Since Overstock I haven’t seen a national ad on TV for a .Co site until today.

I just saw an ad for a site Zumu.Co running nationally on ESPN.

No Zumu.co does not own Zumu.com nor does it own Zumo.co or Zumo.com

Zumu.Co is a way to sell your used Games, Dvd’s and Cd’s for cash or they will contribute the funds to a charity.

The company is headquartered out of Detroit.

 …

DNN recently analyzed the top 1,000,000 most heavily trafficked and popular websites in the world, according to Alexa, and the results were shocking when we specifically looked at the now 1 year old active dot XXX extension. Our research revealed that only 61 developed websites that are using the .XXX extension placed inside the top 1 million of the most visited sites in the world. Many would expect these adult-oriented websites to be pulling in massive amounts of traffic and interest soon after launching, but apparently that isn’t the case so far.

One year later… Now what?

The .XXX extension, a sponsored top level domain operated by ICM Registry has been live for a year now, as was originally reported on April 15, 2011, which is when .XXX was added to the root servers and domains such as Sex.XXX and Porn.XXX were now resolving as live sites on the web, readily available to be accessed as any other extension, all over the world. Dot XXX domain names have been available for anyone to register and develop since December 6, 2011, after the sunrise and landrush phases concluded which were held from September 7 – November 25, 2011. The registry operator also recently announced that it will be applying for the .Sex, .Adult and .Porn TLDs.

Earlier this month ICANN and the ICM Registry released .XXX domain registration stats and the magic number was said to be 215,835. That number represents how many .XXX domains ICM Registry had under its management as of April 6, 2012 when the press release went out. Out of all those registrations 132,859 are adult-oriented and a whopping 82,976 are non-adult defensive registrations, domains of celebrities and sensitive uses, and those ICM Registry reserved for future uses and sales under the .XXX Premium Names Program and the .XXX Adult Performer Program.

Stuart Lawley, the founder and CEO of ICM Registry LLC was interviewed by DomainSherpa about two weeks ago, where he shared some interesting data about the .XXX extension during the 1 hour video interview with Michael Cyger. We’ve highlighted below the few bits and pieces which stand out the most:

• Currently .XXX is averaging 125 – 150 new registrations per day
• $25 million in revenues in the 4th quarter for ICM Registry
• Around 132,000 are normal registrations, which they classified as “recurring revenue domains”
• Actual number of “built out sites” that they are aware of and can acknolwedge is 27,555 at this point

Lawley went on to highlight some of the most expensive and “premium” triple X domains sold to date, which were Gay.XXX for $500,000, Fetish.XXX for $300,000, Shemales.XXX for $200,000, Toys.XXX for $125,000, Sexy.XXX for $100,000, Dating.XXX for $100,000, FootFetish.XXX for $89,000. In a more recent interview with Bloomberg just this past weekend Lawley mentioned that they also just sold Movies.XXX for $100,000.

Lack of any “real” developments…

Now it’s only been approximately 5 month’s that the general public have had the opportunity to freely register any available .XXX domain that they desire, at any one of their favorite domain registrar’s such as Go Daddy or Register.com for example, and then be able to immediately develop their domain in any way they choose.  We would not have thought that only 61 domains in total would be ranking inside the top 1,000,000 most visited sites in the world. That number was suppose to be exponentially higher by all accounts even a few month’s in, which we now are well into 2012, however reality says otherwise.

It is still very early on in the game as some would argue for this year old extension, but the numbers and data which DNN uncovered speak for itself as far as development of these newly available domains go. The concrete data shows that there is a huge disconnect somewhere. For the ICM Registry and hopeful .XXX domain investors that have spent $80 – $100 on average per registration, it is nothing really to get overly excited about, so far into this journey.

Many .XXX domains have been registered at this point, that is old news already. Some have been developed of course, most commonly as YouTube style video portals serving up adult content. Very few of the sites using the DOT XXX extension are taking off though and generating the buzz and activity that a website requires in order to become profitable and a success over the long run.

