1 Year to the day...

[Nigel]

...when Nominet put the .co.uk domain market into shutdown.

I don't know about the rest of you but we'd like to get back to normal - We haven't really invested any decent amount of money into new .co.uk domains since that day and I've no doubt that a lot of uk businesses are also holding off developing new .co.uk websites until the situation becomes clearer - or they've simply gone with a .com.

 

[Edwin]

...when Nominet put the .co.uk domain market into shutdown.

I don't know about the rest of you but we'd like to get back to normal - We haven't really invested any decent amount of money into new .co.uk domains since that day and I've no doubt that a lot of uk businesses are also holding off developing new .co.uk websites until the situation becomes clearer - or they've simply gone with a .com.

Until the direct.uk consultation was launched, I can't recall dropping more than half a dozen .co.uk domains since we started registering them. In the last year, we've dropped over 700 with plenty more still to come.

 

[Nigel]

Yes - we've been pruning quite heavily too. In percentage terms probably a bit more than you. I think the market will return to some normality in the next year - but there's no doubt that nominet have really damaged this market. I'm not sure if the poorer domains will ever recover but I think quality domains will come good again. We want to start buying nice domains again - I'm missing that aspect - just up to nominet now - but I don't have much confidence in their decision making - based on their past performance!

 

[Edwin]

We've picked up more .co.nz names in the last 12 months than .co.uk names, and we're only talking about 30 of the former, max!

 

[murph]

I've certainly stopped buying .org.uk's, but that's as much to do with G EMD update as it is Nom. I've tended too look at .coms a lot more than before Nom announced this bombshell, but I've still spent on . co.uk 's, so long as it has the earlier reg date.

 

[Nigel]

we've purchased just 4 new .co.uk domains in the last year. It's not worth investing in a dead market. It's been a truly dire year of .co.uk domain sales. Fortunately we'd had a good number of years trading up until 1st Oct 2012 and hadn't over extended ourselves. Thankfully we'd also reinvested some of our money in .com domains some years back and that market has reaped the benefit of nominet's madness.

 

[martin-s]

Music to their ears perhaps. Conspiracy theory?

 

[Nigel]

Music to their ears perhaps. Conspiracy theory?

some might say that the launch of direct.uk acted as a giant smokescreen to divert attention away from highly damaging revelations about nominet that appeared in national newspapers, tv and media reports just 6 weeks before the launch of direct.uk. So that's another conspiracy theory!

 

[foz]

And if Nominet decide not to proceed (this time), it will hang over the extension for some time. As a previous wholesale/reseller buyer, I won't be coming back to .co.uk with an open wallet.

 

[Stephen]

November

My email to Nominet about .uk was

As the .uk consultation has now closed, I would be grateful if you would publicly release the following information;

1. The number of responses received.
2. The number of Yes / No answers specifically on question 4a. ”Do you agree with the proposal to enable second level domain registration in the way we have outlined?”
3. On your website it is ambiguous whether you will be providing a summary of the feedback from an independent source such as Nomensa, as you did in v1 .uk to go alongside your own generated summary?
4. The date in November the board will meet to discuss your .uk findings and recommendations.

As always thank you in anticipation for your assistance.

The answer from Nominet today is as follows;

We are in the process of reviewing and analysing the feedback to the consultation. The information you have requested regarding the number of responses received and the breakdown of yes/no answers to question 1a will be included in the summary which will be published in due course. You will appreciate that this will be provided to all stakeholders at the same time.

Our board meeting dates are not currently published and so I am unable to help as regards your request.

Still no idea about Nomensa summary?

 

[MJT]

There has certainly been a few bargains to be had on DomainLore of late, reflecting the lack of confidence in the .co.uk market at the moment.

For me, one of the main attractions of investing heavily in .co.uks has been the relatively low registration/renewal cost compared to .coms, but if you end up having to reg both the .uk and .co.uk to have something worth selling on, you're suddenly looking at £15+VAT for two years compared to the current £6+VAT or so for a .co.uk. When you can pick up a .com with a potentially global market for around £12+VAT for two years, the UK market suddenly looks a lot less attractive.

I've been domaining as a bit of a hobby since 2006, and all but one of my four-figure sales have come from .coms, despite them only accounting for about 20% of my portfolio. (The .co.uks generally attract the classic £50 max offer on Sedo, with the lowest offer I've received by email for a .co.uk being a princely £20!)

I've just spent the afternoon reviewing the 370 names I've somehow accumulated, and will definitely be letting a lot of the .co.uks go over the next year or so to concentrate on the .com market (steering well clear of all the new TLDs, having just discovered a number of .eu and costly .me domains lurking in my portfolio that I'd completely forgotten about!).