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Ask HN: Is a .co domain worth it?

2 points by nestlequ1k ↗ HN
I'm thinking about buying .co domain for about a thousand dollars for a consumer targeted product I'm building.

In your experience, do end users understand .co or do you think they'll try to type in the .com version instead.

7 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 34.5 ms ] thread
narad
.co is a failure. They sell very less than a .com Only typo traffic you might get. Since google eliminates typos, chances of getting traffic intended for .com is very slim. Also, .co domains are columbia specific, have not come to mainstream, except a few rare cases.
nestlequ1k
Well, there's no .com domain (it's just parked) for the company name I've chosen. So the options are getXXXX.com (which i know own) or XXXX.co (which I'm thinking of purchasing). Thanks for your thoughts on the matter
albertogh
As someone who bought his first domain from someone else some weeks ago, I'd suggest you to contact the current owner and ask them if they might be interested in selling it. After a few days of negotiation, I was able to get the domain for a very reasonable price.
md1515
Not sure if .co domain names get indexed properly for SEO either so be careful of that.
CyrusL
Absolutely not. I always recommend the weaker .com over the stronger .net or ccTLD
mmaryni
those guys here have no idea about .co so do not listen to them. Many top brands are using .co`s and every day you can find more. Twitter, Aspen.co ( 2.08 billion revenue), Rolls-Royce.co, Sra.co, JCO.co, DuiLawyers.co, Reeves.co and many more.

.Co can rank better than .com. Just go to google.com and type in " Charlotte Church" or "bmr" or "i3DTV" My advice to you do not listen people whose mind is not flexible. If people like this govern this world we would have one brand of shoes, car, computer etc. Apart from that they never successful as success require seeing things before they come. if you want you cant contact me at mmaryni at yahoo.com

Good luck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k...

mjs00
If you are convinced that .com is parked domain mega-corp that you won't have to compete with, .co is OK if you can also get .net/.org, so can 'own' the brand.

Assuming you are startup where company name is product name, I think the more important thing is to be able to get the matching twitter and facebook ID, if you can get same same as what you are targeting .co for.