This begs the question, does the new .XXX extension really help you if you are running an adult oriented website, or is it going to do just the opposite and backfire at a certain point, and hurt your online image, website traffic, etc.? Well established companies from the adult industry and the thousands of TGP/Tube/Freebie adult site operators don’t seem to be rushing to switch over their existing sites to the newly available .XXX domains.

About Alexa.com website and Alexa stats

Alexa.com is the leading provider of free, global web metrics. Alexa’s website ranks over 30 million of the most popular websites worldwide. The global panel of data comes from millions of toolbar users from all parts of the world which were created by more than 25,000 publishers. In-depth coverage and data is provided from more than 125 countries in North America, South America, Asia and Europe. Alexa.com is owned and operated by Alexa Internet, Inc. which is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.

Say what you say about Alexa’s rankings, but the bottom line is that it’s good to have them, as they provide a closer look at millions of sites and their traffic data. Many people swear by these numbers and it is their go-to resource for website intelligence, while other industry insiders and “professional” internet marketers say that the rankings are not very accurate and in certain cases may be misleading because they are not directly measured. At the end of the day, it depends on who you ask. One thing that can’t be argued is that the stats are useful and provide many insights that no other website or service does for free.

.XXX has a long way to go…

For those wondering about some comparisons, we’ve got that for you too. It’s been two years since the .CO extension was re-launched, making a huge splash within the domainer community and generating a ton of buzz in the mainstream world. The “hip and new” ccTLD which is operated by .CO Internet S.A.S  has been unrestricted (available for anybody to register throughout the world) since July of 2011, and it currently has 1,367 domains inside the top 1,000,000 according to Alexa.com.

More than half of the sites found in Alexa’s comprehensive ranking of the top 1,000,000 sites in the world are using the dot COM (.com) extension, 542,769 sites to be exact.

It’s highly unlikely, without a major paradigm shift, that .XXX or any other newly introduced extension in the near future will ever dominate Alexa’s list. Other new gTLD extensions that plan to roll out an extension targeting a niche (like .xxx) or a broader-based audience (like .co) should take heed of the growth patterns evident here and plan accordingly.

See the list of ranking .CO and .XXX domains after the jump.

Alexa top .XXX Domains

Alexa Ranking for .CO Domains

Related posts:

• ICM Registry confirms new TLD applications for .Sex, .Adult and .Porn
• Free Speech Coalition Announces Plans for .xxxxx New TLD
• .XXX TLD To Be Approved Tomorrow?
• Adult Trade Organization to Lobby Against .XXX sTLD at ICANN Meeting
• Penthouse Purchases Adult Friend Finder

Cnet.com just published a story on the .Co registry and Its CEO Juan Calle.

The Story entitled: “CO Internet is a company cool enough for Brooklyn hipsters” was written by Paul Sloan who has written about the domain name industry before.

The article starts out:

“Suddenly, the outfit behind the .co domain is everywhere, even if many people barely notice. It’s all part of Juan Diego Calle’s shrewd strategy”.

“”If you haven’t heard of Juan Diego Calle’s company quite yet, consider yourself not among the in-the-know here over the last few days.

“I’m referring to .CO Internet, the Miami company that fought hard to land a contract with the government of Colombia so it could commercialize the country’s top-level-domain, or TLD.”"

The article goes on to say:

“Since .Co’s rolled out to the public in July 2010, about 1.3 million have been registered. ”

“”Diego Calle said the company’s revenue for the past 12 months is about $25 million, which is an impressive number when you consider he the names have only been available since for a year and half.”

Its a great article for .Co which is certainly making a huge splash at the SXSW Show.

 …

We have confirmed with the .CO Registry and we can report that as of yesterday all possible combinations of three letter .Co domain names are registered.

There are some 17,600 possible combinations of three letter domain name, otherwise referred to in the industry as LLL domains.

