.UK Announced

[foz]

Also noticed today 595, yes 595 pure 3 letter .co.uk domains are for sale on this site for £167 each excluding VAT if you buy 6 or more.

Poor combinations though: j,k,q,u,v,x,y,z.

 

[Stephen]

Risk

Poor combinations though: j,k,q,u,v,x,y,z.

Agree, maybe some more to come before its all done (either way), sometime in June +, its not panic stations yet, is it?

Businesses react to risk in different ways.

 

[foz]

Agree, maybe some more to come before its all done (either way), sometime in June +, its not panic stations yet, is it?

Businesses react to risk in different ways.

Selling to the wrong crowd IMO, that is people with knowledge of direct.uk proposal. You would have to have balls of steel to sink more money into .co.uk at the moment. Money that you may need later for direct.uk.

 

[WealdDomains]

Do you think their is a connection with the above to the Nominet .uk proposal?

I think everyone will be influenced by their own personal combination/weighting of drivers, which may well include direct.uk uncertainty or their own assumption of the direct.uk outcome, but could also include personal economic situation, general economic climate, timing of renewals coming due, industry sales reports, actively deciding to thin holdings, Rick's recent post on diamonds, personal life events, etc, etc.

 

[getmein]

Given that one outcome of the proposals is that the cost to carry a current .co.uk portfolio will become:

Cost of .co.uk + Cost of .uk + Potential Cost of .uk Auction

On that basis I think we'll continue to see i) weakness in the secondary market ii) reduction in new .co.uk registrations iii) reduction in .co.uk renewals.

 

[Stephen]

I think everyone will be influenced by their own personal combination/weighting of drivers, which may well include direct.uk uncertainty or their own assumption of the direct.uk outcome, but could also include personal economic situation, general economic climate, timing of renewals coming due, industry sales reports, actively deciding to thin holdings, Rick's recent post on diamonds, personal life events, etc, etc.

Thanks for your sage like and genuine balanced view, it is much appreciated.

It may be that the catalyst to consider changes will be the uncertainity to do with the uk namespace, created by the Nominet .uk proposal.

We will never know for certain but if a growing trend in renewals / registrations / sales appears it would be more likely that the uncertanity is a major factor driving the uk domain market.

 

[tifosi]

Poor combinations though: j,k,q,u,v,x,y,z.

Agreed, didn't want to put anything in the sales thread. They've cherry picked their best ones and put the poor ones on this list.

Isn't a firesale, more of an opportunist sale. Angus & Giraffe don't do firesales! Many of these are unlikely to sell via normal enquiry methods for a long time, if ever.

 

[websaway]

Could we see some large registrars fail ? or a least squeezed till the pips squeak

Could it be that nominets strategy is to destroy the co.uk brand and leave no alternative but for a launch of .uk ?

Tuck 6 million away for the war of attrition.

 

[websaway]

You're all thinking like domainers with an addiction rather than business owners. You're getting ready for your new fix, yet even if .uk is released it will be just one of only four .uk extensions. A great domain is a great domain and there's many more buyers than domains so why the panic?

You're all talking the market into the grave.

I admire your positive attitude but confidence is such an important factor in any market.

 

[websaway]

This is like the US government selling all it's stocks of gold at market value just before announcing it has developed a formula for making it.

 

[getmein]

You're all talking the market into the grave.

Nominet are the one's creating the uncertainty that is affecting the market. Markets generally react to uncertainty in a negative way. There's obviously the possibility that at the end of this, the status quo will be maintained and those that did do some shopping in the intervening period have made some good purchases - but that's only one outcome.

 

[websaway]

I have certaintly dropped more .co.uk domains this month than any other month in the last 6 years (some of which I cannot remember why I thought they were good in the first place!)

Also noticed today 595, yes 595 pure 3 letter .co.uk domains are for sale on this site for £167 each excluding VAT if you buy 6 or more.

I wonder if .org.uk registrations are up and .co.uk renewals are down?

Do you think their is a connection with the above to the Nominet .uk proposal?

"you got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run but you never count your money while you're sitting at the table, there'll be time enough for countin when the dealings done"

Little bit of light heartedness.

 

[Brassneck]

Sorry, I think you're very wrong. We're creating the uncertainty in the market because as has been discussed many times in this thread, Joe Public couldn't give a stuff about domains until they're looking for one for their new small business etc.. The market is slightly deflated because of the economy being in the doldrums but it will recover and as I say, a great name is a great name.

One other question, why should .uk be a threat to .co.uk, why not the other way around. Would you buy a .uk and build a site knowing that someone else is sat on the .co.uk. We can't be accused of abusive registration, indeed the .uk owner is the registrant more guilty of that so no one can take the name off you.

