.CO

This is clearly a speculative matter, but I am wondering what you think i.CO might be worth in light of the recent news that Amazon bought A.CO, K.CO, and Z.CO. Please vote in the poll below.

Terms of that deal were not disclosed, so we don’t have  comparable, but I do understand that Amazon bought the domain names rather than having been awarded them. It can be assumed that these domain names will be used by the company in some way, although the usage hasn’t been disclosed yet.

We do know that e.CO sold at auction for over $80,000 in the first public sale of a single letter .CO domain name, and Overstock paid over $300,000 for O.CO.  Twitter was awarded T.CO, which they use as a url shortener, and Go Daddy was awarded X.CO, which is also used as a url shortener.

Moniker is currently brokering the i.CO domain name, and from what I understand, a number of companies have expressed an interest in acquiring the domain name. The initial plan was to auction the domain name, but they later changed it to a brokerage deal instead, figuring it would produce a higher value sale.

So what do you think i.CO is worth? Vote below:

This evening, I learned that Amazon secured A.CO K.CO and Z.CO from the .CO Registry. It’s very likely that Amazon will use A.CO for something related to the Amazon brand, K.CO for something related to the Kindle, and Z.CO for something related to Zappos. It also acquired Cloud.CO, which will likely be used for its hosting solution.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed to me, and I wouldn’t speculate on them either. Overstock paid over $300,000 for O.CO, while Twitter was awarded T.CO and Go Daddy was awarded X.CO (both of which are being used as url shorteners). It’s possible that the three one letter domain names will also be used as url shorteners, for the respective Amazon brands/products.

Regardless of any speculation, it’s very likely that these short domain names will actually be used, which is likely why Amazon was able to come to terms with the .CO Registry for these valuable domain names. From what I understand, the Registry is happy to work out deals for its most sought after domain names as long as they will be actually be used and be visible to a very large audience. This is important for the expansion of brand recognition and usage.

Congrats to the .CO Registry team for striking a deal, and I look forward to see what Amazon’s plans are for these names. If I was a betting person, I would anticipate they will be used and marketed in a visible manner.

A friend sent me something interesting and I thought it would be interesting to share for those who follow .CO developments as well as those who don’t think .CO has a chance of catching on in the “real world.” If you aren’t aware, Speedway is a popular motorcycle sport where the bikes have no brakes, can accelerate to 60 mph, and have just one gear. It’s a fairly popular sport throughout the UK.

According to the official British Speedway website (SpeedwayGB.CO), there are three speedway leagues in the UK:

• The Elite League (The top league).
• The Premier League (The middle League).
• The National League (The league to hopefully train the youngsters).

In the Elite League, there are ten professional teams. Each of these ten teams (except for one) uses a .CO domain name for official websites. In the Premier League, all 14 teams use .CO domain names. Similarly, in the National League, all ten teams use .CO domain names. The British Speedway also recently changed from .com to .CO.

According to the former Edinburg Monarchs team website, the team recently rebranded to the .CO domain name per instruction from the BSPA. It seems that almost all of others have done the same.

From my perspective, I would imagine they did this for a couple reasons. First and foremost is that with .CO, all of the names they needed were available to register, allowing them to maintain uniformity among all teams in the three leagues. Secondly, .CO would allow them to have more of an international branding rather than .co.uk, which is more limited to just the UK. Perhaps this was done  more so  for the first reason, but both reasons would make sense.

With speedway racing a very popular sport in the UK, this is pretty big for .CO and gives quite a bit of exposure to the masses.

Two friends of mine from Arizona submitted an interesting newspaper advertisement they saw from Chapman Ford in Scottsdale. The ad crosses out the m in .com, and states, “Arizona’s New Way to Go” which is used as a clear reminder that the dealership’s website is a .CO domain name rather than .com.

As you can see in the ad, Chapman Ford of Scottsdale uses ChapmanFord.CO, likely because Chapman Ford in Marysville, Ohio uses ChapmanFord.com for its website.  Interesting, ChapmanFord.US currently sits unregistered, while the .net and .org are registered and used by dealerships.

In my opinion, this usage illustrates why .CO is beneficial and why I believe .CO domain names are going to be much more commonly used in the next few years. When the .com is unavailable, the .CO makes sense, although you can see the company is certain to emphasize that they are .CO and not .com, which is important at this point in time.

I think this happens to be a smart move by Chapman Ford, and you can make a note on your calendar to check back in a year to see if they’re still using it. I recall that Bank of America used and promoted .mobi at one point, but that marketing seems to have disappeared.

Again, despite having a long term positive outlook for .CO, I am not currently buying additional .CO domain names for my portfolio.

Also, I am riding in a 44 mile bike ride today, so if your comment isn’t approved immediately, it will be posted upon my return.

Here’s some news that will surely excite .CO domain investors and potentially be a HUGE win for the .CO Registry.

NFL.com is reporting that the Oakland  Coliseum, home of the National Football League’s Oakland Raiders and Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics, has signed a deal with Overstock, and the stadium will be called Overstock.com  Coliseum.

So why is this interesting to the .CO Registry and domain investors who own .CO domain names?

Overstock is in the beginning stages of rebranding the company name to become known as O.CO. The NFL.com article makes note of this, and apparently, the agreement takes this into consideration. According to the article, “even the Overstock.com moniker is temporary because the company is in the process of rebranding itself as O.com.”

What this likely means is that as soon as Overstock has finished its rebranding efforts in the US, the stadium will be called O.CO Coliseum. According to a different report in BizJournals.com, the company has not made a final decision on this yet.

This is  publicity  money can’t buy. I am sure everyone at the .CO Registry is thrilled, and they should be very happy. Selling O.CO for $300k was the deal of the century.