These do NOT include letters and numbers just letters.

All possible combinations of .Com domains were registered many years ago,  other than a handful that drop every year.

LLL.com have become quite valuable as they can stand for hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of different topics, companies, stock symbols and other items.  Such domain names on the aftermarket generally sell in the mid four figures all the way into the seven figures.

Now that all .Co three letter domain names are taken it should be interesting to see what effect that has on the aftermarket.

It should be noted that the following domain names have been reserved by the registry and were never available to be registered:

ORG.CO

INT.CO

NET.CO

WEB.CO

NOM.CO

GOV.CO

COM.CO

REC.CO

EDU.CO

MIL.CO

If you interested, the last seven three letter .Co domains that were available and registered the other day were:
IYV.co

JXV.co

KHV.co

QDY.co

VBJ.co

WVH.co

YBV.co

ZDU.co

ZKF.co

We congratulate the .CO registry for reaching this milestone in less than two years after relaunch.

We at Worldwide Media, Inc. own a couple of hundred LLL.co domain names ourselves.

We also thank David Eccles of TNTNames.com for alerting us to the story.…

According to a press release today, Sedo, entered into a a two-year exclusive partnership with .CO Internet S.A.S. to provide brokerage of a select set of previously unreleased .CO domain names, including:

clothes.co
profit.co
software.co
onlinemusic.co
hardware.co
internetmarketing.co
body.co
onlinedating.co
france.co
jobsonline.co

In all there are 726 domain names currently listed all pre-priced with prices ranging from $10K-$150K

Domain names like france.co and italy.co are priced at $150,000 and names like bodybuilding.co and Desk.Co are priced at $10K.

To see the complete portfolio of .CO domains available via Sedo, go to http://sedo.co.

Here is the other stuff in the press release:

“.CO is increasingly becoming the top level domain (TLD) of choice for start-ups and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) searching for meaningful, memorable, and affordable domain names to brand their web presence. Since .CO was first introduced in 2010, Sedo has generated well over $1 million in .CO sales revenue, and the .CO domain extension has become one of the top selling domain extensions in Sedo’s marketplace.”

“Sedo has done a fabulous job helping to establish and develop the secondary market for premium .CO domain names,” said Lori Anne Wardi, vice president of .CO Internet S.A.S. “Given their expertise and global reach, we are confident that Sedo is the perfect partner to help us bring these valuable digital assets to end-users worldwide.”

“With more than one million .CO domain names registered by individuals and businesses in more than 200 countries around the world, CO has become a truly global TLD. The .CO domain is treated equally with legacy domain extensions like .com and .net by the search engines, making the domain particularly appealing from a search engine optimization perspective for businesses of every size.”

“Many of the world’s most recognizable brands are already using the .CO domain to build or expand their online presence, including Internet behemoths like Twitter, Google and Amazon (which have acquired the single letter .CO domains t.co, g.co and a.co, respectively); the Aspen Group insurance company (aspen.co); and the well-known Silicon Valley incubator 500 Startups (which has rebranded to 500.co).”

“.CO Internet has been very successful in setting the bar for up and coming TLDs, and we are proud to be partnering with the .CO Registry to help bring these not yet released domains to businesses worldwide,” said Tim Schumacher, CEO of Sedo. “As we begin seeing new gTLDs hit the market in 2012, .CO will serve as an example to those applying for their own domain extension of the solid business model and strong partners that any registry will need to succeed.”

“.CO Internet has received a number of awards for its management of the .CO domain, including a nomination from the World Trademark Review, praising its efforts to make .CO an end user, business-friendly domain extension that protects the rights of brand owners. Recently, .CO was also recognized in the World Finance 100 List of the 100 finest businesses of 2011, alongside companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and other innovative companies who have outperformed the competition, and helped to redefine the business landscape.”