I would suggest you to start putting small sites on your domains showing their obvious use so to pre-empt any future DRS.

Excellent observation. I think people should cool off a bit and really think before they post more over the top scare stuff. I particularly dislike the over the top cost to industry analyses - no policy that is going to cost British business billions (or even hundreds of millions) is going to be allowed by the UK Government.

This is being analysed to death on here and looks to me like domainers finding more and more off the wall arguments for no change to protect their portfolios.

Personally I am more worried about Google's new treatment of EMDs. That has killed one of the best selling points for generic domains - although I notice many portfolio holders still claim that benefit from their sales websites.

Stephen.

 

[Stephen]

To space or not to space

This is like the US government selling all it's stocks of gold at market value just before announcing it has developed a formula for making it.

Do you think Nominet will have a sale before it releases all the domains again with spaces (which when you look at evolution of file names on computers, it is a possibility) so;

MyRequiredName.uk​

would become;

My Required Name.uk​

But I don't know if I'd have enough money left to buy the domain again for a third time at the "space added" set of Nominet auctions!

 

[Edwin]

Personally I am more worried about Google's new treatment of EMDs. That has killed one of the best selling points for generic domains - although I notice many portfolio holders still claim that benefit from their sales websites.

Not true. (EMD + high quality website) still > (brandable + high quality website)

What's changed is (EMD + junk website) = good rankings

 

[Edwin]

These thin type affiliates were always on borrowed time and now that Google has woken up and started to dump them en mass, people have stopped buying domains. In reality, the market has been depressed for 9-12 months and direct.uk is just a convenient scapegoat that helps the delusional.

The real delusion is if you think the problems with direct.uk are wholly or mainly down to domainers finding issue with the proposal.

I spent 13 hours in conference rooms listening to REAL businesses during the Nominet face to face meetings, and pretty much EVERYONE (bar those who stand to make a fortune from it) has problems with direct.uk.

You only hear it more from domainers because A) we're all on Acorn and B) we're more clued in than the average business owner.

 

[Brassneck]

The real delusion is if you think the problems with direct.uk are wholly or mainly down to domainers finding issue with the proposal.

I spent 13 hours in conference rooms listening to REAL businesses during the Nominet face to face meetings, and pretty much EVERYONE (bar those who stand to make a fortune from it) has problems with direct.uk.

You only hear it more from domainers because A) we're all on Acorn and B) we're more clued in than the average business owner.

Edwin, can you clarify what sort of organisations you mean when you say everyone?

I agree that domainers are more likely to be clued up on this, however their influence as far as Nominet is concerned is likely to rank fairly well down the scale. If the likes of big business / CBI etc think it is a bad idea then I am sure that Nominet would take their views very seriously.

So what sort of organisations were objecting at the meetings you attended?


Thanks

 

[Edwin]

IP representative from the BBC. Representatives from other IP interest groups. Regular business (water softener distributor). Representative from the music industry. Many more also had weak or strong negative views.

 

[Brassneck]

IP representative from the BBC. Representatives from other IP interest groups. Regular business (water softener distributor). Representative from the music industry. Many more also had weak or strong negative views.

Thanks - decent selection but it's going to be the big reprentative groups that can influence most.

Stephen.

 

[getmein]

We're creating the uncertainty in the market because as has been discussed many times in this thread, Joe Public couldn't give a stuff about domains until they're looking for one for their new small business etc..

We're trying to make decisions now (what to buy, what to renew etc) based on incomplete information - much of which is based on the uncertainty of the final decision for direct.uk and whether or not some of the original proposals form the basis of direct.uk (if indeed it goes ahead). I'm struggling to see how 'we're' responsible for creating the uncertainty.

a great name is a great name.

I agree - but again, depending on how/if direct.uk happens, that may cause dilution of your brands if you are unable or unwilling to protect your .co.uk by buying the corresponding .uk domain.

One other question, why should .uk be a threat to .co.uk, why not the other way around. Would you buy a .uk and build a site knowing that someone else is sat on the .co.uk. We can't be accused of abusive registration, indeed the .uk owner is the registrant more guilty of that so no one can take the name off you.

It's pure speculation on my part, but if released it will probably be a number of years before we know if .uk becomes the business extension of choice. You'll need to make decisions on whether to buy .uk a long time before that point and if you don't and you turn out to be wrong, the cost to redress that in the future will likely be substantial. If generic.uk has a higher CTR than generic.co.uk via PPC, then I think that would give it an immediate boost - but there is no way to know. In the case of abusive registration, I've got no idea how future DRS decisions will be framed based on the case of generic.co.uk V generic.uk - but I wouldn't fancy my chances of getting the .uk via a DRS.