Studies.co.za at $2200
Institute.co.za at $2000

This is again a very positive step for co.za domain investors and further evidence that as the internet begins to penetrate all areas of the South African economy and South African business turns to the internet to grow their busineses and communicate with their customers, astute domain name investors are seeing the growth potential.

The volume of domain sales in co.za extension has seen a tremendous uptick in the past year as companies realise the SEO and traffic value in keyword and short domain names. This is due in part to the steady increase in the cost of paid traffic through advertising programs like Google Adwords as more and more advertisers bid for keyword placements in the search engines.

Some South African companies are amassing fairly large portfolios of domain names not only as a traffic source but are employing a clear domain strategy to also exclude competitors from their space online.

Furniture.co.za

Sale price: US$33 000.00 or about R230 000

This side up purchased the domain as part of their domain acquisition strategy to drive relevant traffic to the website. Other unreported domain name purchases by Thissideup.co.za include mattresses.co.za.

In the furniture retailers arena, Simco kids are owners of bunkbeds.co.za and kidsbeds.co.za, demonstrating a very clear domain name strategy at driving traffic through product domain names.

Fly.co.za

Sale price: US$65 000.00 or around R500 000

Fly.co.za was originally registered back in 1997 and has changed hands a few times until finally ending up in the hands of Relentless media a UK based new media company with a strong leaning towards domain names as both investors and brokers.

Toys.co.za

Sale price: US$20 000 or around R150 000

Another domain registered back in 1997 which has also changed hands a few times since then. The interesting this is that it has changed from domain investor to domain investor and is still not in the hands of an end user. This will be a very interesting domain to watch in the near future.

Other recent sales that have gone unreported are engagementring.co.za and diamondring.co.za which were recently sold to Crai Marks Diamonds and Diplomas.co.za, ouch.co.za, s.co.za, domains.co.za. For more info on companies with clear domain acquisition strategies and an idea of some of the domains they own, take a look at the “whats in a name” post.

There is one fundamental difference in the online arena, that being the method of gathering information about products and services that we are interested in. People search for products and services and to a lesser extent, for brands or company names. This fact, and if you have ever made use of Googles “Adwords” advertising campaign, will know what it costs to “buy” relevent visitors. As more businesses go online, so the competition for these advertising spots will increase, driving the cost per click up, which for certain keywords can be as high as $100 per click in the foreign exchange trading business.

The smart money has adopted a different approach which also makes use of another lesser known tactic, and that is to own the domain names of the products or services that they sell, develop satellite websites/blogs or communities which drive traffic to their stores or even have thier main website located on a keyword domain. In some cases these domain names are merely forwarded to the brand site and capitalise on the “direct navigation” traffic that generic domain names inevitably reveive or to effectively prevent their competitors from dominating particular keywords.

Perhaps the most important factor to consider is making the Brand synonymous with the product. If your company sells crockery, it would be advised that the company acquire crockery.co.za, or if you supplied towbars to own towbars.co.za.

• Search activity is predominantly for products or services
• By owning the domain name of the search term, you exclude your competitors and dramatically improve your ranking
• Makes your company synonymous with your brand
• Benefit from type in or direct navigation traffic

Is this not incentive enough for you to consider domain name acquisitions as part of your online strategy?

Here are a few examples of companies who recognise the value of acquiring prime domain names to compliment their brands. (This is just a small sample and most of these companies own many names, in some instances hundreds or even thousands of names are owned by single companies)

