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

[Elliot]

Are you guys finding that more European companies (with American offices) are buying and branding .US domain names than US-based companies? I've noticed a number of foreign car and airline companies using the .US extension. I imagine it's because their marketing departments see ccTLDs used widely in Europe and are doing the same over here.

What do you guys think?

[acc]

Originally Posted by Elliot

Are you guys finding that more European companies (with American offices) are buying and branding .US domain names than US-based companies? I've noticed a number of foreign car and airline companies using the .US extension. I imagine it's because their marketing departments see ccTLDs used widely in Europe and are doing the same over here.

What do you guys think?

That is the case from my experience. This year the majority of my .US name sales have been to non-us companies and individuals (assuming with a bonafide presence in the USA as required by .us domain rules). As a matter of fact I just received an email inquiry from a non-US company about a nice generic term name.

It is well within the "comfort zone" of non-US entities to use non-.com/.net/.org domains. They get it from their own cctld experiences.

Why not - utilize as many relevant online "doors" as possible to attract and catch new customers? Keyword, generic domain names and exact branded company names (in pertinent extensions) remain one of the least expensive and underutilized advertising avenues for business.

What's interesting (and nice) about generic domains is how many businesses out there share their name with a keyword term. It's easy to brand a generic. Apple anyone?

[Dominik]

That's a good observation, Elliot. I too think non-US companies are not as .com-centric as American companies, so they're also more likely to use different ccTLDs for their local websites.