Canadians turned to .CA domains during the pandemic, will the trend continue?

While I know that interest in domains grew during the pandemic as consumers shifted from in-store to online, I don’t know if I think .CA suddenly reached a tipping point. That being said, I don’t mean to totally poo poo .CA domains. I know that people like them in Canada and yes, they’re definitely more popular as a ccTLD than say .US domains in the US, but we really use .COM as our ccTLD here.

At the end of the day, I think during the pandemic, more Canadians than ever before launched online businesses, and when they did, they found the .COM was taken and .CA became their next logical choice. So while I think it’s great that .CA saw some growth over the last year, I don’t think there’s any fundamental shift where Canadians would now rather have a .COM than a .CA. Instead, like I said, I think more people started online businesses, saw the .COM was taken, and went for .CA.

Overall the reality is domain names as a whole have seen and will continue to see incredible growth as the whole world makes the shift to buying online. What do you think? Is there a fundamental shift happening in Canada that is biasing Canadians towards .COM or is this just a part of the general shift we’re seeing globally as more people launch businesses online?

I want to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!