Why I Believe Overstock Has “Become O.CO”

In a pretty surprising  announcement today in a press release, Overstock.com Chairman and CEO  Patrick Byrne commented, “We have become O.CO.” Byrnes went on to say, “As a lifestyle destination, consumers can find absolutely anything on O.CO whether they are shopping for furniture, bedding, clothing, and jewelry, buying a car or home, and, soon, looking for their next vacation spot.”

It’s not often that a large retailer announces a re-branding effort like this, and it looks like the company may be ahead of the curve, as .CO will go more mainstream during the Super Bowl. The press release mixed Overstock.com and O.CO, and I think we will probably see a lot more O.CO and less Overstock.com in the near future, as using both would probably be harmful to the brand as that would be confusing.

In my opinion, Overstock has become much more than a company that sells overstocked items cheaply, as the brand name suggests. By transitioning to O.CO, the company that has done it’s best to become known as the big O, will now become the big O.

In a way, it’s similar to how Kentucky Fried Chicken moved towards the KFC branding when fried foods became a negative stigma in the US.

With the marketing efforts of the .CO Registry supporting companies like Overstock and Go Daddy, I think we are going to see more companies using .CO domain names in the next few years.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

115 COMMENTS

  1. Definitely a move that will pay off as .CO becomes more and more mainstream. Not to mention the countless small sized/startup companies (that often don’t even own the .com) being already up and running with their .CO. As I wrote on TheDomains.com, you can have an idea of this by typing in Google’s search bar the following:

    site:co LLC
    site:co GMBH (for Germany)
    site:co SARL (for France)

    etc.

  2. Hello Elliott,

    Anyone who buys .co , better pony up their very expensive Attorney contacts ! The .com Brand Channel is going to defend their Top Brand position. Ultimately .com prevails ! Just wait till other Biggies cannot get .co . Think very seriously before you get yourself in a losing proposition !

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  3. Joe, I really really apologize (has nothing to do with you) but I need to do this. You’ll see the reason when I write the blog post later. But here’s your statement again with replacements:

    Definitely a move that will pay off as .CC becomes more and more mainstream. Not to mention the countless small sized/startup companies (that often don’t even own the .com) being already up and running with their .CC. As I wrote on TheDomains.com, you can have an idea of this by typing in Google’s search bar the following:

    site:cc LLC
    site:cc GMBH
    site:cc SARL

    Definitely a move that will pay off as .MOBI becomes more and more mainstream. Not to mention the countless small sized/startup companies (that often don’t even own the .com) being already up and running with their .Mobi. As I wrote on TheDomains.com, you can have an idea of this by typing in Google’s search bar the following:

    site:mobi LLC
    site:mobi GMBH
    site:mobi SARL

    And on and on. Go actually check and be sure to note the results count.

  4. @ John

    Are the .mobi and .cc registries spending millions of dollars to make sure consumers are aware of these extensions like the .CO Registry is?

    The answer is a resounding “no.”

    In a few weeks, millions of people will learn about .CO during the Super Bowl commercial. Similarly, a company like Overstock is becoming O.CO as you can see above.

    PS: mobi means nothing, and cc only means “closed captioning” or “carbon copy”. CO actually means something to millions of companies who go by XYZ, Co.

  5. “Anyone who buys .co , better pony up their very expensive Attorney contacts ! The .com Brand Channel is going to defend their Top Brand position.”

    @ Jeff

    Sounds scary… aside from the recent PokerStrategy.CO UDRP, it would be interesting to hear what other legal issues you’re aware of that impact generic/descriptive .CO domain names. From what you’re saying, I would imagine you know of a number of legal issues facing .CO owners, and since I know of none right now, I’d be interested in learning what you know.

    Are you just speculating, or is your concern based on actual facts?

  6. Not anymore. They’ve already cashed in.

    Honestly, I’ve got nothing against .co and really wish the investors success in their endeavor. Really! 🙂

    I will try to explain my position in a little while.

    Elliott, I’m deep and dirty down in the trenches. I spend an enormous amount of time brokering and feeling the pulse of your average small business. It’s one of the reason’s I have not been able to write as much. I’m now taking some time out to do just that!

  7. “Not anymore. They’ve already cashed in.”

    @ John

    Strange, because I just got an email from GoDaddy with a tease about the GoDaddy.CO girl that will be revealed in an upcoming, multi-million dollar Super Bowl commercial. I don’t think they’ve cashed anything in yet… They have also pre-paid for advertising for the year, and I know their campaigns will continue throughout this year.

