.com.au, .au?

[Ashash]

Apologies if this has already been asked, I looked everywhere for a thread search function and couldn't find one (so it is probably staring right back at me!)

I am freshly hatched at domaining and am wondering about .com.au and .au domains and if there is a decent resale market/demand for them?

I am in Australia and have found a domain that is available in both .com.au and .au, but the .com is taken (not trademarked at all). However the nature of the business would mean that it would either be a local or national business in Australia only and unlikely to ever be a global brand. The business would be service rather than product based.

I believe Australians tend to see .com as being US based and .com.au being genuinely Australian businesses. Not sure about .au yet, think it is too soon to assess reception. Personally I like .au (four less key strokes!).

Is it worth grabbing a catchy name if it is only available in .com.au and .au? And should I get it in both TLDs?

 

[lamtran]

In accordance with Australian Domain Name Policy, registrants must be classified as one of the following:

• An Australian registered company
• Trading under a registered business name in any Australian State or Territory
• An Australian partnership or sole trader
• A foreign company licensed to trade in Australia
• Be an owner of an Australian Registered Trade Mark
• An applicant for an Australian Registered Trade Mark
• An association incorporated in any Australian State or Territory
• An Australian commercial statutory body

Domain names are limited by Australian law

 

[Ashash]

Thanks Lamtran, yes I am aware. I am an Australian living in Australia and looking to buy for resale in the Australian market.

The .au TLD has less regulations than the .com.au

 

[Thonder]

I personally prefer .au than .com.au. It's shorter and a TLD, not 2LD.

 

[MKA]

.com.au is more popular and better recognize in Australia, therefore it should be prioritized over the .au.

But if you can get both then get both for the following reasons:

1. Securing your brand: Prevent someone from taking the .au and competing with you.
2. Email security: A client might send a confidential email to [email protected] instead of [email protected] (or vice versa). Make sure no one else gets it!
3. Redirect type-in traffic: People who type in "yoursite.au" into the browser will be redirected to yoursite.com.au
4. Shorten your shared links: Youtube.com uses youtu.be/blah/blah for their shared links. This is to save characters on and encourage people to share links on e.g. Twitter where character count is extremely limited.
5. Domains are cheap: A .au domain costs $8.56/year, that's less than a lunch. Don't cheap out, or you might regret it.

 

[pb]

Agree with @MKA with the exception that I'd use .au as the main site and .com.au for redirect. Be the part of the future, not anchored in the past.

 

[Thonder]

I agree with @MKA and @pb. You should register both .com.au and .au if both are available.

 

[gilescoley]

The .com.au market is a tough one. I have sold I think 3 .com.au names in 20 years.
2 were names I had a list of potential end-users ready before I reggged the names.
The 3rd was a name I got to develop with a friend and the plan fell though, about 2 years later I got a 2k offer on the name and sold it. All the names were tech/cloud related names.

.au names are not used in Oz at all, unless it's just for brand protection.

Don't just register name because you like it, make sure there are end-users out there.