Country code registrars around the world must have been smiling when Bit.ly announced its new enterprise service Bit.ly Pro.
For $995 per month a company can leverage Bit.ly’s platform to support its own custom URL. (UPDATE: You can get Bit.ly Pro for free, but with a usage cap and limited feature set; see comments below).
At this price point, we’re only talking about large companies, but there are plenty of them that will find value in having a branded URL that provides excellent tracking data. Bit.ly reports that 6,000 companies have signed up so far. And while not all of these companies will use ccTLDs, most of them probably will.
Companies that are now using Bit.ly Pro include Amazon (amzn.to) and the New York Times (nyti.ms).
And, looking ahead, I’m sure the price of this service will drop, which will attract many more companies into the fold.
I’ve collected a running list of companies using ccTLDs in creative ways here. I expect this list to grow rapidly in the months ahead.
