195,000 .Co Registrations

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Just got an email from the .CO registry, claiming almost 195,000 registrations have been processed through today (194,576 to be exact).

This number is being updated on the registry site from time to time, and includes prior registrations as well as domains applied for during Sunrise and Landrush.

Apparently there were 90,000 registrations in the first 15 minutes.

This would make the .Co launch the most successful in many years.

I will keep you updated with any new info

Filed Under: .CO

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. Em John says

    Here’s a newsflash:

    Somehow Pool.com, yes our .co landrush auction site, has been able to secure a few premium domains, intelligence.co and slot.co just to mention a couple. They’re are more. I don’t know but conflict of interest comes to mind. Yes, pool.com a reseller of my.co but THAT IS conflict of interest. What the hell is Pool.co doing as a reseller for my.co, praytell? This really is consecutive problems with Pool.com after a few shadey deals with .asia and so on. Wow… I see a pattern with these guys. Greed eventually shows its face.

  3. Em John says

    Please check the Whois.co for intelligence.co, slot.co and Calgary.co and tell us what you think. What the heck???!!!

  4. Leonard Britt says

    I’m sure there was some opportunity in the first 30 minutes but I decided to watch this one from the sidelines. Best of luck to those who spent their morning pursuing landrush names.

  6. Brad says

    All the keywords you would expect to be registered have been. What is puzzling to me is reading the threads at various forums many people have registered terms that would not be that amazing in any extension. They are certainly not top 200K keywords.

    It means there has to be at least some decent keywords left. Probably not great one word terms, but 2 word terms at least.

    Brad

  8. Em John says

    I agree Brad. There are definiely some good ones left out there at plus 500oooK.

    Why did emon have the edge? Better Script? What does everyone think?

  10. WQ says

    I was surprised at all the decent keywords still available. I picked up about 100 or so.

    Too tired now…I’m done.

  11. Andrew Rosener says

    I was only interested in one .CO domain and had Pre-Ordered it (or backordered it) with NameJet several weeks ago.

    How do I know if I got it or not?

  13. domain expert says

    It will be like the .me Passing fad amongst domain investors. Bringing traffic to .com’s

  14. Christopher says

    I tried to get about 160 or so at pre-reg and I have about 25 that have gone through so far. It takes a bit of time for them to co-ordinate but godaddy says everything should be sorted by 48 hours after 11am PST this morning. As far as my opinion on .co, I think it is nothing like .me or .asia or .mobi. It is short, versatile and can abbreviate company, county, country, community, co-op, council, corrections facility, coalminer, colorectal…the list goes on 🙂 I think it’s gonna be big…just my opinion of course…time will tell.

  21. RH says

    I did reg one Nueve.co. 9 in Spanish. I like numbers one through ten in English,Spanish,French and German. I think spanish names make sense.

    English wise typos go both ways. If someone used an English.co I think people would see the url and think “Oh they omitted the m” and type the EnglishKeyword.com.

    Michael do you think the UDRP will play for .co ? That the .com owner will just go and UDRP any parked .co that corresponds to their developed .com ?

  22. BullS says

    Christopher—-that why they called me the CreativeCEO
    shit–guess who got creativeceo.com….yea–gettyimages/

    Yes, it is 500lbs halibut.Took 4 guys to haul in but have to put in about 3 bullets in the head before gettin her in the boat.

    Yea..stupidshit.co is still open.

    *****************************
    Christopher permalink

    @BullS…That’s a damn big Halibut! is it a halibut?

  23. MHB says

    RH

    I do think that the .Co registry has adopted the WIPO/UDRP procedures for the extension.

    I don’t think that .com owners without a trademark are going to be able to win these but the panel can always find common law usage so you never know

  24. MHB says

    Em John

    These domains showing Pool.com as the registrant they are holding in trust, meaning that there were multiple land rush applications on them and they are going to go to auction.

    Take your example of slot.com:

    Domain Name: SLOT.CO
    Registrant Name: Pool.com In Trust
    Registrant Organization: Pool.com

    They do not own the domain for themselves

  25. Brad says

    I think the dispute is going to come down to two things –

    Confusingly Similar & Bad Faith.

    I think a lot will depend what is done with the domain itself. Some like Apple.co should technically be able to exist if the owner runs a farm that sells Apples, but it is going to be much harder to justify typo squatting on famous well known brands that don’t have a generic use as well.

    Brad

  28. MHB says

    If you check godaddy there are over 50 domain on sale with the keyword bpoil in them.

    None have bids

  30. Brad says

    eBay is flooded with .CO domains for sale already. Many of them are terrible terms that would barely have value in any extension.

    I saw many really average hyphenated terms in .CO on various forums. It is far too early for that.