South Africa

• Foshini – home.co.za
• Craig Marks Jewellers – engagementring.co.za, diamondring.co.za
• Super group – super.co.za
• The notebook company – notebook.co.za, laptop.co.za
• Rand refinery – gold.co.za
• Primedia (iafrica motoring) – car.co.za
• Primedia (sport24.co.za) – rugby.co.za
• Multichoice (Supersport) – golf.co.za
• Exclusive Books – books.co.za
• Cutters Generators – generators.co.za
• Truworths – Fashion.co.za
• Prins and Prins – Jewellers.co.za
• LLew Bryan Architects – architects.co.za
• Pierre DuPreez Attorneys – Corporatelaw.co.za
• Aircharter.co.uk – aircharter.co.za
• Kalahari.net – bicycles.co.za, camera.co.za and others
• Cellphones direct – cellphones.co.za
• Karl Zeiss – sunglasses.co.za
• Technical analysis seminars – Money.co.za
• Rennies – forex.co.za
• Parmalat – milk.co.za, cheese.co.za, yoghurt.co.za
• Dulux – paint.co.za
• Active printers – printer.co.za
• Konica Minolta – photocopier.co.za
• Itec Corporate Solutions – colourprinters.co.za, colourprinter.co.za,
• colorcopiers.co.za, colorcopier.co.za and others

International

• Bank Of America – Loans.com
• Barnes and Noble – Books.com
• Bayer – Aspirin.com
• Carl’s Jr – Burgers.com
• Citibank – StudentLoan.com
• CityBreak – Visit.com
• CNET – News.com TV.com
• CNN – Money.com
• CondeNast Publications – Gourmet.com
• Country Buffet – Buffet.com
• Diago – Malts.com Rum.com Scotch.com
• Disney – Movies.com
• Enterprise – RentalCar.com
• Fixodent – Dentures.com
• Foxy Fresh Vegetables – Salads.com
• Honda – Motorcycles.com Scooters.com
• JC Penny – Gift.com
• Johnson and Johnson – Baby.com
• K-Swiss – TennisShoes.com
• Kraft – CreamCheese.com
• Mannington – Floors.com
• MasterCard – Priceless.com
• Merriam Webster – Word.com
• Monster – Jobs.com
• National Pen Company – Pens.com
• Nestle – Meals.com
• Office Depot – OfficeSupplies.com
• PetSmart – Pets.com
• Procter and Gamble – Toothpaste.com Laundry.com
• Puritan’s Pride – Vitamins.com
• Ragu – Eat.com
• Rocky Mountain Bicycles – Bikes.com
• Sylvan Learning – Educate.com
• The History Channel – History.com
• The Map and Globe Store – Worldmaps.com
• The Weather Channel – Weather.com
• The Wedding Channel – Weddings.com
• Travelocity – Vacations.com
• U-Haul – Trailer.com
• Woodway – Treadmills.com
• 1-800-Wheelchair – Wheelchair.com

Buying good generic domain names is not for the uninitiated and a well thought out strategy needs to be in place before you enter the world of the domain name traders. These are astute investors, some of whom own tens of thousands or even millions of domain names.

Please contact us should you wish to discuss a domain name strategy for your company.

An end user may want to purchase the domain name for a number of different reasons:

• For a development project, be it for a new business or an existing business
• To benefit from type in traffic in the case of generic product or service domain names
• To prevent a competitor from acquiring the name
• To measure a traditional advertising campaign by directing traffic to a different domain
• To make the brand synonymous with the product or service
• To shorten a long company name, eg: law firms or accounting firms that use names of partners in the business name

The value is determined in the old fashioned way where we have a willing buyer and a willing seller who negotiate a price and conclude a deal. Many potential buyers find it difficult to justify a purchase in the thousands or millions of Dollars range but should remember that thereafter the cost is purely an annual renewal fee of between $7 and $40 depending on the extension.

The End user should consider firstly that the domain name is an asset with a resale value, what value is placed on preventing a competitor from owning the domain name and potentially dominating the space, the value of new customers derived through the domain name and the value of that customer in the future.

When we carefully consider these factors, the purchase price is a lot easier to justify and provides good reasoning for what may initially appear to be very large sums of money paid for domains like Toys.com, Slots.com which both sold for over $5 million, or in the co.za domain space, furniture.co.za at $33 000 or poker.co.za at $45 000.

