I am currently in Mexico City – the largest city in Mexico and one of the most populated in the world! Unfortunately when many people think of Mexico City they think of crime and poverty. While these elements certainly exist in Mexico City, it is also a major business hub for Latin America and an incredibly beautiful city. If you spend some time in La Zona Rosa (an upscale neighborhood in Mexico City) you will find people rushing by in suits, carrying briefcases and driving BMW’s.
So of course whenever I travel to another country I am always interested in what TLD’s are popular there. It’s like my inner geek comes-out and before you know it I am studying every poster and sign that I see to better understand the Domaining market dynamics. Mexico is an interesting case.
I have seen just about an equal number of advertisments for .com, .com.mx, and .mx domains which means if you have a business in Mexico – what TLD do you brand with? From what I can tell it seems that .com was very popular here and is still used by International companies when displaying their URL’s in advertisements. Mexican businesses seem to stick to .com.mx or .mx which also makes sense.
Many of the domains are in English so I do not think this market is like that of Russia or Spain where the domain name really needs a word in the native language to be useful. Pretty much everyone in Mexico City speaks some English and I think it would be a fairly safe assumption to believe that most of the Internet/tech-savvy folks here visit English pages just as much as they do Spanish.
While Mexico does lag behind the U.S. in technology there is a growing middle class here and great access to cheap computers. I have seen many people sitting outside with Netbooks – definitely using some kind of EVDO or 3G-type network to connect to the Internet. With .mx now available to register at GoDaddy the wheels in my brain are starting to turn. Certainly .mx is easier to type than .com.mx, and more and more businesses in Mexico are putting a focus on growing their online business.
As the middle-class in Mexico continues to grow I foresee a similar situation as we now see in India – a larger middle-class means more Internet users. Just a few blocks from my hotel is a school for children to learn how to build websites, use Photoshop, and even configure Linux. When I looked in the window – every seat was taken by eager children learning the latest and greatest in technology.
Like in the US – businesses like to brand with the CCTLD – we’ve seen many US-based business use .us as a branding tool and the same thing is happening in Mexico. Everyone always says that all the good .com’s are taken but I’ll tell you this – not all the good .mx’s are taken and as a big ccTLD geek I have to say I see a bright future for Mexico and the .mx TLD.
I would be very interested to hear commentary from anyone who lives here in Mexico. As a visitor it is obviously hard to get the full picture when you are just here for a few days so please feel free to comment on my post and share your thoughts!
Y muchas gracias para todas las personas que habla espanol se leer mi blog. Mexico es un pais muy bonito y yo me gusto todos mis viajes a la ciudad de Mexico – es una ciudad con mucho cultura y es muy especial! Buena noches!
