(28 May 2008)

The average price of .co.uk domains has risen by 22 per cent over the past three years, while the average price of .com domains has fallen by 18 per cent over the same period, according to figures from domain marketplace Sedo.

Prices for a .co.uk domain now average around £2,614 while the more generic .com domains average £1,372.
"The world is becoming increasingly connected, and the nature of the internet is reducing face-to-face transactions," said Nora Nanayakkara, director of business development at Sedo.

"Companies run the risk of appearing detached and out of touch with their customer base if they have only a catch-all global .com domain.

"Consumers still like dealing with local businesses. Having regional domains such as .co.uk gives consumers greater confidence that they are dealing with a local organisation."

This trend is backed up by findings in a recent survey by UK domain registrar Nominet which found that 62 per cent of UK surfers will opt for UK sites over more generic top-level domains when searching the web.
However, this increased popularity has seen a marked increase in the number of phishing attacks targeting UK sites.

Nominet found that one phishing syndicate seems to be particularly prolific, using the stolen personal information of a genuine registrant to register 40 to 60 domains at a time to run phishing sites.