.CO Registry: “We Are Almost At 70% Renewals for Year One”

Last week, I posted a video of an interview with .CO Registry  Chief Operating Officer,  Nicolai Bezsonoff. In the interview, Bezsonoff stated that first year renewals are “fantastic,” although he didn’t quantify this.

In the comment section of that post, .CO Registry VP Lori Anne Wardi posted an update about the renewal rate, stating that .CO is “almost at 70% renewals for year one.” Compared to other renewal #s with which I am familiar, this does seem to be quite strong, especially considering most domain registrars didn’t offer much in the way of concessions in renewal pricing or coupons.

With over one million domain names registered in its first year, a 70% renewal rate is very strong, especially considering that it’s month 14 of .CO, so we’re not just talking about the best keyword .CO domain names that were purchased in the first days of .CO availability.

I think this shows the viability of .CO domain names and it also shows that there is considerable money to be made on the registry side of the business when new gTLDs are introduced to the public.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

30 COMMENTS

  1. i renew 97% of my portfolio,lets see what happens in the years to come.If it turns south,i know i will always get back what i have invest.But if it turns to be a successful TLD ,well then i would be drinking pina colada in my swiming pool and chat with the big boys,Mike,Frank and maybe even with Rick (i have to think some more about the last one ).

  2. “With over one million domain names registered in its first year, a 70% renewal rate is very strong, especially considering that it’s month 14 of .CO so we’re not just talking about the best keyword .CO domain names that were purchased in the first days of .CO availability”

    It’s still the first two months, however, so it’s not exactly the scraps either. Consider that 200,000 were registered day 1 which was 1/5 of the total through June this year and, if I recall correctly, 590,000 through end of July.

    This is a startling percentage. Also expect the numbers to not change much until you hit the GoDaddy coupon drop and the registrar Superbowl discount dates.

    One of the market’s helpers is the strange GoDaddy doing $10 renewals through TDNAM? Whatever is up with that.

    That’s just devil’s advocate though. The reality is that no one drops a developed name, do they?

    But of course Lori Anne Ward is excited. Its her job to always be when the subject is .co It’s a good achievement but I think that many are throwing good money after bad… it’s often easier to risk just “another $600” than admit defeat. After all.. just “ONE” sale will cover me.

  3. @Elliot
    “I bet many of the .CO drops will be bought again… it’s a profitable cycle.”

    It’s a win win situation.

    I bought 151 .co domains at the auction in an average of $100 per domain.
    To name a few:

    autosale
    buygifts
    detail
    exist
    grammy
    highdef
    humanity
    ibuyer
    luxuryyachts
    older
    opium
    pies
    powerboats
    scientists
    symphony
    tropic

    How can i go wrong?

  4. facts and numbers people.

    70% is not that high for the first year. Dot Tel and others hit that percentage also. Hell .tel managed that this year.

    What wories me is the 20% of co’s is developed.. That is too low.
    This should be alot higher imo.

  5. @Robert Cline

    `I personally renewed 95% of my .Co s.`

    its so funny you could buy better ones during dropping for just 10usd.
    I have seen many your .co domains and I really doubt if you see your money back, not to mention of earning.

  6. If you look at history of people who purchased .com back in 1996 to 1999 you will find that many of them made plenty of money. That’s 12 to 15 years ago that these names were purchased.

    But the majority of the names that they registered they still have today waiting for the right buyer to come along and pay the price.

    So with .co best case scenario is that you will have to hold on and pay the renewal fees for a very long time.

  7. @karol

    another thing you should realize is that

    I buy my domains with the intent to develop.

    With over 10 yrs of site development exp. under my skin

    I have already been tracking traffic for the last couple months on my

    LLL.Co s

    and they are fantastic.

    The type in traffic on LLL.Co s are something that most do not figure

    but my LLL.Co s bring in 10,000 main page views everyday.

    These eyeballs alone is worth major money.

    But I intend to build some major sites on my LLL.Co s.

  8. Do not listen that guy.
    He is talking all the time rubbish.
    Since I remember he has been saying about selling.
    Before renewal he was squealing like pig and next time will be not different. Just take a look how he thinks.

    he made 50,000 sale 🙂 hahaha

  9. He meant how much he spent on his domains not how much he earned.

    @ Robert

    if you want to develop over 1000 .co`s you must have a lot of money and time.
    I would advice you to sale many of your domains at a low price and the strongest ones develop. Otherwise it will be difficult to see any profit. Even Rick Schwartz dropped about 2000 .co`s and left 350. Do you want to say that your domains better than Rick`s ones or you know more?

    Do not play idiot just do what you have to.

  10. @Rich

    I have seen many of your domains.
    You have plenty trademarks. You registered big companies names. Sooner or later you will have a big problem by that.
    This is just matter of time.

  11. i am dabbling in some drops got bestrates.co and lawcenter.co and will probably get a few more in the next few weeks, its amazing how much garbage was registered though in dot co

  12. An interesting stat to be sure, and I think that for many domainers the “honeymoon” period is still on, where .co is concerned.

    Speaking for myself, i’d be more interested to know what the renewal rate is next year, and not the “almost” rate but the actual rate… 🙂

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