A report from Deloitte Access Economics has found that companies registering .au domain names over the past year contributed just under $475 million to the Australian economy. Wow.
The $474.7 million dollars contributed to Australia’s bottom line came from 60,000 domains being registered each month, which keeps 4,330 people employed. Back in 2002, just 6552 .au domains were registered in December, showing the massive growth in Australian websites over the past decade.
85 per cent of registrations were for .com.au addresses, with .net.au making up the next 11 per cent.
It’s amazing to think that something so simple can be such a massive, multi-million dollar industry. Given that we only passed the two million .AU domains last year, it’s one hell of an impressive figure.
[Nett]
Long Time User
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 3:54 PMBecause Australians have been bit slow to get on the website bandwagon, often you have no choice but to buy the com.au version of a name, because the .com version was already bought 10 years earlier by someone more on the ball.
OTH, the .com.au version is also quite useful if your business only serves Australia, or even a smaller area e.g. one city. It gives people a better feel for where you are.
Andrew
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 4:22 PMYou need an ABN to register a .com.au domain name so it adds an element of credibility. I’d be reasonably sure that it helps with search engine optimisation too (for Australian users).
PrepaidPlans
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 3:57 PMgoing for .com.au is also much better for seo if you are serving Australia.
Greg
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 4:21 PMYet, even if you have a .com.au domain, you still get enquiry from all over the world. Some idiots will always be willing to pay for freight to the US for some tea towels. Go Figure??!!
Alex
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 4:00 PMI still dont really get why .com.au is more $ thn .com
tax somewhere ?
Andrew
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 4:20 PMThey’re governed by different organisations, with different expenses and different profits.
David
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 11:46 AMThey are’nt – it’s a misconception. MelbourneIT charge $140 for a registration and $339 for a change of registrant but the majority of registrars charge nothing like that:
eg
VentraIP – $20 and $20 respecively
Ziphosting – $21 and $30 respecively
That’s for 2 years. So A$20 for two years is roughly the same as US$10 for 1 year for a .com
chris
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 4:53 PMFor a long time you couldnt register a .com.au without a corresponding business name registration. Also the cost of .com.au was huge compared to .com. In around 2002 it cost $130 for the .com.au and another $100 for the business name. So at $230 for a .com.au pluss all the red tape versus about $10 for a .com online and done in an instant its no wonder the .com space filled up faster. This has left opportunities in the .com.au space, but with a population of only 20million its a small market.
Matt L
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 4:56 PMIt’s to deter people using .com.au for the sake of it. It’s purely a commercial based system.
Domain Registration
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