.CO

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.

I read an article today, and I thought it might interest you. Business Insider interviewed Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne about the company’s turnaround, and among the topics in this wide ranging interview is the O.CO re-branding effort, which is has been covered at length by domain industry outlets.

I highlighted what I believe might be of interest to domain investors, particularly those who own or are thinking about buying .CO domain names:

“O.co is a shortcut to Overstock.com, with a different logo and layout. It has become our international name too.

“In television ads, we’ve introduced it as a shortcut to our domestic site, and if you type it in, you get free shipping.
The percentage of people who are typing it in is going up substantially, so you might see a new brand emerge. Or, you might see a brand morph from Overstock to O.co depending on how receptive the public is to it.”

“O.co is more consistent with how we’re trying to brand ourselves now, as a savings engine. It’s the simplest way to explain what we do.”

It’s an interesting interview that you should check out when you get a chance. It really digs into Overstock’s growth strategy and business history.