Thread: Buy a great .in or a nice CVCV.com?

I was wondering what you would do if you had $3,000 to spend on a domain right now (unfortunataly, I don't )

Would you buy a really premium .in name or a cool CVCV.com? Which one do you think has the most potential?

I think it is a very tough call. CVCV.coms have been hot for a while, but it may not last if some new naming trend starts.

Great .in keywords should have huge potential, but are Indian companies really beginning to realize that they have to pay a decent amount for them or is that never going to happen?

I would rather pick some high quality premium .in. They may be harder to sell at this time but this market has really huge potential. In such a large country there will be always someone willing to buy it once Internet is wide spread there. Remember also that India attracts many oversea companies and they also may be interested in proper domain representation. For example, I'm just in process of selling one .in to a buyer from Switzerland and the price is 4 digit. And my previous sale was for some company from USA (run by an Indian). But I got also offers from India although they are usually low. So that's from my point of view the Indian domain market is run mainly abroad But that will change sooner or later for sure.

Originally Posted by Kokoro

I would rather pick some high quality premium .in. They may be harder to sell at this time but this market has really huge potential. In such a large country there will be always someone willing to buy it once Internet is wide spread there. Remember also that India attracts many oversea companies and they also may be interested in proper domain representation. For example, I'm just in process of selling one .in to a buyer from Switzerland and the price is 4 digit. And my previous sale was for some company from USA (run by an Indian). But I got also offers from India although they are usually low. So that's from my point of view the Indian domain market is run mainly abroad But that will change sooner or later for sure.

Yes, I tend to agree. My last two sales have been to companies outside India as well. One of them from Austria wanting an English word .in that didn't seem an obvious choice at all...

I am hoping for Indian companies inside India being more active in the market. That would definitely help a lot.

Originally Posted by euroflash

Yes, I tend to agree. My last two sales have been to companies outside India as well. One of them from Austria wanting an English word .in that didn't seem an obvious choice at all...

I am hoping for Indian companies inside India being more active in the market. That would definitely help a lot.

Isn't that a fact. I see so many sales of names that don't relate don't fit the extension etc it makes it very hard to decide which names to keep and which to drop/sell cheap.

In general the offers I have had from Indian companies have been as low as reseller lowball offers.

Originally Posted by wot

Isn't that a fact. I see so many sales of names that don't relate don't fit the extension etc it makes it very hard to decide which names to keep and which to drop/sell cheap.

In general the offers I have had from Indian companies have been as low as reseller lowball offers.

Yes, sometimes it is the weirdest of names getting sold to the most unlikely buyers...

It depends on your tolerance for risk...

A good CVCV.com is going to cost more than $3K (faza.com, dolo.com, bibi.com, wofi.com). At $3K, you're looking at a pretty mediocre one.
The CVCV.com market is driven mostly by domainers, but there is always a chance that whatever name you buy will hugely inspire an end user to pay you a lot more for it... It's MUCH harder to rely on this with web2 type names, since they have no meaning that can be pinned down. If you want too much money for your CVCV, they can just move on to another CVCV. The same cannot be said for a category defining keyword.

The Indian domain market is riskier.
There are many, many contingent factors in play- the growth of Indian internet, the growth of the Indian economy, how India adopts domain name usage, what changes we may see with new TLDs and in particular, new TLDs that may incorporate IDN. English is the lingua franca of business in India, but it's still spoken by less than 20% of the population. A third (and potentially better) option using the same amount of money would be to acquire 20-30 strong names, lightly develop them and hold for 7+ years. In order to do this, though, you should first be someone who has a proven and profitable track record with picking winning domains in .com. Anyone else will just be lighting money on fire. There are "domainers" who have been doing this for years now yet still don't have the slightest clue what separates a good domain from a bad one...

The less risky play is the CVCV, the riskier play is the higher end .in domain. If all you have is $3K, neither is a good option.

In general, I'm pro keyword domains, that have a meaning, and anti brandable ones. I'd go with a (super)premium one-word .in, which more than likely will receive type-in traffic.

Originally Posted by Dman

It depends on your tolerance for risk...

A good CVCV.com is going to cost more than $3K (faza.com, dolo.com, bibi.com, wofi.com). At $3K, you're looking at a pretty mediocre one.
The CVCV.com market is driven mostly by domainers, but there is always a chance that whatever name you buy will hugely inspire an end user to pay you a lot more for it... It's MUCH harder to rely on this with web2 type names, since they have no meaning that can be pinned down. If you want too much money for your CVCV, they can just move on to another CVCV. The same cannot be said for a category defining keyword.

The Indian domain market is riskier.
There are many, many contingent factors in play- the growth of Indian internet, the growth of the Indian economy, how India adopts domain name usage, what changes we may see with new TLDs and in particular, new TLDs that may incorporate IDN. English is the lingua franca of business in India, but it's still spoken by less than 20% of the population. A third (and potentially better) option using the same amount of money would be to acquire 20-30 strong names, lightly develop them and hold for 7+ years. In order to do this, though, you should first be someone who has a proven and profitable track record with picking winning domains in .com. Anyone else will just be lighting money on fire. There are "domainers" who have been doing this for years now yet still don't have the slightest clue what separates a good domain from a bad one...

The less risky play is the CVCV, the riskier play is the higher end .in domain. If all you have is $3K, neither is a good option.

Yes, I guess $3K will not get you a lot if you are looking for premium stuff, at least in .com. But I do still think it is possible to find nice .in keywords for this price. But the window of opportunity is probably closing fast...

Originally Posted by the_poet

In general, I'm pro keyword domains, that have a meaning, and anti brandable ones. I'd go with a (super)premium one-word .in, which more than likely will receive type-in traffic.

It does seem that type-in traffic to good generic .ins are rising. At least that is my own experience. Nothing major yet, but let's see in a few years.

Originally Posted by euroflash

It does seem that type-in traffic to good generic .ins are rising. At least that is my own experience. Nothing major yet, but let's see in a few years.

I agree, I'm noticing it as well.