Is a crappy .com or a great ccTLD better? Could a ccTLD be better than an equivelent .com? These are the questions you need to be able to answer before investing in ccTLDs.
POSTED BY Rick Latona IN Web Sites

The first thing I look for is relevancy towards the market. As discussed before, UsedBoats.co.uk is relevent to the UK market because British people are very unlikely to buy a boat from someone in Los Angeles. However, I wouldn't put much value on a name like Macros.co.uk because British people could easilly learn about macros at a name as bad as my Macros.net. Macros.net is better.

Now let me ask you this question. Which is more valuable, findagreatrecordingstudio.com or recordingstudios.co.uk. That's a little harder to answer because recordingstudios.com could easily list recording studios in the United Kingdom. That said, I think it would be much easier to get paying customers that own recording studios if you owned RecordingStudios.co.uk than if you owned findagreatrecordingstudio.com. What I'm saying is the ccTLD isn't better than a .com in this instance but it is better than a worse name before the extension.

One name that we are trying to broker right now is KostenloseKreditAuskunft.de which is German for "Free Credit Report". In this case, I'd much rather have KostenloseKreditAuskunft.de than KostenloseKreditAuskunft.com. Besides the fact that German only speakers would gravitate naturally to a .de extension, there's the additional benifit of KostenloseKreditAuskunft.de being easier to rank well at Google.de. So, I do think that a ccTLD can sometimes be better than a .com name. *

In fact, I think that more often than not, this is true with foreign languages. This is especially true with .cn, jp, de, .fr, etc. where you have major economies with many people that don't speak English or don't speak it well enough to try English language sites first.

Be careful though, there are cases where this is not necessarilly so. The best example being .es. There are so many Spanish speaking countries, I personally prefer names like menos.com, los.com or vino.com over their .es counter-parts. Not everyone would agree with me on this point, however.

What I'm trying to accomplish here is to educate people on the things to think about when dealing with ccTLDs. The more you know about them, the less intimidating they can be. My hope is that some of you will become more comfortable and develop your own strategies so the market can continue to expand.

* Editors note: Germans don't need free credit reports (as posted by a user below) so that's another reason to be careful with these.

  • http://regfeenames.com RegFeeNames.com

    Yeah I agree Rick,

    People need to learn what they are doing before jumping in!

    Being from Scotland .co.uk is the main domain ext that most scottish people use then .com and you do see things like .org.uk etc but more for charites etc using that.

    Im looking at getting more into the cctld market and I agree that certain domains are best in there own language and native ext like german names with .de

    The main issue I have is finding the best translator program.

    Google Translator is good but what is everyone else using?

    Some domains dont matter which is used like I own DigitalInvestments.co.uk and I would much rather have the DigitalInvestments.com but things like usedboats.co.uk works well

    Regards,

    Robbie

  • BF

    Note: The one link .....'Spanish speaking countries' links to a site about Brazil, one of the few countries in South America that 'proudly' DO NOT speak Spanish....

  • Duane

    Absolutely right on the Germans going for .de than .com extensions. But also you should consider when wanting to market a name like KostenloseKreditAuskunft.de if you don’t know about the laws inside the country where the name should be used. Some names are close to worthless. There is no such company which is able to provide a FREE CREDIT REPORT. By German law there is only one company where you are able to get information on your personal credit report. The “SCHUFA” , that is where you can apply for your credit report.
    Only there you can get credit information and only your personal credit information.
    Every Bank are Credit institute has to work with the SCHUFA. Also a Bank must get the applying customers signature before checking his or her credit report. It’s the LAW.

    So at the end, because of German LAW KostenloseKreditAuskunft.de is no use to anyone but the SHUFA and in Germany everyone knows the SCHUFA just like everyone knows who OBAMA is.

  • http://www.namepros.com Ron James

    Great advice, Rick! I consider myself a seasoned domainer, but am just re-learning this lesson about ccTLDs over the past year through my own trial and error.

    As you say, it's absolutely necessary to take a pragmatic approach with ccTLD investing. It takes more skill and research for domainers to be able to pick the right names to turn a profit. Buy smart!

    Ron

  • Rick Latona

    Duane, solid point. I might update my text to use that example.

    BF, I'm aware they don't speak Spanish in Brazil. I was just using it as an opportunity to put another link out there to the site for search engine reasons.

  • Patrick McDermott

    Rick,

    Are you sure that Free Credit Reports are available in Germany?

    Are you sure there is a demand for Free Credit Reports in Germany?

    I do not know the answer, I'm just asking.

    It's very easy for an outsider to make an assumption that turns out
    not to be true.

    I don't know if that's the case here but quick research indicates that
    ID Theft is not as big of a problem in Germany as it is in the USA.

    I know that's not the only reason to get your credit report but it is a BIG reason.

