With the Local Sunrise phase of the .Co ccTLD launch closed and roughly
two weeks until the end of the Global Sunrise, Landrush (public
availability at a price of around USD $300 per year) is not far away.
The Landrush phase is provided for businesses that do not hold a registered trademark for a particular name, but wish to protect their brand. This phase gives them the opportunity to register the .co variation of their existing domain, though owning the existing domain is not a requirement. Since this phase is technically open to anyone, many of the bigger domainers will be buying up valuable generic domains. The high price is designed to discourage domainers from snapping up too many domains, during this phase. If two or more people attempt to register the same domain during this phase, it will go into an auction.
The Landrush phase is provided for businesses that do not hold a registered trademark for a particular name, but wish to protect their brand. This phase gives them the opportunity to register the .co variation of their existing domain, though owning the existing domain is not a requirement. Since this phase is technically open to anyone, many of the bigger domainers will be buying up valuable generic domains. The high price is designed to discourage domainers from snapping up too many domains, during this phase. If two or more people attempt to register the same domain during this phase, it will go into an auction.
General Availability is the final phase of the launch, where.co domains
are available to anyone, at a much more reasonable price of around USD
$30 per year. This will be a busy time for domainers, who will probably
be emptying their bank accounts, to buy up as many domains as they can.
Just in case, you haven't heard about the .co launch, here's a bit of history...
.Co is the ccTLD for Colombia. Control of this ccTLD was originally delegated to the University of The Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Since its original launch, the university has had strict regulations on who can register domains in this ccTLD. Registration was generally limited to Colombian companies. As a result, there were only about 28,000 .co domains registered before the beginning of the public launch.
Then, about ten years ago, the university started looking into opening registration of the domain name to people outside of Columbia. Colombia's Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications assisted with the painstaking process of determining the best way to do this. Arcelandia S.A. and domain registry Neustar formed a partnership, and were awarded a contract to run the domain for 10 years.
Currently, only ten registrars have a direct agreement to sell .co domains, this includes GoDaddy and eNom. Other registrars can offer the domain through reseller agreements with the ten registrars, but will obviously find it difficult to offer competitive prices.
Below is the launch schedule and GoDaddy pricing for .co:
Local Sunrise (April 1 - April 20): CLOSED
This phase is for Columbian trademark holders with exact match domain names registered prior to July 30, 2008. This allows companies with Columbian trademarks to apply for their desired domain or domains and secure their trademarks. Matching domains will go to auction.
Global Sunrise April 26 - June 10:
This phase is for trademark holders with exact match domain names registered prior to July 30, 2008. This allows companies to apply for their desired domain or domains and secure their trademarks. Matching domains will go to auction.
GoDaddy $299.99/yr ($270 of this is a non-refundable application fee)
Landrush June 21 - July 13:
Landrush takes place from the end of June through mid-July, and will be open to anyone interested in registering domain names of high commercial value. Any interest in matching domains will go to auction.
GoDaddy $299.99/yr ($10 of this is a non-refundable application fee)
General Availability July 20:
Once the Global Sunrise and Landrush processes are complete, .CO domains will become available to anyone in the world through participating registrars. Except where otherwise reserved by the .CO Registry or earmarked for premium auctions, .CO domains will be available to the public based on the chronological order of registrations on a first come, first served basis.
GoDaddy $29.99/yr
For a comparison of .co pricing, see this blog post
Just in case, you haven't heard about the .co launch, here's a bit of history...
.Co is the ccTLD for Colombia. Control of this ccTLD was originally delegated to the University of The Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Since its original launch, the university has had strict regulations on who can register domains in this ccTLD. Registration was generally limited to Colombian companies. As a result, there were only about 28,000 .co domains registered before the beginning of the public launch.
Then, about ten years ago, the university started looking into opening registration of the domain name to people outside of Columbia. Colombia's Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications assisted with the painstaking process of determining the best way to do this. Arcelandia S.A. and domain registry Neustar formed a partnership, and were awarded a contract to run the domain for 10 years.
Currently, only ten registrars have a direct agreement to sell .co domains, this includes GoDaddy and eNom. Other registrars can offer the domain through reseller agreements with the ten registrars, but will obviously find it difficult to offer competitive prices.
Below is the launch schedule and GoDaddy pricing for .co:
Local Sunrise (April 1 - April 20): CLOSED
This phase is for Columbian trademark holders with exact match domain names registered prior to July 30, 2008. This allows companies with Columbian trademarks to apply for their desired domain or domains and secure their trademarks. Matching domains will go to auction.
Global Sunrise April 26 - June 10:
This phase is for trademark holders with exact match domain names registered prior to July 30, 2008. This allows companies to apply for their desired domain or domains and secure their trademarks. Matching domains will go to auction.
GoDaddy $299.99/yr ($270 of this is a non-refundable application fee)
Landrush June 21 - July 13:
Landrush takes place from the end of June through mid-July, and will be open to anyone interested in registering domain names of high commercial value. Any interest in matching domains will go to auction.
GoDaddy $299.99/yr ($10 of this is a non-refundable application fee)
General Availability July 20:
Once the Global Sunrise and Landrush processes are complete, .CO domains will become available to anyone in the world through participating registrars. Except where otherwise reserved by the .CO Registry or earmarked for premium auctions, .CO domains will be available to the public based on the chronological order of registrations on a first come, first served basis.
GoDaddy $29.99/yr
For a comparison of .co pricing, see this blog post
Subscribe
