When everyone didn’t get it (domain names) they did. UCPB.COM (United Coconut Planters Bank)

Checking out Filipino companies online, I found that tons of us here didn’t get the power of using domain names. It was quite shocking that others have resorted to adding certain domain name prefix like my or i, while there are other numerous choices that they could’ve gone for. I applaud one local company, UCPB, for getting it…

… UCPB or United Coconut Planters Bank is one of the veteran banks that we have here in the Philippines. What’s really interesting about them is their domain name, which is ucpb.COM. Now UCPB isn’t exactly the best choice in domain names (in terms of keywords), but it does a very good job of getting people to remember and able to type it directly to their address bar.

– 12 Years old Domain names –

What’s really interesting about it, is that the domain name has been registered in 1997, when domain names weren’t that known here. Now considering that their domain name is at least more than a decade old, that means that the Search Engines definitely give it more weight with a PR 5 status.

What’s more, I’m not sure if they’re well aware of it, but the value of their domain name is very high. First, UCPB is a 4 character all letter .COM, most of the domain names in this range are already worth a few thousand without any development at all. Second, the fact that it is more than a decade old means it has an established Search Engine Ranking which gives it organic search engine results. Third, lots of marketing efforts, they’ve built up the brand and can probably get lots of type-in traffic directly to their website.

It was very interesting to see a company that got the meaning of domaining a long time ago (I wish I understood it that early), it must’ve just been around $35 / year to register before and $7 / year a few years later which isn’t a big investment but is now worth at least a good $XX,XXX value. The only disappointing thing about it is that they didn’t secure the .PH or .COM.PH which someone else already owned the .PH version. Some of the traffic might be spilling towards the local counterparts.