Show the world online that you're proud to be part of Wales
DOMAIN AVAILABILITY - If you would like to see if your .wales or .cymru domain is available please visit our domain checker page which will allow you to search with ease alongside hundreds of other extensions.
Wales has been one of the last countries in the world to have access to its own domain name. Whether you are an individual with a personal website, or a business proud to be Welsh, these domains can allow you to better promote your location and what you sell.
You may currently be making use of existing domain extensions such as evans-hats-wales.com, whereas now can look to securing a simpler and shorter version such as evans-hats.wales or evanshats.cymru.
As part of the application process the organisers behind this made sure that both .wales and .cymru were secured. This can allow you to easily separate your English and Welsh versions of your website, as an example.
All the profits generated from the registration of .cymru and .wales domain names by Nominet are being put back into Internet related projects in Wales.
Each domain is priced at £18.50 per year regardless of whether you purchase one, or both. This price applies to registration and renewals. These domains can be registered for a maximum of 10 years.
WALES DOMAIN NAME BENEFITS
The benefits of these domain names are hard to measure, but we believe that
they are likely to significantly outweigh the costs. Our survey suggest that 70%
of Welsh consumers and 59% of Welsh business respondents believe that Wales should
have its own domain space.
BUSINESS SURVEY REPORTS
Around 40% of our business survey respondents thought that a domain name for Wales
could help promote their business in Wales. Around 30% thought that a ".wales" domain
name would help promote their business outside of Wales and internationally, whilst
20% thought that a ".cymru" domain name would have this effect.
BUSINESS PREFERENCES
A ".wales" domain name is significantly more attractive to many Welsh businesses
than ".cymru" because it is more recognisable outside Wales. 42% of respondents
to our business survey preferred the Welsh top level domain to be ".wales" (24%
preferred ".cymru"; 19% preferred ".cymru-wales"; and 15% did not know).
CONSUMER PREFERENCES
Consumers in Wales show a strong preference for either ".wales" or "cymru" over
most alternatives, with a slightly stronger preference for the latter. Our
consumer survey suggests that slightly more Welsh consumers prefer a ".cymru"
domain in comparison to other popular domains such as ".co.uk" and ".com" (59%
and 72% respectively) than prefer ".wales" to the same domains (53% and 70%
respectively). An alternative hybrid ".cymru-wales", was considered but was
not preferred.
WELSH BRANDING
The value to businesses of Welsh branding varies across sectors and a domain
name for Wales will enable those businesses who think it can help them promote
their business to take advantage of the branding and other benefits that it
offers. Estimates based on our customer survey suggest that more than £2billion
of sales in Wales could be available to businesses and organisations adopting
a ".wales" website, though it is likely to result from displacing trading in
other online and offline Environments.
LOCALLY BRANDED GOODS AND SERVICES
A Welsh domain, reflecting well-established consumer preference for locally
branded goods and services, could lead to additional e-commerce activity and
offline transactions for businesses registering under the new domain. If a
separate domain for Wales were to increase e-commerce sales by just 1%, for
example, then this would be equivalent to a sales increase of £195m.
RAISING THE PROFILE OF WALES
A Wales-specific domain could contribute positively to the development of the
Wales brand and to the wider recognition of that brand overseas. In this way
it could support the work of the Welsh Government in raising the profile of
Wales internationally to attract inward investment, to promote Welsh exports
and to grow the Welsh economy.
