Country
Code Top Level Domain Names
How to Grab
the Domain Name You Want -- and Protect It Throughout the World.
By Robert W. Bly, author of Internet Direct Mail: The Complete Guide to Successful e-mail Marketing
Campaigns (NTC Business Books)
Executive Summary
Although the supply of desirable domain names with the .com
extension is dwindling, the availability of country code top-level domain
extensions -- extensions based on individual nations (e.g., uk for United
Kingdom) -- has created a whole new inventory of available domains. Businesses
that cannot get their desired domain name with a .com extension can now
register that domain name with an alternative extension. Large corporations
that want to protect their brand identity and establish a strong local Internet
presence in nations worldwide are urged to register their URL with all
available country code extensions.
The Master of Your (Web) Domain
According to a recent article in CIO magazine, there are more than 550 billion individual pages posted on
the World Wide Web. Network Solutions, a major online registration service,
registered 840,000 domain names last year alone.
Although the Internet presents users with a wonderful tool for research, entertainment, communication, and commerce, we are faced today with the problems of clutter and overload. There is too much information for the consumer to digest, too many Web sites competing for his attention, to many online stores and brands competing for his dollars.
For
this reason, online marketers are -- quite appropriately -- incredibly choosy
about the domain names they adopt for their Web sites. The domain name is an
essential element -- perhaps the most essential -- in establishing and communicating
an online brand.
Businesses
tend to gravitate toward a particular domain name for three major reasons. The
first is that the domain name relates well to their positioning and branding.
The domain name might be a variation of their product name or product category.
The
second reason is association: The Internet marketer believes Internet surfers
would go to the name when looking for information on that specific topic. For
instance, a porn site operator might register www.topless.com based on the
assumption that Web surfers looking for a porn site would try that URL.
The
third factor making a URL desirable is memorability: The Internet marketer
believes that visitors will find the domain name easy to remember. This is the reason why a printer with a four-color
press might register the domain name www.colorprinting.com.
What’s in a (domain) name?
Americans
have always been fascinated by names, and it’s been long-established that
someone or something’s name influences how people react to it.
When I grew up in Paterson, NJ, there were many physicians in town, but only one that virtually everybody knew by name. And that was because of his name: Dr. Dokter.
My high school friend constantly took ribbing for his name, Henry Fink. So did my sister-in-law before she got married, Arlene Lipschitz.
Some
names connote power, and some don’t, even though the name was given long before
the person formed his or her personality. Examples? Ruth vs. Bambi, Percy vs.
Rocky.
Certain
names are memorable; others make us laugh. In his book Remarkabilia, author John Train lists some of the -- absolutely
real -- people he has found: Kitty Peed, Verbal Funderburk, Moon Unit Zappa,
Herman Sherman Berman, and Evan Keel. I once had a colleague whose husband was
Vartan Vartan.
Sometimes
the reason why a business chose a certain name seems either a mystery or a
mistake. Believe it or not, there’s a restaurant on the West Coast called Ure
A. Pigg. And don’t forget the law firm of Lawless & Lynch.
So
... what makes for a good name on a Web site? Debate rages, but here are three criteria
that are hard to disagree with:
·
Memorable. Why is an online bookstore
called Amazon.com? Simply because it’s easy to remember. Same thing with a
portal called Yahoo.
·
Logical. Another tactic that works
is to select a name that logically ties in with what you do. Examples:
Printing.com for a printer and flowers.com for a florist. Or, simply make the
domain name the same as your company name. IBM’s domain name is IBM.com. Sprint
Graphics, a New York City printer, uses www.sprintgraphics.com.
·
Short. Some marketers prefer longer
domain names because they can be more descriptive. For instance, one printer
has a Web site www.printingforless.com. It gets a message across, but will you
really remember that when you are online and need printing? Although domain
names can be as long as 67 characters, shorter -- like www.printer.com -- is
better. Think about the Web site URLs you can recall off the top of your head
without going to your book marks. How many of them are more than one word long?
It’s no coincidence that one of the most popular online retailers is
www.amazon.com.
As
for what not to do, just a couple of tips:.
·
Try
to avoid having “and” in a domain name. I can never remember if it’s
Barnes&Noble.com or BarnesandNoble.com. I bet lots of other folks can’t
either.
·
Having
the last letter of your first word the same as the first letter of your last
word also creates problems, because people can’t figure out whether to use the
letter once or twice. To convert my name into a domain name, would people be
more apt to think www.bobly.com or www.bobbly.com. I solved the problem by
registering the shorter and simpler www.bly.com. People frequently comment on
how easy it is to remember.
