Virtual real estate is a fairly new concept that is beginning to be appreciated in the internet community. As more and more people turn to the
internet to start new businesses, virtual real estate is gaining popularity and value, especially in Canada.
So what is virtual real estate? To understand the concept, think of the internet as a community—it has people socializing, stores that sell goods and services, places to play and relax and places where you can learn and even earn a legitimate professional degree. When you think about it, this is exactly the way we describe a town or city where people live in the physical world.
The only thing missing from this virtual world are the senses of smell and taste. We can touch our keyboards, see pages and illustrations and hear music and voices. It makes sense, then, that the concept of virtual real estate would become “real”. Our blogs, websites, the forums and social media we visit are all virtual real estate owned by the people that operate them.
But the most valuable virtual real estate properties are the businesses that operate in cyberspace. Canada has had its own internet extension, called TLD (top level domain) for some time now, designated by .ca. When you register and get a TLD for your website or online business, your visitors know that you are a resident of Canada or qualified to have a .ca TLD. You will attract more business and visitors from your home country with this TLD because your customers know that the transactions will keep wealth within the borders of Canada and help the economy grow and thrive.
Your “home” or “store” in cyberspace is just like your home or store in the physical world. There are places or rooms where you perform certain duties, spaces where you entertain friends, a showroom where your goods are displayed and even an area for your cash register. There even are rules you can put in place that people must abide by or they can be forbidden to return to your virtual residence or business.
Virtual real estate has value, too, just like the real estate on the street where you live in the “real” world. This real estate can be like a plot of land that you build on, consisting of just a domain name, or you can buy or lease a site domain already established, much like buying a pre-owned home or leasing office space.
Just as you can make physical real estate more valuable with additions or improvements, your virtual real estate can appreciate in value, too. One of the ways you can improve your virtual real estate is with a .ca TLD name that lets everyone know that you live and do business in Canada. 60% of all Canadians actively seek to do business with websites that have a .ca TLD name.
