.CO Hits 2 Million Registrations

Because .CO keeps its registration numbers private, I haven’t been able to keep track of how many .CO domain names are currently registered. I just learned that there are now over 2 million registered .CO domain names.

According to a press release I received from Neustar, the company that operates the .CO domain registry, “.CO has surpassed 2 million total domain names under management.” Interestingly, the growth rate for new registrations grew from 10 percent in 2014 to 18 percent in 2015. I would imagine quite a bit of this strong growth is due to investment from Chinese domain name buyers. I don’t know if there is an easy way to track how much of an impact the Chinese market has had on registration numbers though.

In addition to the Chinese registration component, .CO has been very well accepted in the startup space. My perspective is that there is still a “coolness” factor associated with .CO domain names. For instance, Taco Bell recently announced a TA.CO website launch and social marketing campaign. Other major Internet companies like Twitter and Google also prominently use .CO domain names.

Congratulations to Neustar and the .CO management team on this achievement.

Here is the press release I received:

.CO hits 2 million domains as premium sales surge
Five years from global launch and .CO is still growing strong

STERLING, VA, — Neustar, Inc. (NYSE:NSR), the operator of the .CO Top-Level Domain, today announced that .CO has surpassed 2 million total domain names under management, with new domain registration growth accelerating from 10 percent in 2014 to 18 percent in 2015.

“Since its global launch five years ago, .CO continues to grow and has become the domain name of choice for innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses in more than 200 countries around the world,” said Sean Kaine, Vice President of Registry at Neustar.

He noted that global brands like Twitter (t.co and Vine.co), Google (g.co and campus.co) and Taco Bell (ta.co) have all helped to bring mainstream awareness and adoption to .CO.

This is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of innovators, entrepreneurs and startups that every year choose .CO as the domain for their business, including high profile organizations like 500 Startups (500.co), Angel List (Angel.co), Up Global (Up.co) and Common Bond (CommonBond.co) to name just a few.

While Neustar’s portfolio of .CO premium domain names has consistently enjoyed high demand from big brands and funded Silicon Valley startups, the last quarter has also seen a sharp rise in demand from Chinese investors. Interest from China has been particularly strong in connection with two character number-number and letter-letter premium domain names.

Facts about the 2 million .CO domain names
· In 2010, .CO had 28,000 domain name registrations. Surpassing 2 million registrations represents a greater than 7,000% increase in growth since the global launch of the namespace.
· The .CO renewal rate continues to show high usage of domains in a similar fashion to the industry standard, at around 50% for first year renewals and increasing to 80% for domains registered for more than five years (i.e. domains that have been renewed more than five times since 2010).
· .CO is a global namespace, with 50% of registrations coming from the US, 11% from the UK, 5% from Colombia, 4% from Canada and 3% from India.

With over 3 billion Internet users around the world, and increasing demand for short, memorable, domain names, Mr. Kaine said he expects demand for .CO to continue among startups, innovators and entrepreneurs – especially in growing economies like India and China.

“Even in the face of hundreds of new Top-Level Domains entering the market, today’s milestone is a testament to the fact that startups, innovators and entrepreneurs from around the globe continue to adopt .CO web addresses at a rapid pace,” Mr. Kaine said.

“.CO is where big ideas belong on the web and our data demonstrates that this will continue to be the case.”