
COVID-19 may be seeing surges in domain name registrations, particularly among many ccTLDs, but this surge doesn’t appear to be transferring to the domain name aftermarket, with Escrow.com reporting the total value of transacted domain names dropping from $85.8 million in the first quarter of 2020 to $55.2 million in the second. This is the lowest seen since 2018.
According to the Escrow.com Domain Investment Index: Q2, 2020, there was a drop in transactions as the COVID-19 pandemic started to affect domain transactions, especially in the US. The quarter started weak in April but saw slow recovery in May and June according to the report from Escrow.com, the world’s largest online escrow provider for domain names.

Despite the added crisis in Hong Kong, transactions there picked up to $2.4 million in the second quarter. However, other leading countries such as Canada, China, US and UK dropped during the quarter with the US having the largest drop, from $70 million to $42.6 million.
The report also found the median price of domain names with content dropped by half from around $7,000 to $3,500, while domain names without content dropped only slightly by around $100 to $2,500.
To download the full report, with more detail, click here [pdf].