This Sunday (March 1st) is St David’s Day and to mark this year’s annual celebration of the patron saint of Wales, the new domain name extensions .cymru and .wales will become available for everyone to purchase from midday.
The rise of these new country domains are a way of increasing consumer trust in geographical brands. The Scottish Government has already pointed its main website towards .scot and the Welsh Government also has plans to switch its domain from .gov.uk to .wales in the near future.
The governments of both Celtic nations are encouraging businesses to follow suit and help establish global profiles for the two countries that reflect their unique selling points. As the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones said when he announced that the Welsh Government would adopt .wales and .cymru, “I hope Welsh businesses and organisations will join us in the switch, helping to establish a global profile that reflects Wales’ unique identity, enabling us to create a recognisable Welsh community online.”
One relatively new Welsh business is delighted that .wales and .cymru will be available. NomNom Chocolate is what its young founder Liam Burgess calls a ‘proper’ chocolate brand. By combining the best ingredients from local producers with world’s finest Cacao, Liam has created a delicious range of chocolate that is being sold not only in independent delicatessens across west Wales but also in the West Country and in London.
Liam has pre-registered the new domains with Easyspace and says, “I think they’re genius. We are part of a growing craft food movement in Wales seeking to use local products and celebrate what’s great about living and working here. We are about to launch our first website and to be able to use a .cymru or .wales will be fantastic for promoting ourselves as part of ‘brand Wales.’”
The same goes for Scotland, where the new .dot scot domain is already being used widely. Scottish journalist and author Peter Ranscombe bought the Ranscombe.scot domain name to help promote his debut novel, an historical thriller called “Hare.” The book takes the story of Burke and Hare – Scotland’s most notorious killers – and asks what happened next to Hare after Burke was hanged. In Peter’s story, Hare travels to Boston during the early years of the American Civil War, when a series of murders places him under suspicion again.
Peter explains, “I already own many of the Ranscombe domain names, but I discovered that my usual supplier wasn’t able to sell the new .scot and .co domain names to me. So instead I turned to Easyspace. I knew that the company was reliable because the United Reformed Church – whose Scottish magazine I edit – bought its domain names and storage space through Easyspace. The sales process was very smooth and I’ve found it easy to use the web address forwarding service.”
Peter thinks the .scot domain names are a great idea for promoting his work to fellow Scots across the world. He says, “The domain helps to make your website address memorable and appeal not just to Scots but also to members of the Scottish diaspora, which was important for me because my book is on sale in Canada and the United States as well as in the UK.”
Pride Glasgow, Scotland’s largest LBGT festival, migrated its online presence and email to pride.scot with Easyspace in the autumn.
Ross Stevenson, Deputy Chief Executive of Pride Glasgow, explains, “Using .scot means we have a shorter and snappier domain and email address and it also gives Pride a much more Scottish identity both at home and abroad as Scotland’s international profile grows. Purchasing it through Easyspace was easy and quick.”
Easyspace is offering free email hosting and 40% off web hosting for anyone who successfully registers .cymru and .wales. To find out more visit our .WALES & .CYMRU page.
To register a .scot domain name please visit our .SCOT page.