According to a Press Release tonight, .CO Internet S.A.S. the company that operates the .Co Registry was “recognized in the World Finance 100 listing, alongside industry heavyweights 3M, Apple, Facebook, IBM, Google, Microsoft, and others. ”

“The World Finance 100 recognizes “the very finest businesses and business leaders over the past year,” focusing on companies and individuals who have outperformed the competition, made great strides in innovative techniques, and helped to redefine the business landscape.”

“Realizing the massive shift that is about to take place in the domain industry as ICANN begins to accept applications for new domain extensions next week, we couldn’t be more pleased to be recognized as a leader in our field,” said Juan Diego Calle, CEO of .CO Internet SAS. “Inclusion in this list of venerable industry heavyweights further validates our mission to help fellow entrepreneurs to build and grow great businesses online, and we have no doubt that the demand for short, credible .CO web addresses will continue to be in high demand, no matter where the industry heads.”

“Since its global launch in July 2010, over 1 million .CO domain names have been registered across more than 200 countries, including by fellow World Finance 100 honorees Google, Microsoft and Amazon, among others.  In addition to major brands, .CO has quickly established itself as the web address of choice for innovative businesses and individuals, including hundreds of thousands of startups and inspired entrepreneurs worldwide.”

“The World Finance 100 is selected by the editorial board at World Finance Magazine, in conjunction with reader recommendations. World Finance is a leading financial magazine, produced every two months by World News Media from its Headquarters in London. World Finance content is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand the machinations of finance in the twenty-first century, reporting on capital markets, risk management, trading, technology, corporate governance issues and regional markets worldwide.”

While many domainers have written off O.co, it appears Overstock.com has not.

According to a press release issued yesterday, Overstock has just selected the Priceline Partner Network, a unit of priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN), to power Overstock’s new travel website, called O.co Travel.

“”O.co Travel customers will have access to a robust collection of travel services from the Priceline Partner Network, including:

• Priceline’s Name Your Own Price® travel services that can deliver savings of up to 60% off hotel rooms, up to 40% off flights and up to 40% off rental cars;
• The ability to book published-price hotel rooms through thousands of  quality chain and independent hotels around the world. O.co Travel customers also will have access to Priceline’s extensive database of hotel freebies, including instant discounts, free breakfast, free Internet access, and more;
• The ability to book rental car reservations worldwide. O.co Travel will also support rental car company discount codes;
• Airline ticketing with almost all major airlines through priceline.com.  This service includes seat mapping, the ability to book different classes of seats, and it supports airline frequent flier numbers,
• A broad lineup of money-saving air & hotel vacation packages. When air and hotel are booked together, customers can save up to $500 compared to booking separately.”

“Our partnership with priceline.com allows us to offer customers an in-depth travel site,” said Overstock.com President Jonathan Johnson. ”We constant receive customer feedback and tailor our offerings to these customer preferences. With Priceline’s lineup of travel services, including Name Your Own Price, our customers can be sure they’re getting the best travel deals available on the Internet today.”

“Overstock.com has built a brand that’s known for saving consumers money across a broad spectrum of products,” said Randy Schartner, President of the Priceline Partner Network. ”We believe that Priceline’s broad array of travel services, which are also focused on delivering savings, will fit well with Overstock.com’s products and mission. We look forward to working with them.”

Mike Mann’s Codom Holdings, LLC , just sold News.Co for $50,000 through Sedo.com

The Domain is still in Sedo escrow.

Its certainly not Mr. Mann’s 1st .Co domain sale

Mike has sold Luxury.co for $60K, Business.Co for $80,000,  Women.co for $25,000; Finance.co $25,000.00, Automotive.co $20,000.00, Cigar.co $20,000.00 and Ski.co $20,000.00

That’s $300,000 in .Co domain names this year!

Congrats to Mike and the buyer

The .Co registry just posted it response/thoughts on the Announcement made by Overstock.com yesterday through Adage.com, on its pull back of its re-branding from O.Co.

The blog post entitled “A Blip On the Radar” was authored by Juan Calle the CEO of the registry, is posted on the registries blog.

