
Four premium .com domain names in the property sector including house.com are up for grabs with starting bids being accepted from $30 million.
Global Domain Name and Internet Policy News
Four premium .com domain names in the property sector including house.com are up for grabs with starting bids being accepted from $30 million.
The sale of results.com for $264,000 has placed it firmly at the top of Domain Name Journalâs year-to-date sales chart as well as the weekly chart for the week ending 19 January. The domain name was sold through Sedo.
Coming in next was thyme.com and paystubs.com, which sold for $80,000 and $68,750 through Phenom and Uniregistry respectively. Phenom also took out fourth place with another $50K plus sale, selling renovate.com for $58,000.
On the top-level domain side of things, .com dominated as usual with 15 of the top 20 sales while there was one each for .cc, .in, .casino, .org and .cl.
On the aftermarket side of things there were 12 sales through Sedo, 4 through Uniregistry and 3 through Phenom.
To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 19 January in more detail, see: http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2020/20200129.htm
What happens when a Brand changes its company name, which has a .brand new gTLD, such as through a takeover, merger or just a name change? Thereâs currently no quick process in place to allow them to obtain a new gTLD to reflect the change. This is one of the many issues raised by Loïc Damilaville, Market Research Manager at Afnic who manages the French ccTLD as well as 17 new gTLDs, in todayâs Q&A looking at the year just gone and the year ahead.
Damilaville delves into many issues facing the industry including growth, or lack of growth, rates for top-level domains, the financial issues forcing some gTLD operators to sell their gTLDS, the vulnerability of some TLDs to Chinese domainers, future rounds of new gTLD applications, challenges faced by smaller TLDs, particularly new gTLDs. Here heâs concerned about how to get registrars to carry them and without a presence on platforms, Damilaville is also concerned about how the industry is flourishing for many of the established players, but quite hostile to newcomers and real innovations.
Thereâs a lot more in Damilavilleâs Q&A, so please read on!
Domain Pulse: What were the highlights, lowlights and challenges of 2019 in the domain name industry, both for you and/or the industry in general?
Loïc Damilaville: In terms of trends, 2019 has seen the continuing decline of Legacy TLDs, apart from .COM which is enjoying an enviable – even if surprising – growth rate. Surprising because with its nearly 150 million domains it still grows by 5% a year. Is this single TLD “aspirating” the market? What is driving this growth?
“Penny TLDs”, that is to say TLDs whose domain names are “given” or sold at a very low price, have increased their volumes, but we doubt that these millions of domain names are actually used. They shall be considered as highly volatile and not relevant to assess the good or bad health of the market.
The market remains vulnerable to the domaining effect: in 2019, lots of Chinese domainers have transferred their investments from new gTLDs to .TW and this one has literally exploded in a few months. At the present time, we see the reverse effect with a .TW affected by deletions and a .ICU boosted, quite at the same time, by new creations. It may mean that these domaining waves are done by a relatively small number of coordinated big investors.
This phenomenon affects the stability of the market. For instance one may consider that new gTLDs have boomed at the end of 2019 but this boom is almost 100% caused by the .ICU effect, with most of the other new gTLDs experiencing a decrease in their new registrations. A global improvement in volumes doesn’t mean that most of the players are doing well.
This situation drives some registries faced with financial difficulties to sell their TLDs to big players which are also fighting increasingly on the back-end registry market. What is interesting as regards to these back-end activities is that they are researched not only by registries of small TLDs unable to get some costly technologies and infrastructures by themselves, but also by registries of very big TLDs, maybe for the same reasons, with a difference of scale. This is the sign of a kind of professionalisation of the market, but also of a concentration process, with a handful of players on the worldwide level. On the local or regional level, lots of middle-sized players are managing some geoTLDs and/or .BRAND TLDs.
The concentration continues at the registry and registrar levels, some back-ends being both of them. This phenomenon requires (and is allowed by) the growing presence of investment funds in the capital of these players. Although made with dubious methods, the .ORG takeover by Ethos Capital is just one example of this structural evolution of the market.
The Second Round is a topic, but more an icy one than a hot one. We should wait for Winter to leave ;-).
Among the very hot topics of 2019 we have noticed security issues, fights against all kind of DNS abuses, the painful consequences of GDPR for the IP community, and the emergence of services combining data, monitoring and qualification of domain names in terms of notoriety, risks etc.
Referring to our “7As” model (*) we shall consider that 2019 has not seen great improvements in Awareness, Amplitude, Advantages, Access, Adoption, Activity nor Affect. The domain name market may be a little too self-oriented and that could explain some of the difficulties met by new TLDs to “meet their market”.
We have developed a key success factors for Internet extensions evaluation grid which you can see here: htttps://www.afnic.fr/en/resources/blog/key-success-factors-for-internet-extensions-an-evaluation-grid-1.html
DP: What are you looking forward to in 2020?
LD: The main trends of the market should remain the same: decline in Legacy gTLDs, and maybe a 4 percent growth for .COM due to their forecast price increase.
ccTLDs will be affected by the .TW and .UK deletes, but apart from this phenomenon the growth should not be above 3-4%.