    “Elliott, I’m deep and dirty down in the trenches. I spend an enormous amount of time brokering and feeling the pulse of your average small business. ”

    @ John

    With no disrespect, I spend a lot of time and money buying domain names every day, and I can’t recall seeing any email from you brokering domain names. What are some of the names you have under contract right now?

  8. @John
    No problem. Unlike those extensions you mentioned, you have companies of every kind and every size acquiring and advertising their .CO domains: from giants like Overstock, Twitter, Fender, Armani to next door shops. And, as Elliot correctly pointed out, you also have a registry that’s spending huge amounts of money to promote it. Obviously other registries could have made the same efforts. Why didn’t they? My personal answer is they didn’t believe their extensions had the right potential to become blockbuster TLDs.

  9. Just curious…

    I’ve never seen/heard an O.co commercial (are they out yet?) but how are they pronouncing it?

    Are they saying “O” or, “O dot Co” or are they simply calling themselves “O Co” (like ‘Loco’ but without the L)

  10. @Elliott

    “With no disrespect, I spend a lot of time and money buying domain names every day, and I can’t recall seeing any email from you brokering domain names. What are some of the names you have under contract right now?”

    Oh brother, Elliott, this is not about a pissing contest with you lolol 🙂

    I didn’t say Godaddy cashed in!

    I said .mobi and .cc did…

    Just to answer your questions anyway:

    1> You have received emails occasionally (not direct from me) – I utilize other broker’s mailings. Their list to domainers and some endusers are much larger.

    2> Enduser sales (mainly my own names, 80% – 90% of the pay is better) and sometimes when others asked me BUT 10% commission from others ain’t so hot)

    Do you have any .co?

  11. @ John

    I don’t see any pissing contest breaking out. I asked a question about what names you have under contract since you’re “down in the trenches.” Maybe I’d want to use your services on some of my domain names. It’s just a curious statement since I don’t remember seeing your name anywhere or meeting you at a domain conference, and I’ve met just about all of the bigger brokers in the biz in person.

    Anyway, to answer your question, I have a very small portfolio of .CO names:

    Bahamas.co (developed)
    Torah.co
    Elliot.co
    CMM.co
    VideoSlots.co
    Another.co
    BeeB.co

  12. The .com players won’t buy a .Net or .org for a development

    Same case with .co.

    Traffic to .com and owners will appreciate you very much

    English typo.co you will see many udrp filings. Are owners willing to speculate this and defend your name? 10 , 30 names ? LOL. Exactly

    Buy the .com.

    Most hype extension out there just like how .mobi was back in 07.

    Risky play for overstock. Amazon is laughing to the bank.

  13. @John

    I’m afraid .CC and .MOBI registries spent a fraction of what .CO’s is spending because, as I said, they didn’t believe in their own extension’s potential, so they cashed in what they could, hence today we’re seeing where they are 🙂

  14. Not exactly Elliot. Same mindset of hype and speculation. Prices and who is buying at over priced names. History has proven in speculation and this will be proven again.

    Domainers go to las Vegas and place your bets on roulette wheel. You will have better odds

    Long live the .com.

  15. @ domainers

    What are some over priced .co names that you’ve seen sell?

    IMO, there have been far less domainer .co buys than I expected and much less than the crazy heady days of .mobi (like music.mobi, flowers.mobi, scores.mobi….etc). I remember one auction that did hundreds of thousands in mobi sales and I don’t see anything like that for .co at all.

  16. All the .co auctions and soon the big sedo future auction with bidding and pure speculation

    I’m all for extensions besides .com but this .co speculation is going a bit much.

    A year from now godadddy will be hyping up a different extension.

    Its ok buy a few .co for speculation but 50k on junk is a bad play

    Agree or disagree Elliot. We have different views on this.

  17. @domainers

    Why do you think “co” was choosen in so many countries (whose language isn’t necessary English) for .co.ccTLD? The difference between .CO and all other TLDs you’re referring to is that ‘CO’ means company worldwide, which is all business is about, while all other TLDs really have irrelevant or no meaning at all.

  18. @ domainers

    Just because they’re priced at what you might think is a high valuation, doesn’t mean they will sell… I don’t see tons of speculation. IMO, it’s been very quiet on the aftermarket. With .mobi, people were buying like crazy. Same as the 4 letter .com craze of a couple years ago. Shit names were selling for big bucks.

    You can still hand register 3 letter .co names. That’s a sign of a fairly tepid aftermarket right now and doesn’t jive with your argument of hype.