A domain speculator may have deep pockets and be willing to pay large sums of money for generic domains that will not diminish in value and with the knowledge that at some stage it will be bought for a higher price. He also needs to be forward thinking, attempting to predict future trends, a good example would be 3D digital products like televisions and cameras. Possibly the most important factor for a speculator is to monetize the domain name during the holding period in order to achieve a return sooner rather than later.
Domain name speculation is not to be confused with Cybersquatting, which is:

registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.

Domain names are the real estate or billboards of the internet

This bodes well for all domain investors who were fortunate enough to have entered early enough and snapped up a few choice domains names in the co.za namespace.

A few notable reported sales in recent weeks have been, furniture.co.za at $33 000, domains.co.za at $20 000, slots.co.za at $10 000, s.co.za at $8500, mortgage.co.za at $4920, okb.co.za at $1 100, ouch.co.za at $1050 and tnt.co.za at $1 000. There have been numerous other unreported sales and it is very clear that South African businesses are seeing the internet and the value of domain names in a new light. We have previously reported on other high profile sales like porn.co.za and fly.co.za at $45 000 and $65 000 respectively, two of the highest prices realized for South African domains to date.

For regular reported sales updates please visit DNJournal.com

Read more about keyword domain development and the benefits it has for your online business.

There have been a couple of really good sales in the co.za domain space of late with the leader being Porn.co.za selling at $45 000 and Fly.co.za fetching $5 000.

Both domains are showing parked pages at the moment but will be interesting to watch any potential development of these premium co.za domains.

The co.za domain space is most definitely hotting up with purchase enquiry levels at their highest ever levels on premium and 3 letter domains. Perhaps it is the promise of faster and cheaper broadband or simply an awareness of South Africa as an offshoot of the World cup, either way South Africa domains are receiving some long awaited attention.

Fly.co.za shows a registration date of 1997-07-11 and porn.co.za of 1998-01-19 back when new registrations were R200 each. That is a long time to wait for a potential buyer but considering the renewal fees which could not have exceeded R700 over the period, is quite a return not taking into account any parking revenue earned during the period.

The Total at 4 September 2009 is 500 751 domains and when we look at the growth in co.za domain registrations since the registry opened in 1995, this shows tremendous growth with close to 80 000 domains having being registered in the last year alone.

CO.ZA Registrations

• 129 369 domains at 2003-06-13
• 225 884 domains at 2006-03-16
• 328 264 domains at 2007-07-06

There are companies that have embraced the co.za domain space and registered or acquired thousands of co.za domains, the most notable being NOKTA, a Turkish company which holds in excess of 3000 co.za domains, and MAXMI, a British company which owns search.co.za.

There are numerous smaller portfolio holders like us at zadomains.com with a portfolio of over 700 generic keyword domains that have a strong belief in the value of domain names to deliver highly targeted traffic and are encouraged by the recent high profile sales of casinos.co.za, blackjack.co.za, super.co.za and many others. There are still many high value sales which go unreported in the co.za domain space including small portfolio sales which include cognac.co.za, bourbon.co.za and others.

It is an exciting time in the co.za domain space with the promise of cheaper, faster connectivity imminent since the completion of the SEACOM cable and South Africa’s increasing exposure in foreign markets.

If we take a look at the sales volumes and prices over the last year, the numbers are quite staggering and those who have invested wisely and had the foresight to hold onto their ccTLD portfolios are seeing fantastic returns. In the weekly report of 19 August 2008, the list of ccTLD sales list over $1000 comprised a mere 24 domains with the highest price being a Polish name, Wczasy24.pl (vacation 24) at $4176

Considering that a large number of sales in the ccTLD arena are for initial registration names, these returns far outweigh any other investment vehicle.

The latest DNjournal table of ccTLD reported sales shows over 160 domains sold at over %1000 with the top price being for Grafikkarte.de (graphic art) at $73,828.

