.DJ domain targets disc jockeys

.DJ is the ccTLD for Djibouti, a small African country southeast of Somalia. With only 11,000 Internet users, the extension is scarcely used at all, and now a company is trying to market the name to DJs across the globe.

As is the case with .eco, I don’t see much of a target for the .DJ name. Sure, some generics like radio.dj and techno.dj are valuable, but does the average DJ need a premium domain? Having a site might be nice, but the price for a .dj registration is £39.99 a year. Disc jockeys do not make very much money, and I doubt most could justify the expense when a perfectly decent .com could be had for a fourth of the price.

In addition, any .dj registration must comply with Islamic moral standards. The country’s government, which is based on Islamic law, requires that no domain be “hurting, confusing, sexual, blasphematory, racist, [or] unecessarily provocative.”

A great deal of Western DJs more than likely play music that would offend more conservative cultures and some even have unsavory names. Would rap.dj violate the rules because many songs of that genre contain inappropriate language? What if a DJ catering to gay night clubs wanted to purchase gay.dj?

The idea sounds good on paper, but I just don’t see many DJs feeling the .DJ beat.

Hollywood.us sells for £3,455

In the land of the rich and fame, nothing is too expensive. Bidders apparently felt the same sentiment at a recent domain auction where Hollywood.us sold for £3,455 ($5,700 USD).

High as it may seem, the buyer got a great deal. Hollywood.mobi fetched £9,699, or $16,000 USD, at a 2008 auction. Hollywood.ca went for £8,214 ($13,550 USD) a year earlier in 2007, while in 2006, Hollywood.co.uk sold for £10,570 ($17,438 USD). Even Hollywood.co.in, an Indian domain, sold for £4,243 ($7,000 USD) that same year!

I think Hollywood.us should have sold for more because while the extension isn’t as good as .com or .net, .us is the ccTTD of the United States. While .uk is the most valuable ccTLD, Hollywood isn’t in the UK. Bidders apparently either didn’t care about or didn’t realize the geographical significance of the extension they were bidding on.

Source | The Domains

Hardware.de sells for £91,600, eGo.com for £45,804

This week has been a busy one for domain auctions. A number of big sales have taken place. Hardware.de, a name that could be used for both home improvement and computer parts, sold for £91,600 ($150,000 USD).

Meanwhile, motivational product company Ego Friendly, LLC picked up eGo.com for £45,804 ($75,000 USD). Bling-bling.com, blingbling.co.uk, and blingbling.com also sold together in a package for £36,643 ($60,000 USD).

The sale of Hardware.de for such a high price shows the value of ccTLDs. Country domain extensions have been largely ignored by domainers for most of their history, but with .com becoming crowded, they are finally getting the respect they deserve.

To get an idea of just how valuable ccTLDs are becoming, Hardware.se only sold for $8,027 USD in 2005. Just last year, Hardware.biz sold for $590 USD. Perhaps the buyer of Hardware.de overpaid, but there’s no denying that country-code extensions are gaining more prominence in the domain industry.

Source | Domain Name Wire

American company turns to .us domain for new site

In most countries, use of ccTLDs is common practice. Despite the wide availability of the .us domain, most American companies choose to stick with the tried and tested .com. Go America, a publicly traded communications company, decided to take a different route.

The company recently renamed itself Purple Communications and launched a new site. Rather than spend a large sum of money to buy Purple.com, it instead choose the moniker Purple.us.

Foreign companies operating in the United States such as BMW and Iceland Air use the .us name, but this trend hasn’t caught on with domestic corporations.

As .com domains become scarcer and more expensive and Internet users become more familiar with ccTLDs, .us will gain more widespread adoption.

I personally am a fan of the .us domain. It is shorter than .com and given the connotations of the word “us,” is official-sounding. Hopefully more companies will follow Purple’s path.

Source: DNJournal.com

TRAFFIC ccTLD Extended Auction Results

TRAFFIC Amsterdam ended more than a week ago, but the online extended auction that started during the event just came to a close. In all, £64,006 ($105,000 USD) worth of domains were sold.

The biggest sale was the combined auction of Blackjack.co.za and Casinos.co.za, which fetched £29,526 ($48,436 USD). Other notable sales include:
Sextoys.ca- £12,148 ($19,928 USD)
Identidad.es- £844 ($1,384 USD)
Employ.us- £3,294 ($5,404 USD)
Refrigerator.in- £898 ($1,472 USD)
AirlineTickets.co.uk- £3,037 ($4,982 USD)

Look out for TRAFFIC New York on October 26-29.

Source: Domain Name News

ccTLDs Sell for Big Bucks at TRAFFIC Amsterdam

TRAFFIC Amsterdam is coming to a close and the auction results are now in. While many domains didn’t sell at the event intended mainly for ccTLDs, some brought in big bucks for their owners:

DiamondRings.com- £141,589
Rugs.co.uk- £13,844
Vegas.cm- £13,547
Job.us-£ 22,025
Tel.fr- £4,370
Houses.co.uk- £44,574
Blog.eu- £12,585

Obviously the big sale here is DiamondRings.com for £141,589. It’s a great name, but a bit overpriced in my opinion. The owner paid about £20,000 too much for it. DiamondRings.net sold at the same auction for £ 2,657, while DiamondRings.co.uk changed hands in 2008 for only £801.

The next TRAFFIC event will be in New York on October 26-29.

Source: Domain Name News

183 Million Domains Now Registered

There are now 183 million domains registered on the web, according to The Domain Name Industry Brief (PDF), a quarterly report authored by Versign.

Last quarter, domain registrations rose 3%. So far this year, an average of 2.4 million new .com and .net registrations are made each month. These two TLDs alone account for a little under half (92.4 million) of all names registered.

There was also a 4% incease in ccTLD registrations, which account for 74.1 million of domains. The top 10 country extensions accounted for 64% of this number.

In all, 11.8 million registrations were made last quarter. A sign of the times, this was a 17% drop from the same time last year. Things are getting better, however, as the number marked an increase of 17% also from last quarter.
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TRAFFIC ccTLDs Coming to Europe

TRAFFIC may have ended yesterday, but June 1- June 5, it will be starting back up again, this time in Amsterdam. The event’s official name is TRAFFIC ccTLDs 2009.

As the name implies, the focus of the expo will be ccTLDs, or country code top-level domains. Silent domain auctions will run every day June 2-June 4. The inventory has yet to be announced.

Single admission is £995 ($1,495 USD). Discounts are available for groups and families. The price is so steep because it includes various day and evening activities, such as dinners and parties. A €290 pass will be offered soon that covers the conference only.

Rick Latona Auctions is the event sponsor. The following ccTLDs will be discussed: .nl, .de, .uk, .eu. .fr, .es, .it, .cn, .jp, .kr, .ph, .in, .br, .ar, and .mx. Those looking to submit a domain for auction may do so here.

The first TRAFFIC expo was held in 2004. It is now the largest domain conference in the world, with 12 having already been held. After Amsterdam, look out for TRAFFIC New York October 26-29.