Josh Bourne ⬥ 23 January
According to the World Bank’s 2007 report, the top-ten world GDP rankings (in millions of dollars) are as follows. Note that I have put the extension most associated with the country alongside its GDP:
1 – United States: 13,811,200 (.COM*)
2 – Japan: 4,376,705 (.JP)
3 – Germany: 3,297,233 (.DE)
4 – China: 3,280,053 (.CN)
5 – United Kingdom: 2,727,806 (.CO.UK)
6 – France: 2,562,288 (.FR)
7 – Italy: 2,107,481 (.IT)
8 – Spain: 1,429,226 (.ES)
9 – Canada: 1,326,376 (.CA)
10 – Brazil: 1,314,170 (.COM.BR)
Brands usually prioritize domains according to the sort of metrics outlined above- it seems intuitive to be in the wealthiest markets. However, there are other things to factor into deciding where to stake out space on the Internet.
eMarketer recently released a report that ranks countries according to how much leisure time is spent online by that country’s Internet users. The following countries spend the most leisure time online (again, I have put the extension most associated with the country alongside it on the list):
1 – China (.CN)
2 – Korea (.KR)
3 – Japan (.JP)
4 – Italy (.IT)
5 – United States (.COM*)
6 – Spain (.ES)
7 – Australia (.COM.AU)
8 – Canada (.CA)
9 – France (.FR)
10 – United Kingdom (.CO.UK)
Let’s take a look at the similarities between the two lists: dot-COMs are both in the top ten, as are dot-CN, dot-KR, dot-CA, dot-FR, dot-IT, dot-JP and dot-ES. However, they occupy different spots on the list. Also, Australia made it into the top-ten leisure time list, but is not in the top ten world GDPs. The same is true for dot-CO.UK. On the other hand, Brazil and Germany have some of the highest GDPs, but not as many people spend their leisure time online in those countries as in others.
These sorts of considerations are part and parcel of the work that needs to be done to actively seek and meet customers where they are online. If a particular country is spending a significant amount of time online, then perhaps there is an untapped market there and perhaps certain extensions should be reprioritized according to new data.
*dot-COM was associated with the US because Americans have not taken to the dot-US extension.
Tags: brand, ccTLDs, China, domain names, dot-CO.uk, dot-COMs, eMarketer, GDP, Germany, Internet, Internet users, Japan, United States, World Bank