MailOnline has announced that it will be switching from its current .co.uk domain to .com, following negotiations with the US Charleston Daily Mail paper that owned the dailymail.com domain name.
At a speculated £1 million cost, the transfer will eventually see all dailymail.co.uk visitors land on dailymail.com, signalling the newsbrand’s expansion into the US and other international markets.
While the online news platform currently secures approximately 161 million visits per month from UK readers – just short of 10 million each day – almost 70% of traffic comes from outside of the UK and is particularly lucrative in the US.
In November, DMGT reported that despite revenue losses from print titles Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, MailOnline was up a huge 48% year on year, with revenue surpassing the £40 million mark, compared with £28 million in 2012.
In the same report, DMGT confirmed that it was investing in its US editorial, which has doubled staff numbers to 80, as it focuses on increasing the size and engagement of its global audience.
The .com domain currently takes visitors to a letter from Charleston Daily Mail editor, Brad McElhinny, who explains the shift, before users are redirected to the paper’s new domain.
