The Future of .CO.IN (or any .CO.XX for that matter) - Random Musings

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CyberKing

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OK - Please bear with me on this post :

Despite a number of decades of familiarity with the domain industry, I have failed to learn the origins of why second level country specific domains (.co.in and co.uk) were created in the first place followed by the ccTLDs like .IN, .UK and not these ccLTDs directly... anyone? Please educate me or I could google.co.in
?

Anyway here I would like to ponder what the future of the second level country specific domain for India is.... based on a few recent observations:

a) I noticed by chance this past week one of our domain registrar was offering renewals of .co.in for a very low price so I extended most quality names for an additional 9 years (with 10 being max for a new domain) PS: could be a pricing mistake or a new registry promo? Must be back to desperate days!

b) I have been able to hand register several single keyword domains these past 6 days confirmed as previously owned as way back as 2005.. Wonder why ? is there no demand for them lately?

c) Is it essential for a developed .IN Site (or a quality dot IN domain) to have the .co.in secured - what SEO or other traffic cannibalization consequences are there?

d) Have you secured your co.in? for every .IN you own? (Show of hands please)
:rolleyes:

e) Yet when I speak to India related business owners or service providers they almost always assume my address (as related to conversation) is to end with .co.in.. even before I finish my sentence... (example my email address they conclude is xxxxx@yahoo.co.in - no it is xxxxx@yahoo.com) - the .co.in has established first mover advantage!

f) Despite owning the .IN several Multinationals and Global brands use .CO.IN to advertise in newspaper ads I notice ( see some previous posts)

g) How are the parking earnings (RPC) compared to .IN for the same name - anyone?

h) Is there any metric on the second level country domains? No. of registrations

j) I also caught a few India related business/sites which own the dot com and failed to register the .IN or the .CO.IN (CRICKET AND FOOD RELATED)
:eek:

With all this said, I am wondering what the future holds for them....if these comments/questions sound muddled
:confused: it tells you my "state of mind" about this subject...Thanks for your time and patience! :cool:
 
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I think that domains with .in extension have more value that .co.in.

Anyway I own many .co.in domains (about half co.in and half .in) and many of them get traffic and earnings. I sold some .co.in domains in the past in the range of low xxx or mid xxx USD, and some years ago received offers in the range of very low xxxx USD for 2 good .co.in domains.

Generally I renew domains which have some traffic/earnings or which are good keywords (single word or 2 words).

As already posted in another thread, an interesting point is that google, which is the first website in India, after 9 years still redirects the .in version to the .co.in version, this certainly gives to the .co.in domains more visibility and value.

I think that the present and future of .co.in domains is that they will have a market, anyway generally they will be the second choice after .in domains.



PS: I'm interested in knowing the registar who offers .co.in renewal at 80 RS, please PM me.
 
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b) I have been able to hand register several single keyword domains these past 6 days confirmed as previously owned as way back as 2005.. Wonder why ? is there no demand for them lately?

I think people tend to pick shorter versions as they are easier to remember and more cute in general :)

c) Is it essential for a developed .IN Site (or a quality dot IN domain) to have the .co.in secured - what SEO or other traffic cannibalization consequences are there?

I would say rather the opposite. The .co.in will be leaking traffic to the .in like mad. This is actually observed in some parking stats. Also Indian developed .com's have tendency to leak to .in's and vice versa.

d) Have you secured your co.in? for every .IN you own? (Show of hands please)

No, I see no reason if you don't plan to develop a website on it. I have a few couples but rather by luck than intention. ;) As a developer I would rather try to secure the com version. Of course, strong .co.in's are always worth holding regardless whether you own the in or not.

f) Despite owning the .IN several Multinationals and Global brands use .CO.IN to advertise in newspaper ads I notice ( see some previous posts)

If they started their online business before dot in was born they had not much choice. Rebranding a big corporation to other extension is probably not as simple as we assume (read: costly) so that's much easier to just redirect the .in version. I see more recent enterprises pick rather .in version (eg. amazon.in).

g) How are the parking earnings (RPC) compared to .IN for the same name - anyone?

My best .co.in has better RPC compared to the in version ($0.11 and $0.08 respectively) but that's not enough data to draw further conclusions.

h) Is there any metric on the second level country domains? No. of registrations

You can download the Alexa top 1 million and then compare the ratio for any dot in extension to co.in. Knowing it is around 1.5 - 1.6 mil domains registered it is possible to draw some estimate from that Alexa rank.

With all this said, I am wondering what the future holds for them....if these comments/questions sound muddled [/SIZE]:confused: it tells you my "state of mind" about this subject...Thanks for your time and patience!


I'm not a seer. ;) You need to take into consideration many variables like global and regional economic prospects, Internet growth, political situation, etc. IMO the future looks good. Co.in's won't match the .in's in popularity but they have their niche and, as you mentioned, they seem to be liked by companies.
 
Origin of 2nd level Domain.
The 2nd level domain, .co.in, when first introduced were meant for Indian companies . (.co was abbreviation for company )
Prior to 2005, only companies were allowed to register .co.in (google.co.in , yahoo.co.in etc..) .

Could you share the primary registrar who is offering .co.in renewals for Rs 80.
 
Thank you super software for bringing up this critical issue.

I own some .co.ins and they do have their niche. But .co.in performance on the aftermarket recently has been very lethargic and disappointing. It also bothers me that the lll.co.in market hasn't tightened up. I have some good one word .co.ins but am happy that .co.ins r a small portion of my portfolio.

Can we pls get an lll.co.in availability list? (You're my homie ace!! :D ).

.in= playing the lottery with luck on your side.

.co.in= playing the lottery with luck not on your side.

Great comments everyone. Coollll
 
Great discussion, thank you everyone! The renewal pricing mistake was fixed this weekend and hence I could not share (I was asked not to advertise).
 
....and in case you have all forgotten......, .

CO.IN is an excellent hack for "COIN" given all the "cryptomania" that has gripped the online world and the buzzzz around Bitcoin and the likes...
 
I own more .co.in than .in because I registered them in 2005 and .co.in was more popular then.

Since then .in has taken a lot of center stage and I think they are equally good. From seo perspective, shorter the better. I think domain market by large is not seeing much traction / sales and so only the really good domains will survive.
 
....and in case you have all forgotten......, .

CO.IN is an excellent hack for "COIN" given all the "cryptomania" that has gripped the online world and the buzzzz around Bitcoin and the likes...

Wondering why nobody registered .coin nTLD for that reason, yet.
 
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