There were a number of co.za sales in the past 2 weeks, which prices I am unable to report at this time. These are, ale.co.za, analysts.co.za, bourbon.co.za, cheddar.co.za, cookies.co.za, euros.co.za, funeral.co.za, hebrew.co.za, hybrids.co.za, inflation.co.za, metabolism.co.za, oncologist.co.za, voyeur.co.za.

There are certain companies quietly buying up premium generic domains in the co.za domain space ahead of the imminent growth in connectivity in Africa.

Should you wish to report a co.za domain sale, please contact us. To view the DNJ archived sales reports, please go here

At most domaining forums speculation is anywhere between $2 million and $10 million with the majority of estimates from experienced domainers being in the $5 to $7 million range.

This is an obvious name for Microsoft to own and one can only wonder what took them so long to make the acquisition. I would imagine Microsoft have been after the name for years and perhaps in these economic times, the price was finally reduced to an acceptable level.

The business that was on office.com has been moved to a new domain with the following notice being placed on the office.com landing page. This would indicate that the sale was for the name only which was registered in 1999.

Office.com, some interesting facts

The current whois shows a creation date of 20-apr-1999 wheras the image below indicates that it was archived as early as January 1998. Whoever had it registered and allowed it to drop must surely be kicking theselves now.

Updated Date: 04-aug-2009
Creation Date: 20-apr-1999
Expiration Date: 20-apr-2019

“Dear Office.com Users,

As you know from the recent email we sent you, we will be transitioning the operation of your Virtual Office account to ContactOffice.com during the next 30 days.

As part of this transition, on Monday, June 29, 2009, we changed email addresses in the office.com domain to ones in the contactoffice.com domain.

To access your existing account, you will now need to log in at http://office.contactoffice.com

As of Friday, July 31, 2009, Office.com will no longer be available so please be sure to bookmark this URL for future use. Also, if you use POP or IMAP with Office.com you will need to change your settings to pop.contactoffice.net and imap.contactoffice.net respectively.

For new users looking please visit us at http://office.contactoffice.com to register for your free subscription.

We are committed to making this transition as seamless as possible and are working hard to minimize any inconvenience these changes may cause. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by email at tom@contactoffice.com or by telephone, toll free, at 1-866-675-1776.

Sincerely yours,

Tom Graham and the Office.com Team”

Seacom will certainly deliver faster internet speeds to foreign hosted sites and a cost reduction but the level at which the consumer will experience it will not be as impressive as the numbers being bandied about. The connection speeds between South Africa and continental Europe will increase substantially so if you are sending data a colleague in Germany for example, both the cost and speed of this transfer will be dramatically better.

Some service providers are taking a fairly maverick approach to increase market share and have reduced prices by as much as one quarter as in the case of Wireless G. Over the next 12 months it is expected that pricing will be halved in as much as you should receive double your cap for the same monthly subscription. This is one area where South Africa and Africa as a whole are way behind the rest of the world where data caps are seldom imposed.

Seacom will arguably have its biggest impact in the telecoms market in the short term by making intercontinental calling via the internet a viable reality. South African businesses have been overcharged for International calling for many years and the prospect of reducing International calling costs by more than half has seen Samsung telecoms launching a VOIP product in South Africa that will not only reduce calling costs but will bring video conferencing to the fore in many South African businesses operating Internationally. The costs saving advantages of high definition video conferencing are many, not least of which is the ability to hold virtual face to face meetings without the need to travel. This benefit is particularly interesting in a world where carbon emissions and mandatory carbon reporting is making business sit up and take responsibility for their effect on the environment.

For more information on the Samsung range of VOIP solutions please contact ITEC Corprporate Solutions
For the co.za domain space, Seacom will have a very positive impact. There are currently many businesses not making active use of the internet as part of their business strategy and as access to the Internet becomes more prolific throughout Africa, the demand for good domain names will certainly increase. I have written about the proven value of solid generic keyword domain names before and have little doubt that the value and traffic to these domains will be significantly impacted in the very near future.