One of the last week’s sales on Sedo was biura.com. “Biura” means “offices” in Polish language. It was sold for 1150 USD. The same keyword in .pl (biura.pl) would generate at least 10-20 thousand USD from sale but probably much more.
People in Europe (and in other parts of the world, too!) would generally prefer ccTLDs (.pl, .de, .co.uk, .fr etc.) than .com TLD. There are differences between countries and Spanish or French keyword in .com could be worth more than the same keyword in .es (for Spain) or .fr (for France). But in most cases .pl, .de, .se etc. names will be more valuable than .com domains (written in Polish, German or Swedish).
On a global scale .com is king, especially English names + .com. But “locally” (country by country) people prefer ccTLDs. And that local trend will continue.
Do you agree or not? Please comment!
Number of domains registered in Poland:
.pl 1,412,646
.com.pl 339,916
.eu 210,507
.com 195,244
.waw.pl 51,995
.net 45,962
.info 41,882
.net.pl 35,104
.org 25,135
.org.pl 24,113
.info.pl 21,108
.biz.pl 11,971
.edu.pl 10,995
Domain Market in Europe 
JSL said
what do you mean by “generate” ? Generate from parking, from ads if developed or would sell for that amount ?
Daniel Dryzek said
Would sell for that amount (at least that amount).
Morgan said
Great post Daniel and really excellent points! I still need you to help me pick my first .pl domain. As you know I am a big believer in ccTLDs but have mostly focused on .us because that’s what I know. Looking to expand into .de this year but would love a few .pl’s too!
Daniel Dryzek said
I am here to help with .pl Morgan! :) .de is a great ccTLD but very competitive and already very expensive. .pl on the other hand is still undervalued in my opinion and there are still some fantastic investment opportunities (well, I buy .pl domains everyday :)!
Meph said
Definitely agree with you. Same situation for .cz
Matt Sharp said
That’s a huge amount of domains already registered , too bad most of them aren’t used and are being kept for later profit as a reseller .
Jimmy Davis said
Not a completely thought out post.
I do believe ccTLD is good/great for a country, but some countries will still prefer .com.
For example, Arabs prefer .com b/c of the common language and b/c how the borders of many Arabic-speaking countries are bordering each other, so they like .com to appeal their prodservs to all the countries, as opposed to limiting themselves to one country in sales.
Daniel Dryzek said
100% agree with you Jimmy – there are some countries where .com is still more popular than ccTLD. But it is good to realize that probably even more countries prefer ccTLDs more than .com.