Two years ago today public registrations for the .CO domain officially opened. So two years on, how is the .CO domain doing? Pretty well by the looks of this infographic released by the guys at .CO Internet S.A.S (@dotco | Facebook).
In its first two years .CO has become the domain of choice for start-ups and, with the help of the domain’s operators, fostered a community of young companies eager to build the next big thing. Introducing the infographic on their blog today .CO Internet S.A.S’s Lori Anne Wardi described the company’s own start-up experience;
When we launched, there was lots of uncertainty as to where the extension would go. People questioned whether the world really needed “yet another domain extension.” Fortunately, our team knew the answer all along — and the market has shown us that there is a huge hunger for a space on the web for innovation and opportunity to thrive. We have tapped into an exciting community of people with big dreams and the passion to breathe life into their ideas — and we are inspired every day by the cool things they are building on .CO!
.CO reports that over 1.3 million domains have been registered over the past two years in over 200 countries. Of these, just over half of all registrations come from the US (54%). The UK comes second with about 11% of the registrations, followed by Columbia (8%), Australia (4%), and Canada (4%).
One of the most interesting statistics contained in the infographic is the number of 1, 3, and 4 letter domains that have been registered. .CO says that of the total number of four letter domains 91% of these have still to be registered. Contrast that with the total number of three letter domains that have been registered – 100% – all three letter domains have been taken.
Of the one letter domains, which are kept in reserve, 20 are available to be registered .The owners of these rare domains are household names, hinting at the popularity of the .CO brand. Amazon is clearly a fan, owning three single letter domains – a.CO, k.CO, z.CO. Go Daddy nabbed x.CO and Startup America and Overstock got S.CO and O.CO respectively. Perhaps most significantly, two of the biggest online companies, Google and Twitter, own g.CO and t.CO got their single letter .CO domains.
Speaking of Twitter, of the 1.3 million domains registered over the past two years Twitter’s t.CO is the most visited – owing to its inclusion into every link that’s tweeted.
The infographic reveals that over 10,000 start-ups registered a .CO domain in its first year, of which we were one. It was today in 2010 when we registered our domain (at 1:30pm). Of course, a lot has changed since we set up the domain (we used to discuss plans on Google Wave…) but one thing has not, the continued success of the .CO domain.
Click for larger view of the infographic.
