Using .COM.CN vs .CN Prices to Project .CO.IN and .IN Price Relationship

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The ongoing debate of .co.in vs .in started ever since both were available for registration on Feb 16, 2005. My view has been its not one or the other but the relative valuation of the two extensions. As someone who is invested in both, I do have a vested interest in projecting the valuations of particularly keyword based domains for both .in and .co.in. Many major brands including Google uses .co.in and over the last 12 years, millions of typeins later, you can bet .co.in is an integral part of Indian internet user behavior. Meanwhile .in is more convenient and makes sense for startups and others who like shorter versions. Having said this, I don't believe the relationship between the 2 extensions is similar to .com and .net, its not even close. .net is way behind for business websites in comparison to .com and that cannot be said for .co.in. The only other existing comparison that I could find was .com.cn vs cn, since .com.cn was introduced ahead of .cn , similar to .co.in and .in. That got me to look at past sales history using Namebio since there aren't many comparable .in and .co.in sales in the past.

Note: This comparison is for keyword domains only and those with comparable sales in the last several years. Other short domains 3L, 3N etc are more active in .cn.
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From these sales comparisons, one can conclude the valuations are identical for keyword domains when they were bought from Sedo and around the same time frame. Only outlier (which is big) was Game.com.cn vs Game.cn which were sold about 3 years apart and sold at different venues.

Will .in and .co.in follow a similar trend in India or will there be substantial price differences for keyword domains, remains to be seen.

Hoping this data gives rise to more meaningful discussions in this area . As we get more sales data in both extensions, we will begin to see a trend. Particularly when companies will have to acquire both (in my opinion) to prevent typein or traffic leaks.

For other categories such as 3Ls or 3Ns, this data may not provide much guidance.
 
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Thanks for the detailed analysis - it is very helpful.

I think in theory you are right, and initially I bet that people would want a particular keyword in both .in and .co.in to protect their brand.

However, that does not seem to be how things are playing out. Even in cases where I own both the .in and .co.in, the buyer is only interested in one extension and not the other/both.

I've found buyers from outside India to be solely focused on .in.

Also, there will be other data points soon - .nz has been released in New Zealand, .uk in the UK, and I think .au is being considered in Australia.

I think something similar happened in Mexico too re .com.mx and .mx - not sure about what happened there.
 
Jeff, thanks for your feedback. Intersting you say people from outside have shown more interest in dot .in. I have had more interest in .co.in from outside India on atleast 3 or 4 keywords in the last year, we just couldn't agree on price, hence sale did not happen. It probably has to do with the Quality of the keywords that drives the interest, regardless of in or .co.in I would imagine.

The feedback from the market we are getting right now is still very early, even though its been 12 years since release.
 
And .UK vs .CO.UK could be interesting, but .CO.UK has more than a decade of lead and brand equity. So the comparisons may not be accurate as much. Also, there are restrictions, .UK is currently reserved for those who own .CO.UK version atleast until 2019 I believe
 
what i saw in India, most of people don't like second level domain. Even once i hated .co.uk but now as a domainer i love it and i know the value of .co.uk . Meanwhile in India right now trend is .in and i don't think .co.in is having any demand here. The second most valuable domain after .com here is .in . while as few prefer . net and .org depending upon their business .
 
We are seeing a lot of different directions that companies are heading in. The latest DNGeek post on startups , there is company that is listed IdealCures.co.in , funny they haven't even registered the .in version. So someone is not advising them properly. There was another startup TyreExpress.co.in a few months ago listed, and TyreExpress.in is available for purchase. So lot of it depends on each company and their web strategy, some might be right but most are still figuring it out in India..
 
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May be .co refers to commercial, they might be more interested in that but at the same it shows lack of domain and SEO knowledge . In India Seo and eCommerce is growing. People here still think different, they are still not ready to invest in domain. But i believe there will be total blast within 5 to 10 years.
 
what i saw in India, most of people don't like second level domain. Even once i hated .co.uk but now as a domainer i love it and i know the value of .co.uk . Meanwhile in India right now trend is .in and i don't think .co.in is having any demand here. The second most valuable domain after .com here is .in . while as few prefer . net and .org depending upon their business .
The truth is, once good.in domain supply dries up alot and prices go up,.co.in will become more valuable and active.obviously that time hasnt reached yet.

I agree strong relevant.co.in names will always have potential...issue will only be when end users accept their real value.
Domaining is full of many illusions. With.in and.co.in not yet full matured combined with tje fact that indian demand(esp)has yet to be satisfied, there is surely to be made, only variable will be how long b4 that happens aka wait time.
 

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