DomainReport.ca - It's been a long dry spell of .ca domain names left out of the DN Journal weekly sales reports, however some .ca news was mentioned in the DNJ lowdown section yesterday.
Though reported .ca sales have been few lately, country code domains are still as strong as ever in other extensions, such as .de and .co.uk.
The DNJ lowdown section reported on two items, the start-up of Dropping.ca (new site that will catch TBR .ca domains for you), and the Domain Owners Association of Canada (DOAC), both stories I've already mentioned in this blog.
To read the DN Journal account, go here:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2009/dailyposts/20091118.htm
At any rate, it's good to see .ca domains being mentioned in mainstream domaining circles. If you were watching the sales results of recent weeks, you would understand why some might have forgotten that .ca domains even existed!
So why the slump in sales for 2009? Especially after the successful MyID auctions in 2008?
My feeling is that there are a few reasons, some being the economic climate, the restriction on .ca ownership, and the relatively low Canadian population. Countries that are experiencing high cctld sales like Germany and the UK have a much larger population base, and more open registration rules than .ca.
Despite this, I have heard of some .ca domain sales that weren't reported (in the several thousand dollars range). You have to remember that the weekly domain sales report doesn't include all sales, many private transactions are still happening. I believe the future is still good for quality .ca domains, though it would be nice to see more sales happening to reinforce this.
What do you think is the reason for the recent slump in .ca sales?
Has 2009 been a good year for you in domains?
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There's no slump in .ca sales. The problem is most of the drop catchers don't report the private auction results. This may not be a problem for those of us trying to get good deals and keep the .ca under the radar. I was just in several private drop catching auctions in the last 2 weeks where the prices went over 3k and 4k for generic domains. What will really advance the .ca extension is if and when cira removes the Canadian presence requirement. Even if it doesn't .ca will progress under the radar. Canadian domains are seriously undervalued and developed at the moment. Huge opportunity for investors. Go .ca!
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