New gTLDs will still be split between high volumes generic TLDs and the others. Geos seem to be stronger than Communities and little Generics but the average volume remains low. Brands will continue to progress slowly but surely. They are the most promising segment of this market.
Security, monitoring and data issues will have more and more audience in relation with the DNS Abuse efforts. Tools designed to manage the GDPR limitations will enjoy a strong interest since the needs for identifying and tracking “abusers” have not vanished, those “abusers” feeling encouraged by the anonymity guaranteed by GDPR and the failure of ICANN to provide any reliable, quick and low-cost solution to rights owners.
DP: What challenges and opportunities do you see for the year ahead?
LD: The big challenge for domain names is to exist by themselves, that is to say, to be actually perceived by users as added-value components of their internet presence and not just something technical, necessary to be reached on the internet, whether it is a .COM, .FR or .ANYTHING.
Another big challenge is for the registrars to find their way into a more diversified domain name world. One of the main burdens for new gTLDs is to reach their potential customers, a task they can’t do if they are not referenced by the registrars which actually reach these customers. But registrars seem to lack enthusiasm to sell new gTLDs which are not at first sought by their customers, and a vicious circle is in force: big registrars proposes to their customers the TLDs they already know (and buy), and the new gTLDs are kept in the shadows and not bought as the customers don’t know them very well and do not trust them.
We may also mention the “Next Round” as a challenge for the ICANN Community, but – in relation with what precedes – also for the market players in general. In the current organisation of the market, more generic TLDs will create only more confusion without being able to reach their customers. The situation of .BRANDs and .GEOs are very different because in both cases the “market” already exists: big companies will become used to consider that having their own TLD is a “must have”. And GeoTLDs are appealing to the feelings of proximity and local pride of their “natural” customers.
This leads to another big challenge. Apart from the high-volume oriented ones, the new or future TLDs will be more and more focused on niches, whether they be geographical or sectorial. This means that we will see a lot of TLDs with very low volumes compared to those we are used to see. In order to allow them to be financially viable, there MUST be a deep thought about the global financial organisation of the market.
At the ICANN level, the $25,000 flat fee is a burden that strangles many little TLDs and obliges them to sell their domain names at uncompetitive prices compared to .COM and big ccTLDs.
At the back-end level, things are more difficult to analyse but we should see in the future the emergence of some low-cost solutions targeting little TLDs and some value-added solutions targeting big TLDs or TLDs wanting to propose very specific services to their registrants. The homogeneous market as we know it nowadays is probably condemned but the transition to new models will take a long time. The growing influence of financial people in the management of TLDs should be an opportunity by providing some new means, but it can also be a threat because innovations may imperil the forecasted Return on Investment rates. When you buy a cash cow, you do not want it to become a risky bet.
DP: What progress do you see on a new round of applications for new gTLDs in 2020?
LD: There will be progress but it would be hazardous to say that everything should be settled at the end of the year. One main question â that is not addressed by the focus on process â is to ask what kind of «new round» we really want, and basically if we want a «round» or a continuous process.
It seems very logical and strategically important to allow the .BRANDs to benefit from a special, expedited and permanent process as soon as the candidates are eligible to certain rules avoiding «optimization» by some «smart» guys. There are lots of reasons in favour of this special process: these TLDs are for internal use only, and since the big companies are often changing their names, creating some new trademarks, etc., they should be able to change their .BRANDs when they need to do so. For the time being, having a .BRAND is a strategic strength if you intend to keep the same name for the next decades, but it can also become a trap if you are obliged to change your companyâs name because of a merger or any other event.
The Geo-TLDs should also be allowed fast procedures if they are requested by legitimate authorities.
The fact that ICANN is only able to provide a «round» every ten years is not a proof of its efficiency. That said, we are aware that it depends strongly on its own Community and should not be considered the only responsible of these delays.
DP: What one thing would you like to see addressed or changed in the domain name industry?
LD: Lots of the points we could address have already been talked about. The main issue is that some problems or deficiencies, or even some threats to some players, are benefitting others, and reciprocally. The situation of the domain name industry results mostly from compromises built through power relations between its members and their «external» partners such as governments, right owners, customers etc.
These compromises are not fully optimal and many of them are so weak that they are constantly challenged by the dissatisfied parties. One may remark that it is the story of life: but the parties involved should make an effort to reach a long-term win-win deal more than seeking for deals which only protect their own interests in the short term.
The global situation for this market â still flourishing for the established players, but quite hostile to newcomers and real innovations â would be improved by a new approach of the challenges it faces. It is still waiting for its «New Deal» and will probably still wait for a long time, not for the better.
Previous Q&As in this series were with:
Q&As in the 2019 series were with:
The year was not quite 2 weeks in and Domain Name Journal has already got its first 6-figure sale charted on their top reported domain name sales chart with barri.com taking out top place for the week ending 12 January, selling for $100,000 through NameExperts to the Barri Financial Group in the USA.
