ccTLD pride and pricing dynamics.
Here are some observations from my recent vacation to Australia:
.com* rules!
Nearly all of the domain names I saw advertised in Australia were .com domain names. But they weren’t just .com domain names, they were .com.au country code domain names. I’d say about 95% of the domains I saw were .com.au, maybe 3% were just .com, and a couple percent were other top level domains.
Yep, Australians love their country code domain names. That’s pretty much the case wherever you travel, but it was quite pronounced down under.
One person pointed out to me that many .com.au owners also own the equivalent .com domain name and forward it to their main web site at the ccTLD.
Domains are cheap.
Australia is very expensive. The most obvious thing to a traveler from the United States is the cost of food, both at restaurants and grocery stores. In general I’d say it’s at least double that of the U.S. Some of this obviously has to do with historical exchange rates, and the Australian dollar is looking mighty fine these days.
But from a comparative standpoint this makes domain names — both registration prices and in the aftermarket — seem much cheaper to the average Australian than people in many other large countries.
Heck, I can register a new domain name for less than the price of a kids meal at lunch.
What does that mean for the market for .com.au domain names?
It’s an interesting question. I know several readers who have been bullish on the liberalization of .com.au domain names.
But there’s a key detail to keep in mind, as an expat friend currently working in Australia pointed out to me: Australia has the population of Texas over a landmass similar to the United States.
That creates an entirely different market dynamic than what I’m used to here in the states.
So I’ll leave it to Australian readers to tell me what the market for .com.au is like.
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Article source: http://domainnamewire.com/2012/08/17/domain-name-observations-from-australia/. Creative Commons (CC)