    I'm puzzled why only the .DE extension is taken for "KostenloseKreditAuskunft".

    One would think that "Free Credit Report" would be a popular term.

    Thus I would expect the .COM to be taken and possibly the .INFO since that extension is popular in Germany.

    Also, dashes are very popular and no variation of the domain with dashes is regged.

    By the way, it seems that "KostenloseKreditAuskunft" might more accurately be translated as "Free Credit Information" but I don't speak German so am not 100% sure..

    Here's evidence that the use of the word FREE in this domain probably does not make sense in German.

    If you leave off the German word for Free- ""Kostenlose" and just check for
    credit information -"KreditAuskunft" , you'll find that:

    KreditAuskunft is regged in:
    .COM
    .NET
    .ORG
    .INFO
    .BIZ
    .DE

    How about with a dash between?

    Kredit-Auskunft is regged in:
    .COM
    .INFO
    .DE

    KostenloseKreditAuskunft is only regged in .DE.

    I think this is proof that the word FREE does not work in this German domain.

  • Patrick McDermott

    I posted my response before I read (just now) Duane's very useful comment.

    It explains a lot and validates my research.

  • http://www.SanibelIsland.ca Frank

    Here is a successful example of a ccTLD that crosses over .com with relevance.

    SanibelIsland.ca, a perfect example how a ccTLD crosses over .com's path successfully by meeting needs of neighboring Canadian snowbirds whom reside part time an/or vacation in Florida.
    SanibelIsland.ca also has a strong proven reach to US vacationers planning to head south.
    SanibelIsland.ca is setup with sufficient information and resources for locals as well.
    With an off season population of approx 5000 and a high season of 20,000 the .ca target is right on the mark.

  • http://www.deluxedot.com Sergej Lebedew

    Hello Rick,

    with more than 12 millions registered Domains is .de ccTLD from Germany worldwide most successful ccTLD. In the German-speaking space holds .de a share of the market of 90% and is for private persons as well as for companies the base for a professional presence on the Internet.

    The most companies in Germany use .de ccTLD in combination with English words. For example: http://www.easycredit.de, http://www.creditplus.de.

    I sell now top .de ccTLD: TheCredit.de, TheMarketing.de, TheCommerce.de.

    Best regards from Germany,

    Sergej

  • BF

    Glad to hear you know about Portuguese being the national language in Brazil. Lots of people don't.

    But....moving along to the point of your post: If you ever go to Brazil you'll see 99% use of .com.br in ads, company logos, so forth. If I ever tell a Brazilian friend, WHO LIVES IN BRAZIL, to visit a domain, without saying the extension, the .com.br is automatically assumed. I don't have any hard data to back this up. This is taken from my own experience. Additionally, that usually takes place as long as the domain is in the Portuguese language, and/or is not a trademark that would register the .com for security reasons.

  • http://jumbodomains.com/ Jimmy Martin

    A word of caution, or advice to those interested in ccTLD investing, in reference to
    "translating" words to match specific ccTLDs.....there are alot of online translators, and most common words and phrases will translate correctly, but double-check your results, some words, and paticularily "phrases" can be completely WRONG. Langauge and it's use(s) change, in some cases you may use an "informal" way of speaking in a family or friendly gathering and a more "formal" way in a business conversation.
    In some cases, what we may call an item or an action, depending on where you are standing, may have no reference to what the same item is referred to in another country, so double-check, try to find an application that incorporates "human" translations (which doesn't exist with "free" translation sites), and/or refer to someone familiar with the language of your ccTLD term, approach it as you would a currency coverter, because it is money......

    Good Luck,

    Jimmy.

  • http://www.san-diego.us Omar Haddedou

    Interesting comments,

    I am glad to see that we now start asking questions about the relevancy and existence of ccTLD's.
    Several years ago i bought many .BZ (Belize) and .US ... (www.san-diego.us, tulsa.us, golf.bz, lasvegas.bz, vegas.bz, honolulu.bz, madrid.bz, helsinki.bz, beijimg.bz, riodejaneiro.bz...etc
    After having developped couple of them, i am glad to notice that search engines make no difference and do not penalize a website because of it extention.It was a concern and a question for a while .

    Best

    Omar

  • http://kostenlosekreditbericht.de Salman

    Hello,

    I think we all agree that CcTLDs the generic domains have the potential to go up in value. Personally, I have invested good money into .co.uk, .de, and .in domains. Reason being is simply people want to buy, sell and grow local economies...

    In the beginning the internet grew wide as the case with a .com now the internet is growing vertically. An excellent example Rick used was of usedboats.co.uk...Similarly, I own IncomeProperties.co.uk, Gasolineprices.co.uk, VacationGetaways.co.uk, Diversifying.co.uk, and I also own "Free Credit Report" in German....kostenlosekreditbericht.de.

    Sincerely,
    Salman

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