  19. From my perspective this was simply a smart branding decision on the part of Overstock and their choice of extension makes sense.

    This is one isolated instance of a large corporation adopting the .Co extension, and to infer anything else like it’s going “mainstream” is strictly speculation.

    In light of the PokerStrategy UDRP decision and the instability factor of any ccTLD, I would use caution before investing heavily in that particular extension.

  20. .co for company is as bad of a comparison to google tv for .tv extension or terms like video centric sites

    .co is Columbia. Great. So buy spanish generics if anything. Plus google will impact search Traffic in English names for .co in future. Drunk typing in URL for adult can be a good choice

    To each there own I guess or conflict of interest or hype.

    A year from now the prices on generic .co will be down min 50 percent. Mark my words.

  21. @Dean

    Going mainstream doesn’t mean all companies rebrand themselves to .CO at all. It means the general public becomes aware of the extension and adopts it.

  22. .CO can be only the ccTLD of Columbia as .org can be only the TLD for non-profit organizations like that which bought Poker.org for $1,000,000 several months ago? 🙂

  23. @Elliot

    Oh okay, text didn’t do your statement justice 🙂

    When I start posting more, you’ll see I march to a very different drummer and set my own rules. Then you’ll understand not seeing me or meeting me as a broker. Andrew Allemann from Domain Name Wire has met me locally in Austin. So, I’m real! lol

    Let me put it this way without giving away my niche too much with the “how”: it’s Enduser to Enduser sales. I’ve been slowly building it out, It’s painful and can be some dry periods, but it’s lucrative. I do not dare report sales. There’s a long list of reasons behind that.

  24. The purchase of O.Co just happened to coincide with the “re-branding” of the extension.

    The hypes, yes hype, of the Overstock re-branding coincides with The Godaddy Commercial and Sedo’s auction. Bloggers that have a vested interest in the extension are shouting from the rooftops the merits of the extension.

    Yes, there is a term for it, it’s called marketing hype.

  25. @ Dean

    I have very little vested interest. I am not paid any more or less for articles mentioning .co.

    I also derive a majority of my income from buying and selling domain names, not blogging. Just about all of my domain sales are .com. Actually, All of my domain sales are .com.

    If/when .co domain sales pick up, I will be a buyer. Hype or no hype, I buy domain names to sell them for higher prices. Once there are some big public .co sales on the books, and when I see companies using .co domain names in the market place (and advertising them), I will buy.

  26. @Joe

    Again, apologies for reposting your statements with a twist, I was too lazy to rewrite it! 🙂

    Now your statement about the .cc and the .mobi registrars not believing in their extensions? I’m not so sure.

    .CC is technically better since it was on one key. I don’t own any .cc’s by the way lol

    I kept seeing their little text style commercials briefly at the end of TV shows (this was when I lived in Baltimore years ago) – This was hundreds of times.

    .mobi – I really don’t know what they did – I did see bank of america and CNN use it briefly then they went back.

    Also keep in mine Joe, That they were pioneers – They had no blue print with “How to be the first to launch a TLD successfully” as the title.

    .CO are not pioneers – They have a “what not to do when launching a TLD” as the title.

    We all know what happens to pioneers MOST of the time:
    They get killed or eat (cannibalize) each other!

    I’m gonna say this, and I know this will really piss people off. This is not me, but people (not all! )I’ve talked to outside of our domainer universe.

    When I asked, how about using a .co instead of a .com, the majority said, and really I’m not making this up, it looked like a typo. One even said it looked “like a half-eaten loaf of bread” regardless of the benefits being touted.

    Remember, I’ve not talked to everyone!

  27. I’ve decided to not listen to what anyone has to say anymore, whether it’s hype or criticism. Any forecasts about an extension that’s barely 6 months old are going to be filled with speculation and personal opinions.

    Case in point – just yesterday I stumbled across a post on Berkens’ blog that was about two years old, with the following comments about .ME:

    “I wouldn’t take those [auctioned names] for free.”
    “.ME is so ‘yesterday”
    “It’s a fad.”

    Well, it may have started out as a gimmicky extension, but tell that to AOL. People were calling it crap two years ago, and just recently MHB posted that the two names he receives the most inquiries about are meet.me and date.me.

    .CC and .mobi have had plenty of time to prove themselves, and have failed in most people’s eyes. I’m not saying .CO is the second coming of anything, but I’d take it over .mobi and .CC in a heartbeat.