·
Make
sure your URL is easy to say. People should remember it if it’s repeated on TV
commercials, plastered on billboards, or sung in a radio jingle. Sheraton had
great success promoting a toll-free reservations number with a catchy TV
jingle. Can you remember? “Eight-oh-oh, three-two-five; three-five, three-five.”
You can’t copyright, patent, or register human names and book titles, which means multiple people can have the same name, and different books can have the same title.
But domain names, like phone numbers, are unique. So when in doubt, it pays to register any name you might want and hold it, rather than risk letting it go to someone else.
Register your Internet domain name early. When in doubt about a name, register it anyway. Registration is cheap when you get the name from Network Solutions before someone else has taken it.
But if someone else registers the name you want, you may have to pay dearly to get them to sell it to you. Recently, drugs.com sold for $823,456. And a Texas entrepreneur recently sold business.com to a California company for $7.5 million. Two years earlier, he had bought the name from someone else for $150,000.
According to an article in Business 2.0 (August 22, 2000, p. 32), a Scandinavian financial services company recently spent more than $1 million to register 3,080 domain names. “While registering thousands of names may be unusual, many large companies do log all possible combinations of their names and product -- including possible misspellings,” the article notes.
Some marketers, finding the domain name they want is already taken, do a close variation with a small typographical change. For instance, WorldclassMedia.com of Australia used attmexico.com, which gives the impression of being from AT&T.
Another company, DomainCollection, registered campyahoo.com. An article in the Daily News (August 2, 2000) reports that a ruling against DomainCollection found that “the only reason DomainCollection registered campyahoo.com was to trade in bad faith on the good will of Yahoo!’s widely known and highly respected mark.
Under current trademark law, a domain name is not a trademark. Using the domain name does not automatically make the domain name operate as a trademark. If you intend for the domain name to act as a trademark, you should search trademark records to see whether the domain name has already been trademarked. (Source: Writer’s Digest, March 2001, p. 48.) This can be done on www.idnames.com. If the domain name is not being used as a trademark, a trademark application should be filed.
Will we ever run out of good domain names the way we exhausted the supply of available 800 numbers? Network Solutions registers a new domain name every 3.9 seconds. So the shorter, more logical-sounding .com domain names are rapidly being taken.
But there is another solution: Registering the same domain name you wanted as a .com with an alternative extension. These alternatives include Top Level Domain names (TLDs) and Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) names. The latter are available on the Network Solutions site www.idnames.com.
Top Level Domain Names and Country Code TLDs
Right
now, the major domain name suffixes -- the letters after the last period -- are
.com, .org, and .edu. These suffixes are called top-level domains (TLDs).
At
a recent meeting in Japan, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) said it will create new TLDs to be determined, making many more
domain names possible. They are even running radio commercials advertising the
new TLDs on the Howard Stern radio show!
If
www.consult.com is taken, maybe you can grab consult with one of the new TLDs
when they become available. But as always on the domain name front, it’s first
come, first served.
A
far bigger inventory of alternative extensions is the CCTLDs -- Country Code
Top Level Domain Names. These are extension you can get based on the name of
the nation from which the domain originates. But in dozens of cases, you do not
have to have a physical presence or even operate in that country to use their
domain name extension. CCTLDs are plentiful and available for registration even
as you read this paper.
There
are 243 country-specific domain extensions (like .de for Germany, .fr for
France, .jp for Japan, etc.). These domains have been in existence for many
years, but in the past several years have become popular in local areas and as
a way for cybersquatters and potential competitors to cause confusion in top
Internet markets. In fact, total registrations in country-specific domains have
increased from just under 1 million in 1998 to nearly 4 million in early 2000,
a jump which until last year had gone relatively unnoticed.
One
possible reason for the rapid increase is because ICANN’s dispute policy is not
used or adopted by any country-code as of this writing. Each country is free to
register domain names in any manner they see fit. In fact, a 1999 study
concluded that only half of the top 25 country-code registries even have a
formal dispute policy. The half that does have a policy merely state that
"all disputes are between the parties." In summary: "See you
in
court."
The
delegated 243 country-code domains are not all controlled by sovereigns,
although a fair number of these CC domains are issued by tiny islands that
barely qualify as nation status. Typically, an Internet entrepreneur with deep
funding approaches the nation, offering to market its CC TLD for domain name
registration in exchange for part of the revenues -- which these poor nations
sorely need. It’s a win-win situation for the entrepreneur, the domain name
buyers, and the country.
