ccTLDs.com » Country Code Specific Forums » .uk Forum

[Edwin]

Here's a quick overview of the .co.uk market.

1) All .co.uk registrations are managed by Nominet, a not-for-profit body. They also handle the dispute/arbitration process for the .co.uk namespace via a system of single "Experts" and "Expert Panels".

2) A .co.uk domain can only be registered for an initial 2 year period at present, and must be renewed for a further 2 years at renewal time.

3) Users in the UK have generally been shown to prefer the .co.uk extension over .com, probably because so many of the latter sites are US-centric or otherwise "irrelevant" to their needs. A survey conducted in November 2007 on a fairly large group of people (over 2,000) by YouGov, a government think-tank, showed a 6-to-1 preference for .co.uk over .com.

4) There is an active community dedicated to the .co.uk namespace at Acorn Domains

5) No drop lists are published for the .co.uk market, partly because there's nothing like the zone files that could identify what's been registered or not. That said, some private drop lists are made available for fee from time to time, but there's a likely tightening of Nominet's rules in the pipeline that will even do away with those. A wide range of public and private drop catchers fight it out over .co.uk drops.

6) There's a limit of 1,000 whois lookups per IP address per rolling 24 hour period, although TAG holders (see below) have access to additional tools that get around these restrictions to an extent.

7) For an up front and an annual fee, it's possible to buy a "TAG" from Nominet and become essentially the equivalent of a registrar in the .co.uk namespace. This enables access to the DAC (Domain Availability Checker), a high-powered, high-volume domain availability tool, as well as many other benefits, and of course lets you manage your own registrations.

8) Transferring a .co.uk domain name is very easy. It's an entirely electronic process, conducted via the Nominet site. The seller logs into the Nominet account associated with the domain name and initiates a transfer in favour of the buyer (indicated by their email address). The buyer receives the email from Nominet with a unique transfer code, and can use that to either move the domain into an existing Nominet account or create a new one. The ownership of the domain name (and usually also the TAG) change during this transfer process. There is a fee of 10 pounds plus VAT for this, payable either by the buyer or by the seller. IMPORTANT: it's not possible to "push" a domain name via any other means than going through Nominet. Confusingly, some registrars offer a "push" type option, which may affect the data displayed in the Whois but it will NOT affect the LEGAL ownership of the domain name itself, which remains with the original owner unless the Nominet transfer process is adhered to.

9) There's a strong resale market in .co.uk, whether via private transactions, on the forums, or via Sedo (strong in .co.uk), Namedrive or Afternic. Although the pound has weakened recently, sales in the .co.uk namespace are still attractive because of the currency's strength against the dollar (and to a much lesser extent, against the Euro).

I think that's a good start...

[eBusinessDomains]

Edwin, this is a great post. Very informative. You have made things a lot easier for most of us .co.uk domainers. I will simply point clients to this post when I need to educate them on the .co.uk transfer process.

For years, I refused to invest in .co.uk domains because of the tedious and manual transfer process.

Now that Nominet have listened and simplified the process, co.uk domains are now very, very attractive investments.

[Edwin]

Thanks, glad to help.

Couple of extra points.

A) So long as the domains are in the same Nominet account, you can transfer any number of .co.uk domains at one go in a single bulk transaction (and you pay just the one transfer fee, whether you're transferring 1 or 100 domains) NOTE: the fee is for the transfer itself - unlike .com for instance, the .co.uk domains don't renew as part of the transfer so if you transfer some names that have 2 weeks to go until they expire, the new owner will need to renew them pronto!

B) Sedo and Namedrive seem to do best for .co.uk parking. It's a tossup which will do better for what domain, so test test test!

[TClements]

Edwin,

Great post.

One question, Is there a grace period with .co.uk domains upon expiration or once it comes to term does it drop immediately?

[Edwin]

Originally Posted by TClements

One question, Is there a grace period with .co.uk domains upon expiration or once it comes to term does it drop immediately?

There is quite a long grace period. Names are generally available to reregister 92 or 99 days after their renewal date. They're marked as "suspended" during that period, but the original owner can renew the name right up to the last minute. Some of the largest players do just that - I don't know if it's to tease the waiting catchers, to stretch their registration as long as possible, or what, but a lot of them renew at the very last possible opportunity.

The name will drop after 92 days if it doesn't have a "TAG" any more, or after 99 days if it's still under a registrar's TAG.

There are a few exceptions, such as names that are suspended before they expire (because they belong to companies that have been dissolved for example, which is one reason that Nominet might cancel the domain) but the above covers the vast majority of cases.

NOTE: domains will drop at random times during the "drop day". Yes, really random! And sometimes they don't drop at all if Nominet experiences some kind of system problem (this delays things more at weekends, when their main tech staff isn't around). All in all, the process is less predictable than .com for example.

[Carter]

Thanks for this very informative thread

[NeazMH]

Originally Posted by Edwin

Here's a quick overview of the .co.uk market.

1) All .co.uk registrations are managed by Nominet, a not-for-profit body. They also handle the dispute/arbitration process for the .co.uk namespace via a system of single "Experts" and "Expert Panels".

2) A .co.uk domain can only be registered for an initial 2 year period at present, and must be renewed for a further 2 years at renewal time.

3) Users in the UK have generally been shown to prefer the .co.uk extension over .com, probably because so many of the latter sites are US-centric or otherwise "irrelevant" to their needs. A survey conducted in November 2007 on a fairly large group of people (over 2,000) by YouGov, a government think-tank, showed a 6-to-1 preference for .co.uk over .com.

4) There is an active community dedicated to the .co.uk namespace at Acorn Domains

5) No drop lists are published for the .co.uk market, partly because there's nothing like the zone files that could identify what's been registered or not. That said, some private drop lists are made available for fee from time to time, but there's a likely tightening of Nominet's rules in the pipeline that will even do away with those. A wide range of public and private drop catchers fight it out over .co.uk drops.

6) There's a limit of 1,000 whois lookups per IP address per rolling 24 hour period, although TAG holders (see below) have access to additional tools that get around these restrictions to an extent.

7) For an up front and an annual fee, it's possible to buy a "TAG" from Nominet and become essentially the equivalent of a registrar in the .co.uk namespace. This enables access to the DAC (Domain Availability Checker), a high-powered, high-volume domain availability tool, as well as many other benefits, and of course lets you manage your own registrations.

8) Transferring a .co.uk domain name is very easy. It's an entirely electronic process, conducted via the Nominet site. The seller logs into the Nominet account associated with the domain name and initiates a transfer in favour of the buyer (indicated by their email address). The buyer receives the email from Nominet with a unique transfer code, and can use that to either move the domain into an existing Nominet account or create a new one. The ownership of the domain name (and usually also the TAG) change during this transfer process. There is a fee of 10 pounds plus VAT for this, payable either by the buyer or by the seller. IMPORTANT: it's not possible to "push" a domain name via any other means than going through Nominet. Confusingly, some registrars offer a "push" type option, which may affect the data displayed in the Whois but it will NOT affect the LEGAL ownership of the domain name itself, which remains with the original owner unless the Nominet transfer process is adhered to.

9) There's a strong resale market in .co.uk, whether via private transactions, on the forums, or via Sedo (strong in .co.uk), Namedrive or Afternic. Although the pound has weakened recently, sales in the .co.uk namespace are still attractive because of the currency's strength against the dollar (and to a much lesser extent, against the Euro).

I think that's a good start...

Great Contribution. Keep up the good work. Lets rock this forum