Everyone seems to have woken up to ccTLD investments all of a sudden.
The big ticket sales in 2009 – 2010 have really seem to peaked an interest in ccTLDs from all over the world. Specially since these chart breaking sales are seen in the Global contenders charts now, instead of just the ccTLD charts on DNJournal.
I’ve been a ccTLD evangelist ever since I started domaining back in 2007. It shows in my posts, in my purchases and also on my portfolio. It also shows in the forums I help lead over at NamePros – the ccTLD Discussion and ccTLD sales sections.
Back then most people called me cuckoo, claiming that .com would never have to worry about any competition from ccTLDs. While this might be true, what a lot of people missed out on was the fact that it doesn’t matter what the .com is worth, what does matter is your ROI.
Which brings us to the main question – what presents the best cctlds for investment today?
The answer to this question is as varied as the number of ccTLDs it seems. For those living in areas where a nexus is required to register a local cctld – it seems to be the natural choice – .us, .ca, .com.au, .co.za, .fr, .it, .ru, etc. There are cctlds which are already doing exceptional valuations like .de and .co.uk but investing in them today requires either deep pockets or the willingness to settle for tier 3 names, which is the same issue as with .com investments.
But on a global scale a cctld which is completely underrated even today is .in – it still presents the best investment opportunity out there. People will try and convince you differently but then industry leaders always have a vested interest in promoting the markets they’ve cornered, not the ones you can.
Plus from the unofficial registration numbers it seems that the hand reg market for .in is on fire, having doubled over the last 18 months to cross the one million mark.
The top advantages of .in are:
1. No local nexus requirments – anyone anywhere can register a .in
2. Huge local internet population – 70 million at last count (2008).
3. Huge growth potential of this internet population – expected to grow to 350 million over the next five years.
4. Total local acceptability and global development.
5. Major acceptability globally – you’ll find a lot of non-Indian sites on .in including american, german, swiss, korean and japanese.
6. Availability of high value search terms and single word generics at extremely low costs in the reseller market even today.
Does that mean you should go out and register any decent available .in, probably not, but you could hand pick a few that will provide you excellent development potential or huge ROIs over the next five years. The reseller market is currently your best bet for this, there are amazing names that are being sold currently at prices that will seem unbelievable in a few years.
ccTLDs Domain sales stats are really interesting. Comparing the cost to acquire .com , its much cheaper to get the domain name on its country code. SO CCTLDs remain the second top choice. Coming to .in’s they have wide appeal. (INdia , INternet , Indonesia ). They do fit with Geo Domain hacks. Like SeniorHomes.in/Newyork (Senior Homes in Newyork). And the final idea you mentioned is really great. .in booming doesn’t mean you go and register all available domain names. In Reseller markets even premium domains are available at cheaper prices. Its really made me think & am now acquiring quality domains at reseller markets, rather than running behind with $2 cheap registrations. I personally thank you a lot for this Samit.