I think .wales and .cymru are an excellent tool for businesses to publicise the fact that they’re Welsh. Growing-up in Birmingham, Wales has always been a happy place for me. A quick blast in out in the coupe and I can be in the middle of the beautiful Welsh countryside in less than 60 minutes. It’s great to see the country gaining some traction online and their own domain extension is a massive win. In terms of domain flipping? Is there money to be made from these brand new domains.
Limited appeal
Wales is a pretty small country. Is there going to be a lot of demand for a strictly Welsh domain name? I’m not sure. I hope so, but it will depend on how businesses react to the new domain and whether they decide to use it.
Limited international market
Is a big multinational company like Adidas going to want to use Adidas.cymru for a Welsh version of their site? I don’t think so. Large international corporations will be happy to cover the UK market with a .co.uk.
Not as widely used as .co.uk
I don’t see the domain being used a lot at the moment. The majority of Welsh businesses are still using a .co.uk.
Do people trust it?
When it comes to online shopping, customers might not be aware of the new .wales and .cymru domains and might not trust the new extension. This could be because they’ve not seen it used before and they simply don’t know what it is.
Would I invest?
Yes, but cautiously. The domains will not have as much appeal as .com or .co.uk, but as the net becomes more crowded I can see potential value.