Company and international brand identities stolen by cyber squatters

Blog author: Sean McDonald (Former ICONZ CEO)

Snooze and you will lose...

Many of New Zealand’s leading companies and iconic brands have had their unique domain names (website URL addresses) purchased by 'internet squatters' over the last week.

Since the launch of .CO domains on July 21^st,from our subsidiary company Freeparking, thousands of domain names have been snapped up but  I expected there to be more media attention on this to advise New Zealanders about the opportunity to secure their global online name but more importantly, to alert companies to the risk of losing their global domain. Sadly this has not happened so its up to my world famous blog to get the message out there.!!

From reports I have seen over the last week I have become increasingly concerned about the number of companies that have had their domain names stolen by internet squatters. Once they are gone, they are gone forever, or until you decide to pay the squatters asking price. A one time $59.95 purchase can quickly turn into $100,000 when it hits the squatters market.

They say that .CO is the new .COM for global domains!. After decades as the global domain name of choice for companies with an online presence, the .com options have simply run out. Ever tried buying a .com domain lately? The new global domain prefix .CO has been created to  help satisfy the massive growth of companies demanding a global online presence.

Companies in multiple markets generally need to register the local domain extension like www.iconz.co.nz or iconz.com.au. A top level domain (TLD) like .com, and now .CO, enables a company to have one global address that everyone can find regardless of where they are in the world.

If you have not considered the new .CO domains yet I would strongly recommend that you do. For $59.95 is it really a decision at all? It may not seem obvious today but who knows whats around the corner.

Chop, chop then.....Freeparking will gladly take care of things for you.