Watch the Repositioning of .LA

You’ve probably read about the repositioning of Laos’ .LA ccTLD extension by  Go Daddy. If not, check out the Wall St. Journal press release  for more details. In short, Godaddy will be marketing .LA domain names to a Los Angeles audience and selling the domain names for $39.99/year. I think this is interesting and will almost be like a test case or practice for other geographic TLDs such as .NYC.

As someone who is interested in marketing, I am most interested in seeing how the registrar plans to market these domain names further. Some things I will be watching for include:

  • Will they undertake off-line marketing efforts to make the public aware of these domain names?
  • Will their marketing efforts target to people outside of Los Angeles?
  • How will the company make small businesses and consumers aware of the extension and then help with adoption?
  • Is this a one time effort or will it be ongoing?
  • How much of an impact will the repositioning have on total registrations and developed websites?

There are many questions to be answered, and I think the learnigs from this brand repositioning will help guide the company for when the new gTLDs roll out either later this year or shortly thereafter.  I also think other TLD registries and registrars will be closely monitoring the company’s efforts. If they aren’t, they might want to put it on their radar. Perhaps it is much ado about nothing, but it could be important.

Aside from marketing interests, as a domain investor, I am also interested in seeing how this marketing effort will impact the market. Essentially, this may be somewhat of a microcosm with respect to gTLD extensions. If it takes hold in Los Angeles, I imagine other markets and verticals could see the same. Perhaps it will be confusing to consumers, and that will also be something to monitor. Ultimately, if consumers adopt .LA en masse (unlikely in my opinion) it will be something we all should note because it could be the same with other TLDs.

The repositioning of .LA by Go Daddy will be interesting for me to observe, and it will be interesting to see what happens in that market (if anything).  

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

    • Once again, Rick shows is bad attitude. I think a good advice for domainers is to do the OPPOSITE of what Rick proposes.

      If he proposes “joint ventures”…don’t just walk, but RUN the other way. (By the way, how’s that JV wee wee working out for ya??

      If he disses .LA or .NYC, buy buy buy. There’s gold them dar hills.

      Go West Young Man(tm)

  1. What a joke, .co is for company replacement for .com and start ups.

    Pump and dump here we go, lets see what godaddy does when 1900 extensions roll out.

    LOL-Thanks in laugh Rick, so true.

  2. “The repositioning of .LA by Go Daddy will be interesting for me to observe, and it will be interesting to see what happens in that market (if anything).”

    And all you folks in Louisiana, now don’t you all feel left out.

    Let’s see, there’s

    NewOrleans.LA
    Shreveport.LA

    etc, etc. etc.

  3. We have seen this kind of “thinking” already several times. Like .WS (West Samoa) used as “website”, .SK (Slovakia) used as “South Korea”, etc. Now .LA (Laos) is “Los Angeles” or “Louisiana”,… Really? Oooh, sure… Junk! Period.

  4. Godaddy has the financial resources and the capability to launch a highly effective ad campaign for the .LA extension. Billboards placed along the 10 freeway, 101, 5, 405, and 605 will be read by thousands of people each day. I believe that the higher price point of .LA domain names will not matter to businesses that want a distinctive online brand, and could actually help to promote the .LA extension as the in thing.

    The .LA extension will not have any problem obtaining first page search engine rankings on Google for Los Angeles area businesses. The .TV extension has been used successfully by Los Angeles companies, so the .LA extension should do quite well in search engine rankings.

    I don’t anticipate significant leakage as Rick speaks of with other extensions. I believe the .LA extension will become popular and widely used by Los Angeles based businesses. What matters is the profitability of the business – its bottom line. Businesses will have to ask themselves the question, “Will use of .LA extension allow us to achieve our margins so we remain profitable and can keep our doors open?” I believe the answer will be yes for most of them, and they will quickly adopt and use the .LA extension.

  5. Don’t even compare .La to .TV (since 2010)

    .TV is more stable then this shit LOL.

    Only one that benefits is Godadddy. When .clusterfuck rolls out- will be another extension and hype.

    • Aside from the marketing head start, how are they different?

      Both are repositioned ccTLDs that are considered generic by Google and targeting specific verticals.

      Curious why you don’t think .LA could catch on like . TV has.

      Not saying it will, but wondering why you don’t think they are comparable (aside from the # of registrations .TV has).

  6. With Godaddy’s backing, this “.LA” effort has a fighting chance of hitting escape velocity.

    I’ve actually been keeping tabs on it for a while now. It’s not a new thing. The only thing new is that Godaddy is now on board. There are already sightings of vans driving around LA with .LA marketing plastered on the sides.

