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Buyers
who live in the U.S., where .com became well
established almost a decade before American
businesses could even register a .US domain (.US didn't full
open until April 2002), typically don't think about .US
until they find the name they wanted in .com was already
taken and was either beyond their budget or not
available at any price. This happens far more often than not
because 156 million .com domains have already been
registered (millions of them by investors). By contrast,
less than 2 million .US domains have been taken, so
the word or term a buyer wants is available far more
often and at a much more affordable price in .US.
It
is ironic that overseas buyers are much more likely to
recognize the |
Image from Bigstock |
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value
in .US than their American counterparts. That's because
those overseas are already intimately familiar with
ccTLDs (country code domains). In their nations the
local ccTLD is often the first choice when a company
starts looking for a suitable domain name. Germans are
wildly in love with .de, in Great Britain you see .uk
everywhere, China has .cn, and the trend continues
through dozens of others as every nation has their
own TLD (domain extension). In the United States,
it is .US, so when a company from overseas wants to ramp up
in America, many of them naturally think of the .US
as well as the .com.
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Scarcely
a day goes by that I don't notice that dichotomy. As
one example, I needed some new LED light bulbs so I
went to Amazon and, overwhelmed by the number
of options, decided to take the Amazon's Choice
recommendation and ordered a dozen bulbs from a
company called Energetic Lighting. They
arrived today and they are great bulbs. Brilliant
daylight white with what appears to be very good
build quality (they also came with very high ratings
from Amazon buyers). However, the |
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thing
that delighted me even more was pulling a warranty
card out of the box and seeing the company's web
address - EnergeticLighting.us.
The manufacturer is the China-based Yankon Group.
I had not seen the brand before but they appear to
be making a big splash in the U.S. and a .US
domain is helping them do it. |
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We've
seen a healthy jump in our .US sales this year and
it has been very encouraging to see more and
more American businesses going online with their
nation's official ccTLD and it is a perfect fit.
Com is a marvelous global TLD, but millions of
businesses have to look for the best available
option. As the first or second choice, and the
most relevant geographical choice of all, ccTLDs
have filled that void all over the world. As
an American, it is great to see the current boom
in the domain market (and high visibility
websites like Zoom.us) helping the .US
get its long overdue turn in the spotlight. |
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Posted
August 20, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0820.htm
Follow
us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains |
