WebNames.ca Inc. principal Cybele Negris may have launched sales for the .co Internet domain extension this week but customers are keener to buy up .tel domains.
That is because the domain extension is fundamentally different from more traditional ones such as .com, .net and .org because buyers get free hosting for life.
The catch is that .tel domains are not for web content, Negris explained. They are for digital business cards.
Users, such as Blenz Coffee president George Moen, believe that the system makes them much easier to reach.
“Having a .tel was one of the reasons we did so well during the Olympics,” Moen told Business in Vancouver July 22.
“I was easy to get a hold of. If you search Google for George Moen, my .tel domain will pop up right away. Now, every time I update my contact info, everyone who has my .tel either bookmarked or in their iPhone can easily get me.”
BlackBerry users manage .tel contacts through an application called Hornet, which WebNames.ca developed. iPhone owners use SuperBook.
When Moen makes changes to his online contact information, all users who have his name in either Hornet or SuperBook automatically see the changes.
“We are the top registrar in Canada for .tel,” Negris said. “We’ve sold tens of thousands of those domains so far. Worldwide .tel sales are at about 275,000.”