    I am wondering how many of those 195K are just turds or TM typos. There is probably some good stuff left.

    Brad

  31. Christopher says

    I would think there are a lot of good ones left…all of mine are one-word and I got most of them in the last two days. I can’t believe people would be buying hyphenated crap already. For every person that spends $25 on http://www.free-online-gambling-abortions.co that is $25 less they have to spend on something good…which is good for everyone else. I think for this to take off we will need to see some major players using .co. T.co and O.co are a great start imho.

  33. MHB says

    Chris/Brad

    Just in the process of writing about that now

    Don’t see that ebay is flooded though see around 50 domains

  35. Brad says

    I was commenting more on the quality than the number itself.

    50+ is a lot for eBay the first day of launch when many names have not even been assigned yet. Just wait to see what happens in the next week.

    It is not surprising I guess as much money into an new extension is new money, from people not all that experienced with the market, research, metrics, etc. I guess bad domains would logically follow.

    I have a hard time believing some of these terms are even registered in .COM

    Brad

  37. MHB says

    None of these are “new” registrations and all were at Sedo before the open registration yesterdat

  40. Brad says

    Does that number include the 39,000 or so, including all the best keywords, that were gone a long time before yesterday?

    Brad

  41. MHB says

    Brian

    Think that is an inaccurate statement.

    For one your assuming only one domain per customer.

    If the average customer ordered lets say 10 domains then there are only 21,600 registrants.

    Moreover I registered some purely defensive registrations.

    I registered Mostwanteddomains.co, thedomains.co and berkens.com just to mention a few.

    I mean there are typos of all of these under .com already and for $30 a piece I think it would be stupid of me NOT to have registered them, and let some fool abuse me or my work in some way.

    So this extension like any other there are ways to play it and ways to use it.

    If you registered a good one word .co for $20 0r $30 I don’t think you are going to lose money. I got domains like products.co, maids.co, weights.co just to name a few. You don’t think I will be able to sell maids.co for more than $30?

    Of course, like always if people register stupid worthless domains like the guy I just wrote about today that registered London-2012.co, your a sucker:

    http://www.thedomains.com/2010/07/21/and-so-the-co-aftermarket-begins-already-over-100-domains-on-sale/

  43. Brad says

    I would be interested to see the reseller related actual number without defensive regs and obvious TM related typo domains. Those are separate categories.

    I think the typo aspect is playing a huge role in the number of regs. I bet .OM (Oman) if opened would enjoy quite a few regs for the exact same reason.

    Brad

  44. mike Carroll says

    Dont see this going anywhere really, I can imagine giving someone my biz card and saying ‘ that is .co, no M at the end, not .com’. Would get old quick and seems like a cheap alternative. Kinda of like saying, no i opted for the Hyundai Genesis, the s550 i wanted was a bit too pricey.

  46. Brad says

    There is a reason a car like the Camry outsells Ferraris, because most people can afford them. It is the same reason there are far more houses in the suburbs than mansions on the beach.

    I could see a small business buying a .CO as a value play potentially, but it is no slam dunk. They are many other options as well

    – Lesser .COM
    – Another respected gTLD with broad awareness like .NET
    – Local ccTLD.

    I just don’t see these top tier generics being world more than 1-2% of the .COM ever, and I think that number might be fairly generous.

    Some people will make an argument like “Developing a .NET will bleed traffic to .COM”. Well, with .CO the traffic bleed to .COM would dwarf that.

    There is no awareness of .CO right now. Many people have used the internet for 10+ years and only know about COM/NET/ORG still. I think it is going to be a long haul for this extension and when others come out it could just get lost in the mix.

    Brad

  47. Steve M says

    Anyone still looking for ideas for some/more .co’s, please feel free to register any and all you find at my site in this wonderful (cough, cough) new extension . . . and wherever and whenever possible develop them . . . . and I’ll thank you now for the free traffic.

  48. Christopher says

    Brad…I promise not to point and laugh when you’re kicking yourself for not snapping these up. Actually, you called us suckers…I will try to remember to point and laugh…Do you not think, at minimum, all the co.uk, co.jp, co.il, domain owners will want to cover themselves here and shorten their domain? Also, consider that GDY made a deal to get x.co as url shortener which will give it a lot of presence, twitter will be using t.co as well. Don’t forget that things change. .Com may be laughed at as an early internet primitivism. My money (a little of it anyway) is on .co right now. It may not measure up to .com or even .net right now but it blows all the other ones away and has huge potential in the future. And, hey, fortune favours the bold.

  49. Brad says

    If the market is established I will buy in then and cherry pick the domains I want.

    I will wait and see what happens. Much of the money flowing in, and certainly everyone who thinks .CO is going to challenge .COM, is more than likely newbie money.

