.IN vs. .CO.IN - The Big Debate!

[FishSEO]

I know it's been widely discussed previously, but I'd like to hear some of the member's input on which extension will do better in:

• Usage (local and international[i.e. USA domain investors or USA companies])
• Short-term Value
• Long-term Value

I would especially be interested in hearing from those that live in or have lived in India.

Do you like .in or .co.in better?

 

[ekaln]

Long term value is definitely .in. The Indian Registry has given strong signs that it will support .in over .co.in in the future

Development and usage, probably .co.in for now

 

[.co.in]

this debate is going every where in np ,dnf etc

i think .co.in goes with populatrity buy forigeners prefer .in

 

[Tipsfromthetop]

this debate is going every where in np ,dnf etc

i think .co.in goes with populatrity buy forigeners prefer .in

You sir are spot on I am also the owner of listed.co.in ( Indian domain marketplace ) all the traffic goes to .co.in domains on our site and the majority of this is coming from India where the .in traffic comes from the states and the UK.

The last Domain conference i was at also questioned the life expectancy of the .co.in now the .in was released and it was actually turned around by the Indian NIC delegate with him saying the .co.in was safe and was never in danger, because the attitude towards the .in is a gimmick extension loved by people in the west.

That as you can imagine caused the conference hall of over 200 people to laugh.

 

[FishSEO]

about half sounds right ;D - considering that most people are split on this issue.

I see .in growing as a world-brand extension, where co.in may be used by domestic India companies.

 

[ekaln]

I see .in growing as a world-brand extension, where co.in may be used by domestic India companies.

Absolutely - the U.S. has .com, .us, .org. and .net in regular usage.

Theres no reason why India can't have .com, .in and .co.in, each with slightly different uses and audiences.

 

[Tipsfromthetop]

Steve thats the way i see it finnally settling. Nothing wrong with that option at all.

 

[FishSEO]

You know, if you think about it, India is a lot of the US in terms of a "defining" extension.

One of the reasons that .us has taken a while to get a foothold is because everyone in the US views .com as THE extension (due to the fact that the US set up Internet initially, this is what we're used to). So when .us came a long, it wasn't viewed as the nessacary "United States" extension - more so, just another extension.

On the other hand, every other country in the world with maybe the exception of the UK, has thier own "Defined" extension, Japan has .jp, Canada has .ca, etc. And there is no second guessing what the country's extension is, it's definitive.

India is one of the outliers, where there isn't a definition of which extension is THE extension in India. A bit like .com was first in the US consumer's eyes, .co.in was first in Indian consumer's eyes. Will those consmers and companies make the switch to .in, most likely IMHO, but just like .us has taken time to arrive and be recognized domestically, so will India's switch from .co.in. to .in.

 

[DomainLobe]

A little info for your thoughts. I have two LLL domains which I believe target the same population in India. Both domains are parked at the same company & here are the stats for the past 7 days:

rrb_ _in = 50 visits, $1.57
rrb.co__in = 73 visits, $1.32

Both do reasonably well for parked LLL with an Indian extension.
What do these numbers mean??? Who knows! Statistically they will likely perform similarly over a long period of time.


RRB is 'rural railroad board' among other meanings

 

[ekaln]

An interesting way to look at it. Some of my pairs:

psg.co.in US$ 2.59 187 hits
psg.in US$ 1.29 115 hits

glc.co.in US$ 0.95 131 hits
glc.in US$ 0.22 102 hits

 

[Tipsfromthetop]

every other country in the world with maybe the exception of the UK, has thier own "Defined" extension,

Hi Fish some good posts by you my friend.

This bit though i will set straight due to me being on the Nominet Commity via my business in the UK. The general public will Never!! get the .uk extension the .co.uk is the defined extention for the UK.. The .uk is reserved for govenment and offical country business only.

This has been brought up many times over the years in conventions which i have sat and at Commity meetings more recently when the .eu was announced and the general ruling was no and this has been sealed for another 15 years. So after than maybe but i very much doubt it, way to much money has gone into the .co.uk in this country and no one will move off their .co.uk extension nor will nominet or the govenment what it to change.

 

[FishSEO]

Yes, I do agree with you.... (I kind of threw that .uk example in there because it was really the only other extension that I could think of that had questions at any point).

I would actually say that .co.uk is one of the stronger cctlds out on the market.

 

[ekaln]

This bit though i will set straight due to me being on the Nominet Commity via my business in the UK. The general public will Never!! get the .uk extension the .co.uk is the defined extention for the UK.. The .uk is reserved for govenment and offical country business only.

Fascinating post.

I left the UK in 2000 when .com was still king and only returned briefly before a much longer trip home in 2005. I was SHOCKED to the degree that .co.uk had taken over. I probably saw 2 .com domains advertised during a month in England and Wales.

It takes a while, but it seems that once the public starts to understand ccTLDs they are really capable of taking hold in a big way.

 

[.co.in]

Fascinating post.

I left the UK in 2000 when .com was still king and only returned briefly before a much longer trip home in 2005. I was SHOCKED to the degree that .co.uk had taken over. I probably saw 2 .com domains advertised during a month in England and Wales.

It takes a while, but it seems that once the public starts to understand ccTLDs they are really capable of taking hold in a big way.

hope that happens with .co.in

 

[Tipsfromthetop]

hope that happens with .co.in

Heya .co.in,

I think you will find my friend it pretty much has already.. Its hard to compare against the .co.uk and England purely due to a numbers game.. In the UK there are 70 million residents in India theres many times that number. Our country is small also so marketing is easier but with India its a lot larger and many many cities etc so it might not look like it is widespread..

The little time i spent in India on business i saw many many .co.in business adverts so .co.in is there in a big way.. It will get larger, remember not everyone in India still has a computer and goes online its estimated According to the Internet & Online Association of India, this number is expected to grow to 100 million by the end of 2007.

With an increase of 15-25% every year after this so thats a vast amount of people/businesses in India looking for potential domains be it .co.in or .in.

So good times are on their way.. just be patient.

 

[FishSEO]

I think i've posted this before but since you mentioned the internet usage in india, i'll post this again:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/in.htm

 

[FishSEO]

I thought this was pretty funny to see.
Searching google.co.in for "mobile phones" I saw ebay advertising using BOTH .co.in and .in

It looks like we're not the only ones that are confused over the 2 different extensions!