At the start of a brand new year I always like to take some time to sit down with a brew and look forward at what the coming 12 months may entail.
Brexit and it’s impact on domains
With The UK’s planned exit from Europe due to happen in 2019 there will obviously be some confusion around where we stand from a domain point of view. The first problem I can see is any UK businesses using a .eu domain name may wish to find an alternative. The .eu domain has never been that popular in The UK, but I do know of some companies that purchased .eu domains to represent their European operations from a single site.
If the economy suffers dramatically then there will be a direct impact on business. This will potentially mean less businesses starting-up and therefore less demand for domain names However, there could potentially be an increase in foreign businesses wanting to get a .co.uk or .uk domain to represent their UK operations. Only time will tell and we have to wait and see what happens from this shambles.
The battle for .uk or .co.uk
I commented on this issue in a similar post I wrote last January and not much has changed since then. Have more people started using it? No, not really. Are more people going to start using it? Maybe.
Some of the biggest domainers continue to offload their .uk stock while still maintaining registration of the .co.uk version of the same domain. This gives opportunities as there have been some very good .uk domains dropping over the last 12 months. Thanks to Garth Piesse and Trifega – to name but a few!
The combination of a .co.uk and a .uk is still the safest and most desirable for businesses and .co.uk is still the king.
New extensions gaining traction
I see a lot of businesses settling with new extensions. In particular one of my old school friends who runs several very high class restaurants is happy to run his web presence on .london and a .nyc domain for his two main sites. I asked him about using a .co.uk or a .com. His response: “They’re already taken. What does it matter anyway?” All he was concerned with was having his website online and in Google. There is some truth in that.
Undeveloped becoming a more popular domain marketplace
I have seen a lot of domain flippers over the last 12 months moving their domain portfolio from Sedo to Undeveloped. I recently trialed this with several of my domain portfolio and have been very impressed by Undeveloped. There control panel and domain management interface seems miles ahead of Sedo and makes it look very dated. I plan to do a more detailed report on this over the coming months.
Drop catching services auctioning caught domains
This a worrying trend I have spotted recently with some drop catching services. When you book a domain in for a drop catching slot you usually pay a fixed fee of about £30 if the domain is caught. If the domain is not caught you don’t pay.
It know seems drop catching services are catching booked in domains and then auctioning them off to the highest bidder. So, what used to be a £30 fixed fee could be a lengthy auction with other bidders.
Not all drop catching services are doing this so I advise you to shop around before booking your drop catching slots. I mention the cheapest drop catchers in the guide here.
Happy New Year everyone!
2 Comments. Leave new
Agree 100% wrt Undeveloped.
Thanks for your comments Pierre. I have been very impressed with Undeveloped so far and plan to move my portfolio over in 2019.