.net or .us - cast your vote!

Bob · Oct 31, 2003

Originally posted by Tony
.us! All the people who are saying .net dont live in the US

I live in the US and I would take sex.net over sex.us ANY DAY.

.US is merely another ccTLD that may or may not survive. REmember all of the hype over CC? Where has it gone except nowhere?

-Bob

Duke · Oct 31, 2003

I think .US may have a slightly better chance than .CC. The United States market is just a tad larger than the Cocos Islands.

darrenl · Oct 31, 2003

Look at how many have been bought as well.

spietreser · Oct 31, 2003

Originally posted by Bob
REmember all of the hype over CC?

There was a hype over .CC ? :-D

Duke · Oct 31, 2003

Hype is one thing - results is another. Country code domains from the tiny island nations continue to languish, but CCTLD's for the major industrial countries are fetching some major money - just look at our weekly domain sales charts at Domain Name Journal. Half of the Top Ten is made up of CCTLD's. Only recognition (which comes only with time) is currently keeping .US off the charts. Over 600,000 .US have been regged - those are not all speculators. I remember the .cc hype but I didn't buy any. I bought plenty of .US. It's like the difference between buying a skateboard (with a couple of broken wheels) and buying a Maserati. There is no comparison.

.US does not sell well now, but neither does .net (and it has had a huge head start). In a few years I think .US will be preferred by buyers in the U.S.

Duke · Oct 31, 2003

Here is an interesting note. I was listing a few things at Afternic and happened to check their list of domains that have been sold there over the last 14 days. There were a total of 50 sales and 41 of them were .coms. .US has 3 of the other sales and .net which has a 10 year head start and supposedly a huge adavantage over the new extension only had one more sale than .US at 4. It confirms what I have seen in my own business the past year and explains why questions like this (which is better) are even brought up. In many people's minds they are already on an equal level.

I spend 6-8 hours a day researching domains and frequently see the .us gone with the .net still available. I have not developed either a .net or a .us domain - but since both would have to be strongly branded and promoted to offset .com's advantage, I would rather develop the .us now as I expect that will be the stronger extension in the long run. .Net has been branded negatively over the past decade (as an ISP extension and .com's poor cousin). People told me this over a year ago but I didn't believe them. Now my own sales records (and those of others) have convinced me.

Thre is one caveat to all of this. The domain name needs to make sense with the extension. .US would be for those businesses targeting the American market (which is the vast majority anyhow). If it is a company that sells globally, .net would make more sense. 3-Letter and good one-word .nets remain strong, but beyond that level it's not very fertile ground in my experience.

Cash Is King · Nov 1, 2003

.net all day long.

spietreser · Nov 1, 2003

Thanks for the insight Duke.

The .net head-start argument by zouzas is a good one...

Honan · Nov 1, 2003

There is a slightly larger market for reselling .net than .us
(About 5.8 billion more people)

Duke · Nov 1, 2003

Originally posted by anyweb
There is a slightly larger market for reselling .net than .us
(About 5.8 billion more people)

Then that makes .net only look worse. They have that gigantic universe of potential buyers (many many times more that .US), yet can't sell any more domains than .US at a venue like Afternic? It just shows that the percentage of people interested in .net is even smaller than I thought!

Duke · Nov 1, 2003

Originally posted by ClassicNames.com
.net all day long.

That's the problem with .net - you wait all day long (then all week long - then all month long) and still no sales!

oxen · Nov 1, 2003

8453 .US register yesterday .......

zouzas · Nov 1, 2003

Originally posted by Duke

That's the problem with .net - you wait all day long (then all week long - then all month long) and still no sales!

:cheeky:

zouzas · Nov 1, 2003

Originally posted by oxen
8453 .US register yesterday .......

W O W

if you subtract the deletions from com new regs it even blows com away:cheeky:

Duke · Nov 1, 2003

Originally posted by zouzas

W O W

if you subtract the deletions from com new regs it even blows com away:cheeky:

I wouldn't get too excited Chris. Those are just 8,453 speculators you know! :-D

Temp · Nov 1, 2003

DOT NET.:-D

zouzas · Nov 1, 2003

Originally posted by Duke

I wouldn't get too excited Chris. Those are just 8,453 speculators you know! :-D

:cheeky: What is interesting is that net has run its curve and we all now know its potential,, netwoking companies and still strugling with its identity,,,

.US potential is still unknown.

Skaboy · Nov 10, 2003

.net is better

spietreser · Nov 10, 2003

Americans are VERY patriotic, always proud to be an American, etc. Once the .us extension is around for some time (like the others are now), so it will be better known... there might be a good chance it will catch on IMHO

.biz · Nov 10, 2003

Originally posted by Duke

Then that makes .net only look worse. They have that gigantic universe of potential buyers (many many times more that .US), yet can't sell any more domains than .US at a venue like Afternic? It just shows that the percentage of people interested in .net is even smaller than I thought!

This logic has a slight mistake here. If looking at the price perspective, owners of .net domain are asking a lot higher price that the owners of .us names.

It's possible that most buyers can't afford to get the .net (and .com), that's why they buy .us.