Coming in second and third were kiru.com and spaceelements.com which sold for $75,415 through VPN.com and $33,333 through GoDaddy respectively.
While there first sale on the chart wasnât until fourth position, Sedo still managed to take out 11 of the top 20 sales while Uniregistry and the .GLOBAL Registry had 2 sales each. On the top-level domain side of things there were 16 .com sales, including the top 13, and 2 for .global and one each for .io and .ie.
To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 12 January in more detail, go to: http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2020/20200122.htm
Radix sold premium domain names in their new gTLDs to the value of $1.657 million in the second half of 2019, an increase of 22% on the previous 6 months sales of $1.36 million, according to Premium Domains Report for July to December 2019.
For the year, there was a total of $3 million in premium sales, which not unexpectedly was their best year ever with .online, .tech and .store being the highest-grossing of their new gTLDs for premium sales.
There were also over 220 domain names sold with a value of at least $1,000, including 10 over $10,000, with clean.tech the highest one-time sale in this period, selling for $30,000 through Sedo. 82% of the premium domains registered in or before 2018 were renewed.
The biggest grossing of Radixâs new gTLDs for premium sales was .tech with 208 premium sales valued at $208,746 followed by .online (198 sales valued at $167,155) and .store (146 sales valued at $104,875). These were the only 3 gTLDs that had more than 100 sales. But of the top 9, the new generic top-level domain with the highest mean value sale was .fun with 43 sales valued at $51,013 for an average of $1,186 each.
For renewals of premium domain names, Radix had revenue of $903,687 for 807 domains with .online providing over a third of that with $328,132 followed by .tech ($151,538) and .store ($149,175), the only 3 gTLDs with renewal revenue in the 6 figure mark.
The Christmas/new year period saw Domain Name Journal compile one report on top reported sales for the 3 weeks to 5 January. And unusually it was a ccTLD domain name that topped the chart â ticket.ca which sold for C$100,000 ($77,000) through eMall.ca.
Coming in second and third for the 3 week period was touhou.com and oge.com, which sold for $75,000 and $62,000 respectively through Sedo.
Sedo took out 7 sales on the top 20 chart, Uniregistry 6 (one in conjunction with New.life) and NameJet 3. On the top-level domain side of things there were 14 .com sales, 2 for .net and one each for .ca, .money, .org and .co.uk.
To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the 3 weeks ending 5 January in more detail, go to: https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2020/20200115.htm
Mastermind.com topped the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 15 December, selling for $600,000 in a private sale earlier in 2019, but only revealed late in the year. It was bought for $275,000 in September 2018 then sold to Click Funnels founder Russell Brunson for a new project that has been launched with partners Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi.
The sale of mastermind.com was 6 times the second largest sale for the week, that of stairwell.com, which sold for $60,000 through LegalBrandMarketing while DomainMarket took out the next 2 positions on the chart, selling narratives.com and alternativedata.com for $52,500 and $50,000 respectively.
Despite their biggest sale come in at fifth spot, Sedo had 7 sales only bettered by Uniregistry, whose biggest sale came in at sixth. There were 16 .com sales on the top 20 chart and one each for .co, .ca, .app and .net.
To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 15 December, go to: http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2019/20191225.htm
Onehome.com topped the last weekly chart of top reported sales published by Domain Name Journal in 2019, selling for $70,000 through Sedo. The chart for the week ending 8 December saw terragene.com come in second, selling for $30,270 in a private sale while quaestor.com came in third in a $26,000 sale through AbdulBasit/Sedo.
Overall Sedo had a hand in 8 sales for the week, but they were bested by Uniregistry with 10. On the top-level domain (TLD) side of things there were 13 .com sales, 3 for .de, 2 for .org and one each for .fr and .review.
To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 8 December in more detail, go to: http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2019/20191218.htm
Wanda.com sold for $83,817 through NameJet to top the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported domain name sales for the week ending 1 December, beating out brgroup.com ($30,000 through Sedo) and a pair of 3 letter domains â uml.com and ast.net â which surprisingly particularly in the case of the former sold for $21,400 and $20,000 through NameJet and Uniregistry respectively.
As usual .com dominated the top-level domains with 16 on the top 20 chart with one each for .net, .co, .shop and .ai. For the aftermarket outlets there were NameJet took out 8 sales, Sedo 6, Uniregistry 4 and SnapNames 2.
To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 1 December in more detail, see: http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2019/20191211.htm
A brace of 6-figure domain name sales topped the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 24 November, with greenroads.com coming out top, selling for $160,000 through Uniregistry, while buoy.com came in next selling for $110,000 through Sedo. Third, a long way behind was a new gTLD domain clean.tech, which sold for $30,000, also through Sedo.
On the top-level domain (TLD) side of things, .com was pretty dominant with 16 out of the top 21 sales â there was a tie for 20th place â while there was one each for .tech, .uk, .co, .eu and .cc. For aftermarket outlets, there were 11 sales through Uniregistry and 9 through Sedo.
To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 24 November in more detail, go to: http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2019/20191204.htm