    Just going by the registrations on various forums I have seen it is clear that many fans of .CO really have no clue what they are doing.

    Brad

  50. Brad says

    Many of the 39,000 name that were taken before yesterday, the cream of the crop, have value in any extension.

    I am not all that impressed by what was left to start yesterday. I certainly did not “miss out” looking at the regs from yesterday.

    BTW, I don’t think I ever called anyone a sucker. People can spend their money as they choose.

    Brad

  51. Andrew Rosener says

    The one problem which you are all forgetting is that .CO no matter what you say or think is still a ccTLD for Colombia and will be treated as such for the foreseeable future by Google.

    You will do great in the search engines IN COLOMBIA, but all things being equal, a .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO & yes, even .BIZ will still outrank you in global search. Remember, I said all things being equal, meaning the same keyword domain and same level of content and development.

    .CO generics and trademarks may get some typo traffic, but there will not be any purposeful type-in traffic except for other domain investors looking to see what’s there – OR Colombians if you have good spanish generics.

    That brings me to another point – those of you who registered premium spanish generics in .CO are going to do very well. Colombia is a big country which is growing rapidly and has a tremendous amount of commerce and a large population, including a rapidly growing and thriving middle-class.

    But remember, at the end of the day, like .me & .tv – .CO is a ccTLD and has a handicap for foreign search. It will be much harder to get a .co ranked well for the american or european audience than it will for a .com, .net, .org, etc…

    I REALLY LIKE .CO – BIG TIME! But ONLY as it applies to Colombia and also for some premium “domain hacks” (in spanish).

    I live in Panama and Colombia is my neighbor to the south. I can tell you first hand, that the growth and hunger in Colombia will be a major driving factor in the future of .CO (once they start to get developed). Plus, there is a lot of pride in Colombia and they will hang on to .CO as their own. But if you aren’t targeting the Colombian market – Good luck.

  52. fizz says

    “Moreover I registered some purely defensive registrations. I registered Mostwanteddomains.co, thedomains.co and berkens.com just to mention a few.”

    MHB makes the first documented .com typo of a .co domain LOL

  53. Matt says

    buyorsell.co
    pledgeofallegiance.co
    weyerhaeuser.co
    stumble.co
    businessinc.co
    mysavings.co
    business1.co
    vday.co
    a11.co
    porn1.co

  54. Slate says

    @Andrew Rosener
    “.CO generics and trademarks may get some typo traffic, but there will not be any purposeful type-in traffic except for other domain investors looking to see what’s there”
    I have to ask a question. I just cant wrap my head around this. What is the big obsession with typo traffic? Anyone who speaks out against .co extension always brings up typo traffic.
    I consider myself a normal person. I do things any normal person would. I think it would be safe to assume that I use the internet the same way as any other normal person. So when I am looking for something. I (personally) never type in the extension. I just go up to my Google tool bar and type in what I am looking for.
    If I am looking for a widget, I will just go to Google and type in “Widget” and see what pops up. I will assume that normal people do the same thing.
    With that said, ONLY… if I know exactly what site I am looking for will I ever find myself (and this is only sometimes) typing in the extension. But that is NOT always the case. If I am going to Ebay, I will just Google toolbar Ebay and take the first listing. I know its going to be Ebay. No need to type in the extension.
    My point being is that I don’t think typos is a legitimate argument for or against anything.
    With that being said, Google now claims that .co extension will be treated the same as all other generic TLD’s. It will be a global extension and will rank the same with the other global extensions.
    So if you develop a .co site, you have the same chance of getting listed rank 1 as a .com, .net, .org, .info, .tv and so on. It will REQUIRE some serious amount of SEO on the end users part (as any extension would) to break into the top of a very very popular field.
    Maybe I am seeing this in the wrong light.

  55. Andrew Rosener says

    Where did you read that Google will treat .CO as a gTLD and not a ccTLD ????

    If that is the case, then I take back everything I said and .CO might have a damn good shot at making the mainstream.

  56. Christopher says

    I posted a link here…maybe its not moderated yet

    pcpro.co.uk/news/359704/google-approves-co-domain-for-international-use

  58. Slate says

    Thank you Jason for posting the link.
    I think I may have been a little slow to react to the .co extension. Last I read over 275,000 .co domains have been registered. I am pretty sure most of the good ones are taken.
    Now I will have to begin the process to find maybe one or two that will be worth while to hold onto.

    Cheers

  59. movie2k says

    You will do great in the search engines IN COLOMBIA, but all things being equal, a .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO & yes, even .BIZ will still outrank you in global search. Remember, I said all things being equal, meaning the same keyword domain and same level of content and development.