of this article’s title for months…
For starters music videos translates more closely to “videos musicales” not “videos de musica”. The later is a better literal translation… but it sounds awkward.
@Mike,
I have spent lot’s of time in Mexico. It’s where my wife is from and we been all over Mexico. My parents have a 2nd home in Mexico for 20 years as well. Also, I live 15 minutes from Mexico from my house in San Diego and we get lot’s of tv stations from Mexico that my wife watches, and she reads the spanish newspaper which we get. I am very tuned in to Mexico.
Thanks, Jim
.com.mx has been around for years and .mx only openend recently, thus more Mexicans are used to type in .com.mx. A couple of years back it was the same in China, com.cn was the most common one and now it is .CN. Give it some time and .MX might become more popular.
.mx is the way to go. Now is the time to get your .mx at very good price. .mx will become the extension of choice in a few years.
Everytime we see a new extension there is always those that want to go with “flow” and then wished that that they have done like other that were buying or registering great .mx domains.
I have various .mx and i’m see great organic traffic from yahoo and google. So Google seems to like .mx
If Mexico originally had started with .mx then it would have been the preferred extension, but it didn’t. Mexico learned .com.mx as their internet and that would be a hard habit to break if ever. We own Acapulco.com and most of our traffic comes from Latin America especially Mexico City. Our opening pages are in Spanish and we have partners in Acapulco that lease sections of the site from us. It has worked out well over the last ten years. We had no interest in Acapulco.mx even though it looks like a great name we would have only pointed it to Acapulco.com
Interesting points. Makes you wonder if the same will be true for. Co domains.
“We had no interest in Acapulco.mx even though it looks like a great name we would have only pointed it to Acapulco.com”
Mike C,
While .com is still king, landing pages specific to each country would be great feeders to your main site and could have different content or offers. The cross-linking would get good traction on the engines. The benefits should certainly outweigh the costs. Google is also providing results specific to each country so the country extensions should get you more indexed sites. imho.
Best Regards,
Steve.
ps. It was great meeting both you and David at Domain Convergence in Toronto last year.
totally agree
I have just a couple of .mx domains and bought the Spanish and English names as a pair. I agree that the .com.mx is and will likely remain more popular because that is what the country launched with.
@ Steve – True, but at some point we have to stop being the “dog chasing the tail”. In 1995 I originally thought about registering
IndianWells.com
PalmDesert.com
RanchoMirage.com
LaQuinta.com
Indio.com
and all the other cities in the Coachella Valley but I realized that PalmSprings.com was going to get the global reach and I COULD get my arms around it for development. Everyone else may look at the money lost in not registering those names but at some point you have to allow others to come into the space to make it more valuable. Selling PebbleBeach.com only helped PalmSprings.com and our other geos. We need to look at the bigger picture. David and I make our money. Those of you at this stage should also be in a position to make big money. We are all still so early in this game, there is still a lot of money and power to go around.
Likewise, nice meeting you also Steve. We will be in Vancouver.
A little off topic, but while it’s on my mind, what countries where there local extension exceeds the .com? I think, .de, .co.uk might if they do?
Thanks, Jim
@Jim,
I hear Russia doesn’t use .com at all so I’m guessing .ru is big over there. Norwegian corporations/people prefer .no over .com.
Michael,
Point taken. your restraint is admirable. You could basically take over the space and leaving domains available to promote organic growth is a good call. At times it’s hard not to collect available keywords. Maybe it’s time for “Domainer’s Anonymous” meetings. 🙂
Best Regards.
Can’t make it to the show. Hope it’s a huge success.
@Jim
Definately .de and .co.uk Jim, i would also say Australia .com.au ,China .cn,Spain.es and Ireland .ie also prefer their own cctld over dot com.
@t-shirt_weather,
Thanks for your info. Don’t hear much about .ie, will be in Dublin, Ireland for the domain Traffic conference in August which I hope many of you guys will be there.
Thanks, Jim
I have been wondering the very same question Mike, and have been considering to write a post of my own to broach the subject. I agree that .mx will be slow to mature, as is the case with all 1st level domains that launch after well-established 2nd level cctlds. Without getting too much into it for now, I think we’re seeing a cycle that is typical of the early stages of any new cctld, it just remains to be seen if/when the market will ultimately gain traction.
