.CO

Despite Overstock’s O.co rebranding being listed in Adage’s annual article about “The Biggest Follies of 2011,” Overstock appears to be continuing with its O.co branding, albeit at a slower pace.

In a press release  announcing its partnership with Priceline, Overstock reaffirmed that it will be using O.Co in the branding for its travel offering. “Overstock.com Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK), today announced that it has selected the Priceline Partner Network, which is a business unit of priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN), to power Overstock’s new travel website, called O.co Travel.”

I find it interesting that the company is using both Overstock and O.Co as brand names, but it appears that the company is intent on utilizing the O.co brand. Perhaps it’s using O.co Travel to differentiate this unit from its other Overstock business, but more likely, it’s launching this new brand with the O.co branding and intends to do the same with future introductions.  I suppose they are simply taking the slower re-branding route and will see how things go in the meantime.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on Overstock to see how this branding takes place and over what time period. I am sure other companies will keep an eye on this in light of the new TLDs that will be introduced soon. Companies like Canon and Ebay will probably use this as a lesson if and when they plan to apply for and possibly use brand TLDs.

I had the chance to visit the .CO Registry offices in Miami this afternoon, although I didn’t get a chance to take photos for your viewing pleasure. The company has a great office space in downtown Miami, and it was good to take some time to catch up with the .CO Registry team.

From what it sounds like, the team is happy with their year one renewal rates, and they are gearing up for a big 2012. The team is also excited about the new .CO-focused Super Bowl commercial that was filmed a couple of weeks ago in Godaddy’s production studios, and it sounds like it was a fun commercial to watch behind the scenes.

If you’re in Miami, you should check out their offices (call ahead of course). It was nice to spend some time with Lori Anne Wardi, Juan Diego Calle, Nicolai Bezsonoff, and Juan Palacio.

It was also great to finally meet Robert Cline, whose corner office has the best views of Biscayne Bay…

just kidding 🙂

Last night, Adage reported that Overstock “is stepping back from the O.co name “for now,” though not abandoning it outright.” Earlier today, .CO Registry founder and CEO Juan Calle posted an interview with someone from Overstock and labelled the change of course “a blip on the radar.”

I think this has been discussed quite a bit already today, but because I received a few emails asking for my opinion, I am going to opine. Keep in mind that I am and always have been a .com buyer/seller, so take my opinion with the same grain of salt you’d take from any comment from the peanut gallery.

With all due respect, if you bought .CO domain names simply because one large internet retailer made the decision to rebrand with a .CO domain name, you didn’t make such a wise decision. Yes, I do think that there will be greater and faster consumer adoption of .CO (and any gTLD) with more and larger companies using and marketing the extensions as their own. However, the world is far larger than any one company and/or marketing campaign.

I believe there are still plenty of reasons to own and invest in .CO (or other ccTLD and gTLD) domain names, and I’ve said all along that my time horizon is likely 5 years +/- for .CO. Just like the Meet.ME sale, all it really takes is one company deciding to utilize an extension to make someone sell a domain investment profitably. That said, the  likelihood  of owning a particular domain name that a company will pay top dollar for is minimal – in any extension

I still think good .CO domain names purchased for good prices will turn out to be profitable investments, but buying one simply because one company made a big marketing campaign and name change announcement is short sighted.

The introduction and marketing of new gTLDs will be rife with ups and downs. A domain investor needs to analyze domain names, both left and right of the dot, and determine why a particular domain name would have value, how much value it would have, and who might want to buy it. Don’t invest in domain names because of what one company is doing. Buy them because you have a vision for what many companies and consumers may think in the future.

Just because a company like Bitly is using a .LY doesn’t mean you should go out and buy a bunch of Libya ccTLDs. You should invest in domain names because you have conviction that they are going to be more valuable than what you are paying.