Conn Ó Muíneacháin of the technology.ie team interviewed co.com CEO, Ken Hansen in a podcast about the founding of the co.com Registry, the upcoming launch schedule, and the expected demand for co.com, particularly in the international namespace.

In discussing the potential international demand for co.com names, Conn mentioned “in many ways it’s a logical one for companies who may already be in a country that operate a second level .co namespace, such as .co.uk.”

Ken agreed, stating that currently, 61 countries around the world currently operate second level .co country code domain structure. In the UK alone, there are more than 7 million registered co.uk domains. Most UK companies operate under a co.uk, which is perfect within the UK and those customers. However, many of these same companies also have customers outside of the UK that they’d like to market to and a co.uk domain isn’t ideal for this. A co.com name, however, is complementary to their co.uk when it comes to international marketing.

The generic nature of co, which means company, so it’s referred to as company dot com, which makes it perfect for businesses. Ken replied when asked what co.com stands for. “co.com is truly a global TLD — perfect for any country, any business, any company, any person.”

Conn brought up a good point with regards to ICANN’s new Registrar Accreditation Agreement, which violates local EU laws. “It’s a bone of contention with us and many other EU based registrars.” he added.

Ken responded that co.com will ensure that its registrar contracts provide a blanket exemption for EU companies. All contracts and policies of co.com will keep EU policies in mind so that the distribution channel is not being asked to violate EO law.

Listen to the full podcast here: http://technology.ie/audio/technology.ie-2014-02-13.mp3

Read more at: http://technology.ie/introducing-co-com/

Co.com’s sunrise period begins on February 24th and the Registry has already signed on more than 60 Registrars.