    * I just want to say this is mostly directed @John and @domainers and all the other people who seem so keen to putting the smackdown on .CO, with very little evidence to backup their arguments. People are entitled to their opinions, but I’m sure the people who posted that they didn’t want any of those gimmicky verb .MEs in 2008 are eating their words now.

  28. @ John

    The extension has been released for less than a year and I am sure most normal people don’t know what it is. This takes some time for them to learn about.

    If you asked people what Facebook was 2 years ago, you would have had blank stares.

    There is no reason for B of A to keep their mobi active. .mobi was introduced so people knew they could get a mobile friendly website from their cell phones. Smartphones came out and browsers can recognize that a person is on the phone, so they automatically optimize the experience, negating a purpose for .mobi.

  29. Also want to add one thing.

    I do have a big stake in this.

    In 3 years, we should know where .CO stands, and people can come back and see that I was either right or wrong.

    My reputation is on the line with every post I write here on every topic.

  30. @elliot

    Thats true!

    @Nadia –

    Not putting down .co – It may very well take off like a bat out of hell. Just be cautious and invest wisely. Thats all 🙂

  31. I have nothing against the extension itself or it’s potential value, but I recognize cloaked marketing tactics and PR stunts when I see them.

  32. A press release is a press release is a press release…
    ad nauseum…

    Trying to create hype around the buying and re-branding of O.Co just fits too neatly in some marketers agenda or timeline for me. They have milked it for all it’s worth, time to move on.

  33. @ Dean

    So do you think this publicly traded company, with millions of customers, should just change its name and not tell people? That would be pretty dumb from my perspective, and it certainly wouldn’t be in the best interest of its shareholders.

    Only time I can think of it being smart is AIG Auto changing to 21st Century Insurance virtually overnight. They didn’t want customers to see the AIG branding.

    In this case, it’s critical they re-brand slowly over time and let its customers know.

  34. Elliot your too smart and savvy to play stupid, it’s not becoming of you. If your still not getting my point, go back to my second comment down from the top.

  35. @ Dean

    Your argument is nonsensical. Of course they are going to spend lots of money on marketing. Overstock isn’t some random company that’s changing its name because of .CO Registry marketing. They are going with .CO for a reason and I predict that many other companies, especially small businesses, will use .co in the future.

  36. ccTLD’s will ALL rise in value due to .co’s upcoming success. Watch – big money will get behind .cc, .me, .vc, .ac, etc. – it’s absolutely coming.

    @Elliot,

    Bahamas.VC stands for “Bahamas Vacation Club” and will be ranked in Bing within ten days (watch :).

    What does Bahamas.co stand for, or mean? See? In this case, .VC outshines .CO.

    The Rise of the ccTLD’s is just ’round the corner, and it starts with the Super Bowl ad.

    – TBC

  37. “Trying to create hype around the buying and re-branding of O.Co just fits too neatly in some marketers agenda or timeline for me. They have milked it for all it’s worth, time to move on”

    “They” the operative word from my above statement, means .Co. They (.Co) has milked the O.Co sale and re-branding to Overstock for all it’s worth.

    Like I said, time to move on…

  38. “They (.Co) has milked the O.Co sale and re-branding to Overstock for all it’s worth.”

    @ Dean

    Did you even read the press release? Specifically at the bottom, you can read that Overstock put out the presser, not .CO:

    “SOURCE Overstock.com, Inc.”

  39. If I were one of you geniuses, I’d be looking at killer-keywords in other ccTLD’s (.vc, .cc, .ac, etc.). There are good domains just sitting there, unloved 🙂

    Elliot, before you go on your typical rant saying “if it were so hot, you wouldn’t be here advising people to look into other ccTLD’s!!!!”, remember, we only buy what we intend to someday develop, which is why we passed on Boston.vc.

    You don’t go looking for gold in a mine packed with a thousand other miners…you go find an empty mine and search until you find that perfect vein…then you take it 😉

    – TBC

  40. “If I were one of you geniuses, I’d be looking at killer-keywords in other ccTLD’s (.vc, .cc, .ac, etc.). There are good domains just sitting there, unloved :)”

    @ Credit.ac

    Keep on buying the garbage that nobody else wants. I will continue to buy the .com names I can flip a week later.

    I’ve been doing just fine for the last 7 years buying .com names in the aftermarket. I don’t spend a lot of time or effort hand registering new domain names.

  41. “@ Credit.ac

    Keep on buying the garbage that nobody else wants. I will continue to buy the .com names I can flip a week later.

