According to sales figures provided by Sedo.com, the average price for a .co.uk domain has risen by 22% over the past three years, while the average price of a .com domains has fallen by 18 % over the same period of time. The average price for a .co.uk domain sold at auction via Sedo's online marketplace now averages about £2,614 while the more generic .com domains average is only £1,372... Nora Nanayakkara, director of business development at Sedo indicated that, "The world is becoming increasingly connected, and the nature of the internet is reducing face-to-face transactions. Companies run the risk of appearing detached and out of touch with their customer base if they have only a catch-all global .com domain. Consumers still like dealing with local businesses. Having regional domains such as .co.uk gives consumers greater confidence that they are dealing with a local organisation."
A recent survey by UK domain registrar, Nominet, which found that 62% of UK surfers will opt for UK sites over more generic top-level domains, when searching the web, backs up this trend. However, this increased popularity has seen a marked increase in the number of phishing attacks targeting UK sites. Sedo found that one phishing syndicate seems to be particularly prolific, using the stolen personal information of a genuine registrant to register 40 to 60 domains at a time to run phishing sites.
Source: Sedo.com Submission to DomainNews.com - Posted by Chief Editor - May 29th, 2008