UK’s largest online cruise travel agent (cruise.co.uk) takes its cruise business very seriously, that it did not hesitate to invest $81,000 to purchase the domain name www.cruises.co, heralding a new venture for the business in 2013. The cost, whilst nowhere near as much as the $1m paid for the “s” in cruises.co.uk four years ago by the company, is still the highest amount paid for any new .co domain, released just two years ago – showing the increasing importance of second level domains to companies looking to maximize the brand online.
| Top 10 .co domain purchases | Top 10 .com purchases | ||||||
| 1. Cruises.co | $81,000 | 1. Insure.com | $16,000,000 | ||||
| 2. taobao.co | $31,500 | 2. Sex.com | $12-$14,000,000 | ||||
| 3. vehicles.co | $18,500 | 3. Fund.com | $9,900,000 | ||||
| 4. unity.co | $12,500 | 4. Porn.com | $9,500,000 | ||||
| 5. shipping.co | $11,000 | 5. Business.com | $7,500,000 | ||||
| 6. caribbean.co | $10,610 | 6. Diamond.com | $7,500,000 | ||||
| 7. bankers.co | $10,000 | 7. Beer.com | $7,000,000 | ||||
| 8. paydayloans.co | $9,375 | 8. Israel.com | $5,800,000 | ||||
| 9. chi.co | $7,110 | 9. Casino.com | $5,500,000 | ||||
| 10. paydayloan.co | $6,425 | 10. Toys.com | $5,100,000 | ||||
This latest purchase comes just four years after Carnival Corporation sold Cruise.co.uk back to Andrew Gardner and Seamus Conlon, and coincided with the company paying the highest recorded UK price for a domain with the acquisition of www.cruises.co.uk for £560,000.
Compared to the next highest recorded prices for UK based .co.uk domains:
Recycle.co.uk – £150,000
Ink.co.uk – £130,425
Mobile.co.uk – £120,000
Taste.co.uk – £110,000
Written by Raouf
Topics: General, Worth Reading