    I’ve been doing just fine for the last 7 years buying .com names in the aftermarket. I don’t spend a lot of time or effort hand registering new domain names.”

    @ Elliot,

    Just so I’m clear as to your line of thinking: CMM.co, VideoSlots.co, Another.co, & BeeB.co were SMART BUYS, but LasVegas.VC, Bahamas.VC, Credit.AC, Jamaica.VC, and Caribbean.VC were STUPID BUYS? Why? Because of one Godaddy commercial? I’m using .VC as a hack, to stand for “Vacation Club”…everyone I know thinks it’s a brilliant plan.

    I paid $39 for Bahamas.VC. Just curious, how much did Bahamas.co cost you? Within 18 months, Bahamas.VC will rank at least 25% higher on Alexa than Bahamas.co – and we paid $39 for the domain 😉

    – TBC

  42. Hey,
    I don’t work on Madison Avenue, but if I did I sure as hell would of been more slick and not created so flimsy a marketing stunt.

    🙂

  43. Bahamas.vc
    big cheese
    TBC
    You are all of thouse,Right?
    i saw that you bought a lot of .co lately,good.Good for you,i will not make a comment on the domains you bought …i just want you to acknowledge to all of us the fact that you have change your thinking in hebrew it’s called “metanoia” in regards to .CO extension,that’s all.
    Can you do that?Do you have that power?

  44. @ Credit

    I am glad everyone you know thinks it’s brilliant. Hopefully they aren’t snickering behind your back.

    Bahamas.CO cost me $0. I bid on it as part of the Founders Program, and it was free. Everyone had the same opportunity to write up a RFP, and I blogged about that more than once.

    The obligation I have/had is to develop the website, which I did and would have done had I paid for it.

    Your marketing costs, to let people know about your “vacation club” will be much higher than mine.

    BTW, Bahamas.CO gets Google search traffic, so there is life.

  45. @Rich,

    Absolutely. After doing some digging, we see tremendous potential in ALL ccTLD’s, including .co.

    ccTLD’s will rank in Google, ALL of them – don’t let any of these .com lovers tell you otherwise. I’ve seen the proof for myself.

    – TBC

  46. @ cheese, credit, bahamas

    How much have you spent on hand registering these alternative extensions in the last year? Do you think you could have added that all together and bought one significant .com name and flipped that for 2-3x your cost? I bet you could have, and I also bet those hand registered names would still be available now if you hadnt bought them… could have doubled or tripled your investment without much of a loss.

  47. @Elliot,

    I agree, but we don’t buy domains to sell them later. We only buy those which we see future development potential by us. There are six guys here running a small biz-consulting shop. We use excess profits to purchase domains for future development – and we see the most potential in ccTLD’s. I respect your stance on ccTLD’s, but I have a feeling you are being blinded to new opportunity by your experience and will miss out on the next domain-paradigm-shift, which is keyword-ccTLD’s.

    Good luck to you.

    – TBC

  48. @ Cheese

    As I’ve said before, I would rather pay $2,000 in 5 years for a ccTLD that I know I can make liquid if necessary than spend $200 in renewals over 5 years renewing a name that might not be worth anything to anyone. I wouldn’t buy Boston.vc now for $39 because in a year from now, I know I will be faced with a decision to renew a name that hasn’t earned any revenue and is just a sunk cost.

    PS: I believe you’ve said you’re making money on crap like Burbank.cc or that they;re getting lots of traffic. If that is true to any degree you’d grab every thing you could in those cctlds and figure out a way to monetize that.

    If you found a bank of slot machines that never lost, you’d be an idiot to tell others where those machines are located.

    Just for credibility purposes, your direct quote was:

    “Is there a Burbank Comm. College or something that used to have Burbank.cc? Ever since I hand-reg’d that domain for a future clothing label, I’ve gotten CRAZY traffic. There are no links for that domain on the web that I can find, but I’m getting like 300+ hits per day just on Burbank.cc – I’m stumped.”

    and I call BULLSHIT on that, unless you are referring to any traffic that came as a result of my blog, and I doubt 300 people a day would visit your site just to see what you have there.

  49. @Elliot,

    You only bet on sure things, whereas we take a few chances – it’s just a difference of perspective…I’ll leave it at that.

    We have gotten traffic as a result of this blog and others – you should expect that.

    – TBC

  50. @ Cheese

    I wish all of my domain acquisitions were sure things. There’s risk with every investment, but my research and knowledge helps make my investments as sure as possible.

    I still think your “300+ hits per day” is BS.

