One Week On from Nominet .uk Announcement - Initial thoughts market reaction

[Brassneck]

Personally not seen any change in interest in my domains, but aware of a few who are saying postitive things since the Nominet announcement.

Are people feeling confident now about the future?

 

[websaway]

Personally not seen any change in interest in my domains, but aware of a few who are saying postitive things since the Nominet announcement.

Are people feeling confident now about the future?

I would say that not many businesses even know about the proposed changes.

I did notice no sales reported last week on dnjournal for co.uk's

The damage done will not get repaired overnight.

 

[Edwin]

Personally not seen any change in interest in my domains, but aware of a few who are saying postitive things since the Nominet announcement.

Are people feeling confident now about the future?

The tone on Twitter is very, very different (apart from a hardcore of people who are mainly referencing a couple of negative articles from well-known ecommerce blogs). And generally the media coverage (I'm including blogs as well as the larger, well-known outlets) has been much, much more positive than for V1 or V2, as well as much more widespread.

See http://www.mydomainnames.co.uk/articles.html for over 80 articles covering the forthcoming .uk introduction. I don't have time to do the kind of "sentiment analysis" I did in the run-up to V2, but it doesn't take much clicking around to see that broadly speaking the reaction's a lot better.

I've yet to see any change in the market, but I'm feeling significantly better about the future and I can see how the 5 year leeway before the .uk registration is required could really change the domain investment landscape - it lets one test the waters with all manner of "joint .co.uk/.uk" package deals without incurring any pre-sale costs for half of the package. I'm hopeful/reasonably confident that it will create enough of an uptick in sales, and in sales prices, to more than pay for the eventual reg/renewal fees.

 

[diablo]

I would say that not many businesses even know about the proposed changes.

I did notice no sales reported last week on dnjournal for co.uk's

The damage done will not get repaired overnight.

A week on, it really is just industry insiders who are aware of the forthcoming changes - I know it has appeared on the likes of the BBC, but again such articles are not of any interest to most people.

Come the official announcement in February, I think there will be increasing interest in .uk names and that interest will hopefully gather steam towards the launch in the summer.

Personally, I'm very bullish about .uk's prospects.

 

[aZooZa]

DL is a good place to check for trader sentiment. Looks somewhat healthier than than it did before the announcement.

 

[Brassneck]

DL is a good place to check for trader sentiment. Looks somewhat healthier than than it did before the announcement.

Yes that is the first place I always look - bit of an up tick there although from a pretty low base. If the market can back to critical mass hopefully sales will filter down to the reseller level again as sellers look to reinvest their cash with renewed confidence.

Stephen.

 

[julian]

I don't think there will be a real change in the market until one can actually reg these things and people start to see them in use day to day, which given the timescales we have probably means another 6/9 months of mild uncertainty.

 

[Stephen]

bit more interest...

Have had a bit more interest and a few .co.uk sales since .uk announcement.

But not enough money raised yet to put the heating on.

Sold 2 .co.uk today, on Sedo (and the day is not over) with buy it now priced at £250 each and both 3 words, different UK purchasers.

With direct enquiries I have started adding soft sale message on .uk.

If anybody can offer an improvement or can suggest better link to let the client see what .uk means, it would be appreciated.

As you may be aware Nominet have recently announced new .uk domains, under the rules set out, the owner of the domain you are interested in would be entitled to register <nameofdomain>.uk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25006066

With all the new GTLD.s coming out I think it is going to be patchy but overall feel that .uk will improve the prospects of selling .co.uk domains from now.

My Christmas wish is that Nominet remove the punitive £12 transfer (over 4 years reg fees) which stifles under £50 UK domains sales.
I think that would boost the bottom end of the market in reselling domains and improve renewal rates, as there would be more belief you would get your reg fee back from a £10 -£20 sale!