Sometimes it is better to have a lot of a little than a little of a lot. While this statement may at first appear to contradict the commonly held belief that you are better off with a small piece of a larger pie, allow me to elaborate. I don’t have enough space in this article to write a comprehensive study on globalization but I can tell you that countries with tens of millions of people, sometimes hundreds of millions of people, and a couple with more than 1 billion people, aren’t small pies at all.
If you could dominate a single niche in Germany, China, India, the Netherlands, France, or any other of a host of countries, you could build an extremely lucrative enterprise that would not only bring home a great deal of cash but also put your company on the map as a better take-over target to a larger conglomerate. Country-code top-level domains, or ccTLDs, can offer just such an opportunity for the adult site developer.
If I was starting a new company in the adult space, I’d rather buy something like porno.co.uk than ThisIsJustAnotherLongAssURLwithPussyInIt.com. After all, there are more than 60 million people in the United Kingdom, a first-world location with bank accounts and credit cards. Where Porno.com isn’t for sale at less than $15 million, Porno.co.uk could be purchased for less than $200,000 United States dollars.
Here are a few of the ccTLD adult names that changed hands in 2007 and 2008, and the prices at which they sold:
- Porn.fr $46,000
- Hentai.cn $18,000
- Sexe.ch $17,625
- RelatosEroticos.com.br $15,593 (erotic stories)
- Gay.dk $10,678
There are a few things you need to know before you start emptying your bank account on foreign domain extensions. First, you want to do your research. I operate a free and unbiased message board on the subject at ccTLDs.com. There you can learn about your country of interest.
Another great resource is Wikipedia. Just go to Wikipedia.org and do a search for the extension (including the dot!). For example, searching for .uk will take you to this page: http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/.uk.
Here’s what you are looking for:
Can a foreign person or entity own the name?
What is the annual registration fee?
Are there rules about transfers that prohibit the selling or transferring of the names?
Other than those three important questions you should focus on culture. In the Philippines are people more likely to enter .com.ph or just .ph? In Britain do people say porn or porno more?
The last thing you’ll want to look into is the legal situation in those countries. Be careful running adult sites in China, India, the Philippines, or other countries that have laws on the books against it. This isn’t to say you can’t make money selling services to the 100 million-plus Chinese that live outside the Chinese borders. Just make sure you are structured properly and blocking IPs or entire countries when necessary.
As a domainer, I know the value of having the best name in a category, aka a category killer. A great name opens doors for partnerships and comes with instant brand recognition to consumers. It completes the first battle in a long war for you. If you can’t afford a category killer .com, I suggest you consider looking into a category-killer ccTLD.
Rick Laton is a leader in aftermarket domain sales and runs a popular domaining blog at www.RickLatona.com as well as a forum on this subject at www.ccTLDs.com.
This article originally appeared in the July 2009 issue of AVN Online. To subscribe, visit AVNMediaNetwork.com/subscribe.