    Any chance you’d be willing to send me a screenshot of your analytics? That way I won’t think of you as a BSer.

  51. @Elliot,

    We have all of our domains pointing to the same landing page and ever since the Burbank.CC registration, our traffic HAS spike by about 300 uniques per day (about a 10% jump), but it could be attributed to domains other than Burbank.CC – we have no way of knowing for sure – there are over 100 domains pointing to the same page. We don’t do a very good job tracking our traffic because it’s not really that important to us, the affiliate cash is nice though 😉

    – TBC

  52. @TBC

    The problem with your “Vacation Club” is you’re the only one in the world stating that .VC stands for that. So, in order to make the extension gain the success you wish, you’d need to invest at least a fraction of all the money and efforts the .CO registry, GoDaddy, Twitter, Overstock, etc. (combined) have been putting in practice to promote the TLD.

  53. @ Cheese

    Alexa is easy to game, especially above higher than 50,000. All it takes is a few people with the Alexa bar to skew numbers considerably. You’ve already said you’re a team of 6.

  54. @ Cheese

    Look more unique to who? How would people even find you if you’re only listed on Google.vc? The battle you are saying your team is going to fight will be long, costly, and has very little chance of success.

    IMO, the only way you do well is if you buy property in the Bahamas and advertise it on Bahamas.vc and hope that people pass it know that Bahamas.vc is actually a url.

  55. Google.vc? What the hell are you talking about?

    Bahamas.vc will be listed on google.com within 12-months, max…for relatively little financial investment on our part. This idea that .vc won’t rank on google.com, but .co will is misguided.

    – TBC

  56. I still don’t get it. When i go to someones blog and disagree with them just once, as TBC is doing here, post after post, I get banned from the site. This guy is constantly promoting his domains here, and picking on the host, and he is encouraged. I don’t know about domainers!

  57. @ Uzoma

    You’re not banned… you said you’d leave and I said that was okay with me 🙂

    Just like Cheese suddenly appeared, I imagine he will just as suddenly disappear.

  58. @TBC

    Bahamas.vc will be indexed for sure in Google.com but ranking it within the first 4-5 pages… things are pretty difficult. Good luck with that.

  59. @Joe,

    We have a specific business plan which leans heavily on marketing venues outside of google for Bahamas.VC, Jamaica.VC, Caribbean.VC, Island.VC, and LasVegas.VC.

    Three years from today, if you are the typical island/vegas traveller, you will have heard about all of the above .vc domains.

    – TBC

  60. No disrespect intended, but we would NOT do an even trade of Bahamas.VC for Bahamas.Co, simply because the .VC suits our needs better than .Co – I imagine many companies will put the high prices asked for .com’s under greater scrutiny going forward – especially after .co takes off and lifts the tide for all ccTLD’s.

    – TBC

  61. When I finally launch the Geo .ME we spoke about the other day (which I’m not revealing now), I hope I have the chutzpah to blatantly self-promote it as much as you do. I really enjoyed our conversation, but I have to say, you have it down to a science.

  62. The Big Cheese -(the odor, phew)

    I personaly think The Big Cheese has a small one …

    on and on about how great his DUMB domain choices are …

    try so hard.

    Classic Wimp!

  63. SAVE YOUR U D R P MONEY UP:

    Bad faith is Bad Faith, I have always said that about .Co
    (GAZZUP SAID IT FIRST)

    .CO is a intentional marauder that wants to steal .Com traffic
    by way of impersonation and confusion.

    What would IBM be with out the M
    a typo fake designed to mislead consumers.

    Just owning .Co is bad faith, period!

    Save your pennies … WERE COMING AFTER YOU!

  64. You guys are funny.. some are trying to compare .co to other extensions, others are just trying to put it down because their bread and butter comes from .com or similar TDLs. .co and .com are 2 different things, it’s liek comparing oranges to apples 🙂
    I just don’t think it is a big of deal as an investment anyway (except if you bulk invest).
    I paid $300 for 10 .co names, which i think are fair names.
    what’s the worst that could happen? if I sell one name after the superbowl, I will probably making my bucks back and a 9 remaining names to sell. We should appreciate what other big money companies are contributing to boost the .co. (overstock, godaddy…).
    Good luck guys & girls!

  65. @ Nodick

    i paid $300 for 10 .co names, which i think are fair names.
    ==========================

    You are just the funniest ever …

    Must have been hard to but 10 fair one’s without

    getting a good one..

    Keep the advice up, Dingo!

