Build A Brand To Grow Your Business - Crystal Peterson, .CO

BUILD A BRAND

TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS

WHERE BIG IDEAS BELONG ON THE WEB 2

.CO is…

3 WHERE BIG IDEAS BELONG ON THE WEB

.CO is One of the Fastest Growing Global TLDs in History

2009 2011 2012 2013 2010

August 2009 Concession contract awarded

July 2010 Overstock acquired o.CO

April 2010 95% of Fortune 500 register

July 2010 .CO launched globally - 100K domains first 10 minutes, 300K in first 10 days

February 2011 .CO Super Bowl commercial – 110M viewers

June 2011 Reached 1M

domains

July 2011 Google acquired g.CO

April 2013 Reached

1.5M domains

28K

50K

290K

650K 900K

1.1M

1.5M

March 2010 Twitter acquired t.CO

November 2012 Launched membership program

March 2013 Nine .COs mentioned in TechCrunch in seven consecutive days

2008 Formed company to compete to win .CO contract

Today more than 1.5 million domains registered in 200+ countries & territories worldwide

October 2013 2 .CO’s featured in New York Times Square

It’s All About the Brand

WHERE BIG IDEAS BELONG ON THE WEB

We Asked Ourselves 3 Questions:

1. Who are our major competitors? • .COM, .NET, .ME, .TV, .ORG, .INFO, Facebook, Search…

2. What have our competitors done in the past? • Fought over “shelf-space” at registrars

• Competed over price

• Treated domain names like commodities / utilities

3. How can we change the game and do it better? • Have a better product (-- we do!)

• Build a Global Brand! (--DE-COMMODITIZE!)


Search myhomebusiness.com

TAKEN

.com

TAKEN

.net

TAKEN

.org

TAKEN

.biz

TAKEN

.eu

TAKEN

.info

TAKEN

.us

TAKEN

.me

TAKEN

.mobi

TAKEN

.tv

TAKEN

.co.uk

Available Domain Extensions

.bz

.pro

.tel

.us.com

The Ugly Search for a GOOD Name (both to left and right of the ‘.’)


Our Vision: To be the premier space where innovation and opportunity flourish - the coolest “place to live” online.

7 LESSONS LEARNED While Building Our Brand…


Brand Lesson # 1: To Build a Great Brand, You Need a Great Product

More than a Domain. With a .CO you get

more than just a name- perks, benefits, support

& community love!

Short and meaningful. It signifies .COmpany

worldwide

Strong SEO. Endorsement by Matt

Cutts from Google

Real brands, real sites. trademark friendly

policies and premium pricing ensure no

domain ghetto

It’s available. Provides new and fresh

inventory of domain names

http://www.homeaway.com/

Brand Lesson # 2: (While You Need a Great Product) - Your Customers Don’t Really Care About it. They Care About Themselves. So Focus On Them!


Naval Ravikant “Mainstream awareness of .CO is building

with huge brands like Amazon, Twitter, and

Overstock; and so is awareness of

entrepreneurs that their next domain doesn’t

need to be 23 letters long or lack vowels.”

Dave McClure “.CO is quickly becoming the hot new geek

TLD in Silicon Valley…With .CO, startups can

launch businesses and brands on a short, cool,

credible domain name -- without having to

shell out a million bucks to do it.”

Brand Lesson # 3: Influential Early Adopters Can Help You Get Traction Fast


Tech stars High Profile

Use Cases & Business Development

Web Entrepreneur Consumer Events &

Sponsorships

SMB Channel Sales & Marketing

Innovators & Trend Setters

Disruptors of the status-quo

Early Adopters

Design conscious and eager to try new technology

The Masses They go for what works

Trickle Do

wn

Effect

Brand Lesson # 4: Don’t Try to be All Things to All People – Target the Right Customers


Incubators & Accelerators

Event & Media Companies

Communities & Co-working Spaces

Brand Lesson # 5: Great Partners are Force Multipliers That Will Help You to Succeed


Brand Lesson # 6: If You Love Your Customers. They Will Love You Back.



India Companies, Startups and

Entrepreneurs

Littleeye.CO Profiler service for Android

based smartphone applications.

TheGraffiti.CO A brand consultancy agency.

Thunk.CO A green community site.

Eventifier.CO Analyze and archive event

media.

TechCurry.CO A blog about the India market written and produced in the

UK.

Samagra.CO Provides sanitation and clean

energy to the urban poor living in the slums of India.

Select examples. For a directory of .CO users, visit our website.

http://www.opportunity.co/case-studies/


Brand Lesson # 7: Don’t Listen to the Naysayers. Let Your Success Silence the Critics!


Crystal Peterson - [email protected]

Director, Global Sales & Channel Marketing

@dotCO /dotCO

mailto:[email protected]

Build A Brand To Grow Your Business - Crystal Peterson, .CO

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