
Until now, many business owners and IT professionals have the believe that a .COM domain name is better than a .NG domain name because a .COM domain names means that your business is global and it can be accessible to everybody in any part of the world while a .NG domain name is local. But I will rather call this a myth or a wrong assumption.
.NG domains has the same capability or capacity just as a .COM domain. All domain names stem from the same source, share the same root servers globally and are managed at the global level by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
The difference is that in the early days of the internet, .COM was the first extension to be created and introduced to the world, hence it gained massive adoption. The first ever domain name to be registered was symbolics.com in 1985 unlike the .NG extension that was created 20 years later in 2005.
Chances are that your preferred .COM domain name has been registered. As of June 30, 2022, the .COM domain name base totaled 161.1 million domain name registrations, while the .NG domain name base has a total of 140,000 domain names registered.
It will be easier for you to get your preferred domain name in a .NG extension which will still serve the same purpose globally.
Cybercrime is rampant everywhere, people are always skeptical visiting a .COM website that they are not sure of because it could be a scam website. Monitoring .NG domain names are a lot easier because of the numbers and it helps to curb criminal activities online.
While the .NG administrators (NiRA) have been working to make .NG domain names affordable, Verisign (the .COM administrator) signed an agreement with ICANN to increase the prices of .COM every two years. Due to the instability of the foreign exchange rate in Nigeria, .COM domain names will continue to be on the increase.
If the servers for all .NG domain names are located in Nigeria and that of your web host too is located within the country, the time it will take for a website to open up will be lesser than when the servers are located in a foreign country because of ultralow latency.
Choosing a .NG domain name over .COM is best for you and your business. It also makes your business stand out and gives your website the uniqueness and your visitors the confidence that they can do business with you.
Article written by Ebenezer Dare.