  66. Can we please move the comments beyond “it’s going to die like dot xyz” or “it’s better than .com” and have some healthy discussion on how to grow the .co extension. The same comments for six moths are tired. It’s here. Godaddy is behind it, Overstock has chosen to get on board. Here is what I think .co holders need to do in order of importance.

    1. Sell to end users at a reasonable price. Geo.co’s for under $1,000 to realtors all day long.
    2. Mini site develop to get out of the sand box.
    3. Hold a few big ones back for high profit sales down the road.

    Any other positive ideas? Please don’t tell me I’m an idiot, I already made 3x on my entire .co investments and have many left.

  67. I wonder if the Big 3 auto makers felt the same about their solid foothold on the market as the .com folks do today? Gm at one point not to long ago had over 40 percent market share.. Here comes along .tv and .co I mean Toyota and Kia and Hyundai… Yes .com has top of mind awareness and years of marketing dollars but then again so did ford before Gm and so on and so on… I believe just like my example in the auto industry … There will be a shift … Not just dilution But a shift in what end users and young fresh thinking marketing execs choose as their domains going forward. just my opinion .. I like .com , .tv even.info for that matter.. Branding .co will be easy ..it’s not just a typo and if marketed correctly will preform as well as any other..

  68. The “hype” is now over. If you missed the boat, oh well, there will be other opportunities out there. No need to be bitter. R. Schwartz gave a lot of hints when he said “follow the money”. The main point is that .co is not a tough sell. It has legs. In the internet world of viral marketing, 6 months is not that long of a time especially when you think that there are start-up sites that are gaining hundreds of thousands of visitors within mere weeks. We are not talking physical real estate here. This is something totally different.

    @Bfitz

    Righto. Time to get beyond those fruitless arguments.

    @Phil

    Righto. The market is not static and it seems many people are assuming that. It is a dynamic entity which has to be respected. If some people think that everything always stays the same, they might do well to study history a little closer.

    @Landan

    The bad faith argument will never work in the big picture. If that were the case, there would be no more new extensions and free enterprise would go out the window. This will never happen.

  69. ‘O.Co’ is a two syllable pronounciation ‘O – Co’, is absolutely brandable, can be used in all major languages, and therefore will permit the (attempted) global branding of the company. The move makes perfect sense to me, but then again I have always been considered as thinking outside the box, and sometimes way way outside. 🙂

  70. I always make the twin comparison. If you have a couple of twin (or very similar looking) brothers or sisters, you can make confusion in recognizing each one while you don’t know them, but once you get to know both pretty well, they will be two totally different people to you.

    Once the general public embraces “the less known brother” (maybe some of the naysayers will prefer calling it a 6th degree cousin :)), nobody will be considering each one a confusingly similar copy of the other, hence the bad faith argument will vanish.

    Let’s be clear: .com is and will be the king, nobody has said there isn’t enough space for both in the Internet.

  71. @Bill

    To have “global” thinking is not a crime and is actually quite refreshing and progressive. It’s easy for “English-centered” people to only think in a narrow way. “O.co”, multilingually speaking, is good for almost every country.

    @Elliot

    Your KFC analogy is a pretty good one. They might be trying to move away from one stigma or another that has been hurting growth.

  72. Where are all the “.CO means Colombia” people, women and gentlemen! And where did all the “Where going to get you, squatters” people come from!

    My only fear is that Calle and .CO does not have a plan as grand as the launch plan for the years to come (IMO .CO is still launching.)

    If they are still thinking big however, and are not the most sneaky crooks ever to walk the planet, .CO will be an unmatched success, period.

    Keep going and think ahead – there is a window of opportunity!

  73. BSer’s they are!

    I think it is clear by now that CHEESE, etc is a KID!

    6 teenies in there bedroom after school with mamas c/card

    There BS is so lame, its like talking to your self

  74. Good bye to Overstock.com.

    “O.CO”?

    That’s not a brand, that a “cough”. I predict this move will fall flat on its face.

    There are still thousands of powerful descriptive .COM domain available, and I guarantee that 98% of the public has NEVER HEARD OF .CO.

    They’ll be typing in “O.com” and not getting anything. I could be wrong, and that wouldn’t be something new.

  75. Hi Elliot,

    Just looked at Bahamas.co you did a great job.

    I bought 25 .co names like anything else its a risk but i am
    comfortable with this risk.

    Take care,
    Richard

  76. To all the FAKERS above..

    Masterbating to dreams about the future …

    i made 10k today while you were wanking

    on about what might happen ….