The
country-code domains can be classified as follows: Of the 243 assigned country
codes, 184 are actively registering names. Of the 184 active country-codes, 100
are classified as "restricted" and require a local presence and/or
specific legal documentation in order to register (China, Japan and France, for
example).
The
remaining 84 are classified as free market or "unrestricted." Anyone
from anywhere can register, just like in the .com, .net and .org domains. No
local presence is needed. Examples include the United Kingdom, Mexico, Denmark,
Israel and South Africa.
To
further confuse you, some countries require that applicants register in
specific sub-domains. In other words, in the United Kingdom, one must register
as "name.co.uk"; the .co being reserved for commercial interests in
the United Kingdom domain. It would not be possible to register as
"name.uk."
In
other countries, like Mexico, one must register as "name.com.mx", the
.com part having nothing to do with the well-known .com generic domain. In
Germany, there are no sub-domains, so all must register as "name.de."
These naming conventions have not stopped an onslaught of registration and
marketing activity in these domains.
The .us domain
Why
don’t more organizations register a CC TLD in the United States (.us) domain? Because
the .us domain is among the least marketing-friendly domains on the planet.
All
domains registered must be "geographically specific." One must
register as
name.city.state.us.
It is not possible to register name.us. Obviously an address like
name.city.state.us would be certainly hard to market and remember. Thus the .us
domain is seldom used by serious marketers and has little commercial value.
The .cc domain
You
may have heard about the .cc domain. Contrary to some reports, it is not new.
It has been around for years, just like .com and the other 242 domain extensions.
What is new is how it’s being marketed—as an alternative to .com for those that
could not get their choice of names in the .com domain.
The
.cc country-code is delegated to and associated with the Cocos and Keeling
Islands, located 1,000 miles northwest of Australia in the Indian Ocean. The
.cc domain has attracted a small number of registrants compared to
"name-brand" country-codes like Germany and the United Kingdom,
places where people actually live and buy things over the Internet.
One
possible reason is simply because .cc is not memorable to the general
population. It has little brand awareness compared to .de, .co, .uk, or .com.
Other actively marketed CC
TLDs
Because
many nations actively market their own country code domains, or have Internet
entrepeneurs do it for them, certain names are becoming more visible and
popular than others.
Moldova,
for example, is fortunate to have as its domain extension .md. This domain
extension is, for obvious reasons, a popular choice with medical and health
care Web sites.
The
small island nation of Micronesia has the extension .fm, which is naturally
appealing to FM radio stations establishing their own Web sites.
Western
Samoa’s .ws, which has the same initials as Web site (WS), is being touted as a
direct substitute for .com.
Niue, another small nation, has the domain .nu, which connotes “new” and is being marketed on that basis.
The
small nation of Tuzalu is actively marketing its CC TLD, .tv, especially for
new economy and media-oriented Web sites.
Other
aggressively marketed CC TLDs include Romania (.ro), Russia (.ru), the
Dominican Republic (.do), Mexico (.mx), and Tonga (.to).
New non-CD TLDs
ICANN plans to introduce a new group of TLDs, not affiliated with specific countries, later this year. These include .biz, .info, .aero, .pro, and .museum.
More Country and Even Planetary
TLDs?
The
inventory of CC TLDs can increase as more nations switch from restricted to
unrestricted status, or as more small islands gain sovereign status that let’s
them establish their own unique domain name extension. Any time the Internet
extends into a new country, it creates the opportunity for yet another CC TLD
to be established and offered on the market.
An
article in CIO magazine (February 15,
2001, p. 139) reports that the Internet will soon be extended to Mars, Jupiter
(and its moon Europa), and other planets via wireless communication with
spacecraft that have landed on those bodies and are transmitting data back and
forth to Earth. It may one day be possible to get a domain name with a
planetary code (PC) top level domain as well as a country code (CC).
The CCTLD as a dot.com alternative
There are two major applications of CCTLDs. The first is as a dot.com alternative.
Say
you want to register a particular domain name, but all desirable variations of
the name with a dot.com extension have already been registered. You want that
name, but you don’t want to pay through the nose to buy out one of the current
name holders.
With
84 CCTLDs to choose from, you can still have the name, only with an extension
other than dot.com. For instance, if cupajoe.com is taken, you may still be
able to get cupajoe.ru (Russia), cupajoe.mx (Mexico), or cupajoe.do (Dominican
Republic). You can use these names as you would any regular domain name; your
Web site need not be linked, controlled, reviewed, or otherwise involved with the
country from which the extension comes.
The CCTLD as a global Internet branding tool
If
you are a large multinational corporation (or plan on becoming one), you may
want to consider registering your domain name with all 84 of the unrestricted
country-code domains available.