One thing I will say is that for SEO purposes there is no difference, and that poses a pretty nice opportunity for any business in Mexico to gain leverage in competitive markets. For example, if you go to Google.com.mx and type in ‘domain sales’ (without quotes) and then on the results page, drill down in the left sidebar to show “Páginas de México” and there you will see my website is the #1 result. Now all I have really done is my own self-proven on-page optimization strategy. I have really made no efforts to do any link-building, aside from a few forum posts and blog comments.
So you see, for a start-up or other company that can not obtain keyword.com.mx, the keyword.mx still packs a big advantage and can quickly make them a new player in the Mexico market. This advantage is no different than the reasons domainers are bullish on the value of strong generic keywords in already proven extensions. There will always be options for business owners, for instance, try to purchase your keyword.com.mx on aftermarket if it is for sale at all, and at what price, or, buy something like MyBrandableKeyword.com.mx and pay someone a bunch of money to SEO the hell out of it or spend serious dollars in advertising. Now, obtaining the keyword.mx is another newly available option. It will take some time for wider adoption, despite the SEO benefits, which in most cases as we know end-users dont seem to really understand anyway. I think the market will mature as more .mx domains see proper development and marketing by businesses. If anyone has a developed .mx website please drop me a line as to that end I am trying to showcase some other developed .mx domains. thanks – Mike
@John (comment 1): Engineers run systems, they don’t buy domains, nor are techies involved in marketing decisions till they reach a certain seniority within the organisation. Google uses .co.in since it was incorporated in India before 2005, which was when .in was made available for general registration. Also true for some other companies but for the same reason.
Go ask the crowd at NASSCOM for their view, or better still, take a trip to Mumbai and you can see the proliferation of .in for yourself. From SMEs to Fortune 500 companies, all of them are embracing .in and their resale values are in keeping with this trend.
At the current time the same keyword in .in is worth 20x of the .co.in, at the very least. This has been discussed threadbare on NamePros and DnForum, please take a look for an indepth view.
@Michael Costello: Tbh, if I own the .com for any keyword / term, I don’t bother with the .in either. But if you have a local presence, it would have made sense long term.
@Steve: “So you see, for a start-up or other company that can not obtain keyword.com.mx, the keyword.mx still packs a big advantage and can quickly make them a new player in the Mexico market.” I’m in complete agreement with your reading here. Good Luck with your investments.
@MHB: .mx is still new, give it 5 years and Zipf’s Law will come to bear imho.
I looked at .mx – were still a lot of good domains available for hand registration when I did, but I decided not to pursue it for these reasons:
1. Didn’t know the local language and / or sensibilities
2. Didn’t think long term holding costs would be viable for me.
3. Had better ROI investing in other domains.
Which brings us to the title of the post, are they worth something, for sure, how much is dependent on how fast local business adopts it.
Chevrolet.mx may redirect to to chevrolet.com.mx, but all their print, tv and public advertisment have chevrolet.mx on them
same for honda.mx this is the extension they chose for advertising in tv and other media, and they are activley using it.
give it time. mx is not even a year old, but it will get there
If .com.mx is worth something, then .mx will too. Eventually they will choose to type less
To anyone interested, I’ve just published a case study on end-user adoption of .mx domains based on a survey of 100 developed domains. Some of the findings were quite surprising, imo, and challenges some of the conventional wisdom given by others here.
http://www.sales.mx/mexico-embraces-mx-top-level-domains-study-finds/
grateful for any feedback on this. thanks
Hi, Guys I Mexican and I believe in the potential of mx its matter of time looks that Google love mx in the keyword tapalpa I have the 2 place with tapalpa.mx, and tapalpa.com.mx its in 9 place.
.com .net .org .tv are good extensions in Mexico but at this point the com.mx the most popular.
The tide has turn (or it’s in the brink of doing so) in favor of the .mx ,
The catalytic and final tiping point will be when Google decides to use the .mx
Nic.mx is very commited and have all the resources needed.
The question is not “if the .mx will be the most popular” the question is “when..?”
It’s has been painful and long , hopefully nic.ar is watching and decides to make a move now rather than later (like taking a bad medicine)
(I own one .mx more of a defensive move/registration than anything else.)
most of the domain registeration companies are now promoting .mx as SOCIAL or PERSONAL TLD. I dont understand how can .mx tld can be a personal domain or social media domain. It is just just for MEXICO and optimising it over the www as universal social media tld is not a good idea.