    Invest in toilet paper and get your moneys worth!

  77. .mobi was hyped crazily, The Telecoms were behind it, They made us believe it was the future of wireless related domains, ..Anyways the corps are pretty upset having to kiss domainers a$$es for traffic and have arrogantly tried to take them away from domainers by spending much more $$ suing them and losing rather than paying a dime. They especially don’t like to share, Rarely do you hear of a company giving up market share, without something big in return. .CO is a 4th down 10 seconds left in the Superbowl kinda play for The Big Boys. The best they will be able to do in my opinion is beat out .org and .net to be number 2 And that is incredible but still no cigar cause .com will still be #1 , Now most .com owners don’t worry so much about protecting their asset with other extensions like they did 10 years ago. But I can definitely see people buying the .CO for protection rather than for development. …Overstock still owns the .com which forwards to the .co so they’re not making a make or break kinda move. And if you go to overstock.com you will see the .COM in big Letters and The .CO in very small letters underneath. A 1 letter .co is nice but how many of those to go around ? Heres a question for you and I believe your answer would be obvious,. Would you TRADE your .COM for a .CO ?

  78. @T

    Who would even think about it? .co is .co. .com is .com. Comparing .com to .co is irrelevant. .com is a golden extension. The big winners are the people owning the best 20% of .coms. Those prices will continue to skyrocket along with .co values. The losers here are those who own the other 80% unbranded/unused .coms. With all the new Tlds, those values are going to decrease rapidly.

    @RED Dawn

    Why even bother with such remarks? Hubris is a quite a flaw.

  79. Look the bottom line is that more and more things are being done on a mobile

    and

    O.CO is a lot faster to type and get to than that other name

    which brings me to the point that .CO has another huge advantage over .COM

    is the fact that

    it is a lot faster to get to on a mobile

    .CO is much faster to get to than a .COM

  80. In fact,

    O.CO web page is faster downloading as well.

    If we are talking about bit size, and download speed is dependent also on the amount to download,

    the whole site is faster because you have less bits to download.

    Yes, we are talking about fractions of a second but for someone browsing within the site, it can add up to a lot of time saved.

  81. @ THE BIG CHEESE:

    In 1990, I was working with a small development group who SWORE that the “internet” was going to be huge. Really. And there were no browsers, just UNIX code. I didn’t know much about it, so I kinda ignored it until 1993, when I hosted the first conference ever regarding INTERNET promotions, called the “ONLINE AMERICA CONFERENCE”. Sounds familiar, huh.

    It was less than a year later when AOL was formed. My client was short of cash, and nobody that came to that conference I produced BELIEVED that what they were saying about global info exchange was possible. They didn’t see the potential in the INTERNET growth because at that time, NO BROWSERS WERE CREATED. The means that the infamous NETSCAPE browser was available, and shortly thereafter, the Microsoft browser appeared. I’m not going to review that battle here, but you can tell who won.

    Yes, I was there when the power of the internet was born, based on the creation of BROWSER PROGRAMS that allowed users to see and utilize the content that inspired these users to ramp it up.

    I was there when the earliest pioneers of the the internet were working… and I will remain quiet about that info.

  82. Elliot, had not been to your site in a while.

    Don’t hate.

    As such, I was not aware that you had posted about O.co.

    I just recently made a post about actually seeing a television commercial by Overstock on the rebranding to O.co.

    It was actually quite well done, perhaps a 30 second spot, a spokesmodel with a pleasant voice, no montage or superimposed product…just straight and to the point…

    It was on HGTV while I was watching either “Holmes on Homes” or “International House Hunters”.

    It caught my eye not because I am a domainer (I am) but mainly because it was very well done and very well timed and very well placed on a network that is very designer and decor oriented.

    The point is that while it may not have appeared on mainstream television or networks (yet), it was very appropriately placed on the network where it’s market thrives.

    There’s a lot to be said about this and how it relates to domains and websites…there is no need to pump funds into every market to have the total market blanketed. A few well placed ads in your select top niche markets. Doing so will perhaps generate some business and revenue that will enable you to continue your marketing and reach.

    So, bravo for O.co. Moreso, bravo for demonstrating your marketing strategy and savvy.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Adds Escrow.com as a Payment Option

1
Squadhelp has added Escrow.com as a payment option for buyers. The addition of the Escrow.com option was shared by ARIYAS on X this morning: 👍...

Some Thoughts on .AI Domain Names

8
There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI...

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

11
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...