    I would think that this would only work with big cities like NYC and LA and Bangkok, etc.

    Another difference is that “.LA” is tied to Laos, a country on the other side of the world. War, upheavals could threaten your precious “ILove.LA” domain. “.NYC” doesn’t have that problem.

    I will be watching this closely as well. Not the least because “I LOVE LA!” and have the T-Shirt to prove it.

  7. Besides of value, it is also about risk and governance. A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) are controlled by delegated authorities in countries or sovereign states for which such extension has been assigned. ICANN has no authority over ccTLDs.

  8. .Com will always be king but you will have maybe 30 good names for every .whatever they roll out like pizza,poker,sex,food etc. but it will be lame after those are taken.This Dude Abides With .Com

  9. You have the iphone that came out first. Then everyone else has been trying to catch up since.

    Then you have the .com extension.

    Now you have everyone else trying to catch up. Good luck. The only difference instead of 10 phones coming out to compete with the iphone you have 1900 extensions trying to catch up with the .com

    The big boys I mean the whales of all whales are going to be giving away domain names, email and the rest. Now how are all these other new extensions going to compete with that. You can’t compete that if your a new extension coming out.

    Repeat they will be giving away domain names along with hosting, email and everything else. 49.95 a year or Free.

    The only way to compete is to pony up and pay for the .com that is it.

    DonnyM

  10. Avail SEO marketing department has gotten in touch with me, based on Whosis info, to sell me better local placement on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Based in Arizona, maybe there is some connection with GD.

    Anyway, there is something there! At $40.00/year, .la is an extension less likely to be speculated, and more likely to have real businesses built on it! Like .io, which runs some $70.00/year to register.

    If you read my article, The Seductive SoundIO of BellagIO, you see the .io extensions is firmly established in the developing and startup communities, and carries authority, to the extent those companies are receiving capital investments right and left.

    Being that .la is on Google’s list of accepted generic extensions:

    https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl=en

    it might be considered a solid choice for a business to locate its Los Angeles-based company website.

    • .io is a WASTE of money for any FOOLS that may jump on it.

      that’s all i’ve got to say about that, and hopefully my comment will counterbalance the “spam, spam, spam’io” of your post.

  11. I feel that the new extensions will gain traction for marketing in the big cities .LA, .NYC .MIAMI etc., especially for generic terms for lucrative businesses and services that can no longer get near the .com.

    About 95% of my domains are .com and I believe it will remain on top, but I think that some domains with city extensions could prove to be fairly attractive to businesses. It will be interesting to watch what happens. To keep it interesting, I’ve registered:

    DiamondRings.LA
    WeddingRings.LA
    EngagementRings.LA
    WeddingInsurance.LA
    Exterminator.LA

    • I like, Exterminator.la.

      How about creating a directory of Los Angeles-based exterminators?

      You could have a category of eco exterminators – popular among the environmental set!

    • Ideal for a company that already has multiple representatives in the Los Angeles region. There are a number. I’ve already let some key ones know about its availability.

    • What good is a directory in .LA? It’s hard enough doing one in a .COM. It’ll take a huge amount of expensive advertising and marketing capital to even begin to get traction and have a chance to turn a profit. To make a directory attractive to advertisers and listers you need TRAFFIC and lots of it. Otherwise what benefit do they get?

      Achieving a successful and profitable online business is a major endeavor. If it was easy there’d be a ton of domainer multimillionaires by now.

      It takes hard work, a lot of skills sets, a ton of knowledge and creativity, a lot of money, courage to fail, and lots of good luck.

      So many domainers are clueless and living in dreamland with their pie in the sky domains.

  12. .com is king regardless but there having .la would not be a bad thing if your presence was in Los Angeles.
    I also like .la for Louisiana just as I like .me for Maine. Seems like it couldn’t hurt with SEO if you had a ‘city name.la’ or ‘city name.me’.

  13. Of Course .com is king……..BUT
    A few things will drive the success of .la
    1/This is not new, lots of sites up.
    2/ LA and NYC have been competing for years and .LA is perfect as a counter to the new, forthcoming .nyc Would business leaders sit back and ignore the .la when .nyc .Miami etc. becomes common? NO! .la is so obviously the tld of choice. for Los Angeles.
    3/ Exact search .coms are long gone.
    4/ Size of market…it will effectively encompass all of SOCAL – a HUGE coherent marketplace.
    5/ GODaddy no slouch when it comes to opportunity. They got the jump on the rest.
    6/ The .la will be much easier to aquire and operate than a .nyc
    7/ Chance of Laos taking them over again? And miss those renewal commissions? Much less so than .co!
    8/Just possible these city codes could eventually rule in their locales!

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