Part of the post contains statements made by an unidentified representative of Overstock.com who shared some additional thoughts on the announcement and the future of O.co

Also today separately the company, issued a press release announcing the availability of the O.co App for the iPad.

“”Overstock.com President Jonathan Johnson.  “Our new O.co iPad App lets customers find great deals on lots of products from the convenience of their iPad. One great feature of the app is that it allows customers to easily share great deals they find with their friends through Facebook and Twitter.”

Here is the full post from the .Co Registry unedited:

 

Some in the domain industry (read: domainers) are up in arms about the recent announcement by Overstock.com that it would slow down its rebranding to O.co.   Given the amount of speculation and commenting going on about this within that community, I felt it was appropriate to reach out to Overstock.com and get a clear picture of what is going.  Here you go:

—————–

Why did Overstock.com first begin using O.co?
When Overstock.com started twelve years ago we only sold surplus inventory. However, as our business model has evolved, Overstock.com is no longer just an online liquidator.  Because “overstock” implies surplus or liquidation inventory, it no longer accurately reflected who we are today as a company.

Our offerings now span from cars to insurance, and include first-run brand name apparel, electronics and home décor.  We wanted an identity that more accurately reflects how the company has evolved; hence we embraced O.co to reflect the direction in which we are heading.

Why are you shifting your brand emphasis back to Overstock.com? When does this shift become effective on the website and social media channels?
We have been listening to our customers and have learned that they we’ve moved too quickly in the transition.  They are telling us that we’ve done it too fast.  So we are going to down shift one gear by re-emphasizing Overstock.com and noting that O.co continues to be a shortcut to our site.  Internationally, we will keep using O.co exclusively. O.co will still be promoted through our mobile website and our iPad application. The shift in emphasis began showing up on the website and our social media channels in early November.

What had the initial reaction been like from your customers?
Re-branding takes time and we certainly didn’t expect the new name to be adopted overnight. We were pleased with the early customer acceptance of O.co as a shortcut for Overstock.com and thus moved the rebranding efforts to the next gear.  Many customers reacted positively, and others expressed that the transition was happening too quickly.  What we learned was that we haven’t yet adequately transferred the decade of brand equity we have in Overstock.com.  So, we’re down-shifting the re-branding effort in order to leverage and transfer that brand equity.

The .CO domain is fairly new and Overstock was taking a big risk as the only company to use the domain as part of its brand. Thoughts?
It is true that Overstock.com was the first online company to use the .CO as part of its brand. This put Overstock.com at the forefront of digital marketing.  The decision to use a .CO domain in such a big way underscored our willingness to lead the market and to disrupt the status quo.

So when will you become O.co?  Is that still on the cards?
We expect that O.co will continue to emerge as our brand over time. It will be a gradual transition, and may take a few years. We didn’t want to risk throwing out the brand equity we’ve built with Overstock.com. Ideally, in time you’ll just see Overstock.com fade away and O.co take its place.

What about O.CO Coliseum, will that be re-named as well?  Wasn’t it Overstock.com Coliseum to begin with?
We won’t be changing the name. The name will remain “O.co Coliseum”.

—————–

There you have it folks.  A blip on the radar.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, .CO is part of a marathon, not a sprint.

But if you’re a .CO fan and interested in something actually worthy of news, Om Malik, founder of GigaOm just rebranded to .CO.  In case you don’t know who Om Malik is, well, he has 1.2 million Twitter followers.  To top that off, Kloud.CO was featured on CNN, Quarterly.CO is blowing up in social media, and Founder Institute, the worlds largest pre-seed incubator is now living at FI.CO.   Not too shabby!

If you’re interested in seeing more of the latest entrepreneurs and companies building on a .CO domain, check out Opportunity.CO.

The re-auction of .CO former land rush auction domains that did not complete a over a year ago just ended with $65,000 in sales.

The auction was led by InjuryLawyers.co which sold for $18K.