There
are two major reasons to do so. The first is worldwide brand protection. Most
major brands are multinational, and obtaining a URL that closely identifies
with the brand name is an increasingly important part of the overall brand
marketing strategy. Making sure you own your brand-related URL in every domain
worldwide enables you to carry your brand image on the Web everywhere in the
world people buy your product.
The
second reason it’s important to register all CCTLD variations of your URL is to
establish a local Web presence in every country where you market or might
market your product some day. If customers can find your Jolt-brand soda in the
US at www.jolt.com (this is a made-up example), you want to make sure Russians
also get onto a Jolt soda Web site when they try www.jolt.ru.
For
a small business, registering your URL in all CC domains may be cost-prohibitive.
But for a multinational corporation, the $19,000 fee -- a typical cost to
register a domain name in all available CC TLDs -- is often peanuts compared
with the expense of a law suit involving domain name or trademark infringement.
Just
as some entrepreneurs hogged toll-free vanity numbers (800-HEATER, 800-FLORIST,
etc.), cybersquatters today buy and hold domain names for the same reason: To
hold them for ransom and make a high profit offering them to the highest
bidder. You can sue someone who has co-opted a domain name that is identical to
your product or brand name to get it back, but why not avoid legal action by
grabbing it first, if it’s not too late? You can search to see if anyone has
taken your domain name, in any country, on www.idnames.com.
Large
corporations often register their URL in other country-codes in order to extend
and reinforce their brands. They want first crack in Internet markets where the
local population may be typing in local domain name addresses when looking for
information or products.
You
can register one name in all 84 of the unrestricted markets for much less money
than it would cost to prosecute just one domain name infringement case. It's a
lot easier to register first than try to recover a lost or stolen name;
especially when you consider the amount that many online marketers are spending
to promote and protect their brands as trademarks. Coke and Pepsi, for
instance, spend over $100 million annually to promote and reinforce their
brands. Others, like Chrysler and Gerbers, literally have billions invested in
brand name equity.
Registration
in restricted country-codes is important too. If you have franchisees or
licensees in restricted countries like France, Australia, or China, a local representative
may be able to register in that country because they have a local presence. But
what happens if your business arrangement goes sour? You may be forced out of
the market, as your local rep may likely have all rights to the domain name.
Registering your domain names online
A
number of Internet services enable you to self-register domain names online.
For instance, Network Solutions, a Verisign company, offers TLD registration on
www.networksolutions.com and CC TLD registration on www.idnames.com.
The
Internet makes many business processes more efficient, and domain name
registration is no exception. Consider the advantages of registering domain
names only through one of the popular online services vs. manually:
·
Free searches. The registration sites allow
you to do instant searches that show which domain names are already taken and
which are available. This can save hours of time-consuming search engine
research. At www.idnames.com, you can also search to see whether a potential
domain name is trademark-protected.
·
Quick and easy processing. Online registration can be
completed and submitted with a few key strokes and mouse clicks. Anyone can do
it.
·
No paperwork. The online registration
service handles all the paperwork on their end. There are no documents to
review and sign.
·
No legal fees. You do not need an attorney
to register a domain name online, which saves you the considerable cost of
attorney’s fees.
·
Round the clock service. Online services allow you to
register domain names 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in any available domain in
the world.
·
Credit card payment. You can pay by entering
your credit card information, eliminating the need to write a check or purchase
order.
·
Instant registration. As soon as you click SUBMIT
and your transmission is acknowledged, your domain name is registered and no
one else can take it. It’s yours.
Conclusion
When it comes to registering domain names, the smart bet seems to be, “Act now.”
It’s not a case of “use it or lose it” -- domain names are inexpensive enough that you can reserve the ones you think you might need now, then use them when you need them -- or not at all. The danger in not reserving appropriate or potential names now is that someone else will take them, and you will forever lose the ability to get them.
New
companies are forming and taking names at a frantic rate. The number of new
federal trademark applications filed has tripled over the last 10 years, with 290,000
federal trademark applications filed in 2000. “The mathematics of names and
URLs make it more difficult than ever to find a new corporate name,” reports Infoworld magazine (February 26, 2001,
p. 79).
Checking
availability and which domain names are already taken is quick and easy online
and costs you nothing. Domain names with country codes can be reserved at a
nominal cost per name and an affordable cost for a group of names covering all
available unrestricted country extensions.
Of
all aspects of corporate identity, URLs -- which are one-of-a-kind -- are the
most vulnerable, but also the easiest to protect, and early registration is the
key.
###