Top is 4 Yr Old

It has passed without much fanfare but yesterday the .top extension had the four year anniversary of general availability that began on Nov 17, 2014.  Through promotional pricing the .top extension leads all ngTLDs in number of registrations, about 3.7 million registrations currently according to nTLDStats. 

Registration Data

The registration numbers went up to a peak of nearly 4.8 million, then  dropped to about 1.9 million early in 2018, before bouncing back to the current rate of 3.7 million. Plot below is courtesy of nTLDStats.

Sales Data

The .top extension has also done very well sales wise.  For example in 2018 YTD the NameBio database for .top shows 467 sales accounting for bout $2 million volume.  The average sales price is an impressive $4340.  There have been 7 sales in 2018 above $50,000 and 28 for more than $10,000. The extension registration is dominated by China (93% currently), and Chinese registries account for the vast majority of registrations, both premium and standard. The abuse characteristics of the extension remain problematic. I am planning a  more extensive review of the .top extension at some future date.

Promotion at Alpnames

Probably several registrars will be offering discounts to mark the anniversary.  Alpnames have started a promotion where new registrations of .top are reduced to $0.99.  It's active now - not sure how long it will last. According to TLD-List it is currently the best offer on registration among the major registrars.

Original post Oct 18, 2018.

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make. I have no association with the folks who maintain NameBio. I acknowledge the makers of these for the valuable products that they make freely available to the domain name community. I have no association with the .top registry, except that I have a number of their domain names in my portfolio.  I have no affiliate or other relationship with Alpnames, except using them as a registrar for some of my domain names.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis.  If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.  I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©B Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually. 

Are You Missing The TOP?

Every morning at 9 AM in the Eastern time zone Michael Sumner at NameBio releases the daily domain name sales report.  I, and probably most serious domain name investors and analysts, eagerly check the report each morning.  I find that Micheal puts just the right amount of detail into the report, making it an informative but quick read.  The purpose of this thread is to warn you to not base your perceptions of what is selling only on the daily report.  Let me explain.

The NameBio Daily Report

The structure of each daily report is the same.  It starts with a title giving the total sales volume for the day along with the name and price of the top domain name sale.  After that there is a brief summary that repeats that information and  also gives the number of sales, and the comparison of number and total dollar amount with the previous days. A bit later will be a summary of  those  domain names  that had sold perviously, giving  the year and amount of the previous sale for each, and the percentage increase or decrease.  Then the complete sales list, typically about 220 sales, is given in order of decreasing sales price. For each the domain name, price and sales venue are given.

The monetization of the NameBio daily report depends on promotion of some auctions and sales, so that information is usually embedded somewhere in the daily reports. That information can also be valuable for those expanding their domain portfolio with new acquisitions.  I also like that Michael provides archived reports in an easy to access fashion.  For example I recently used the last 100 daily reports in an  analysis looking at which domain extensions were in first place most often.

Where Are The .TOP Sales?

When I did a search using the NameBio database the other day, I was surprised that the database showed 17 sales of .TOP extension domain names during the previous week (Aug 5-12, 2018), even though I believe only one of them had been on any of the preceding seven NameBio daily domain sales reports. These sales were significant, ranging in price per domain from $638 to $51,187, with an  average sales price of $4549.  In total they accounted for over $77,000 sales in .TOP in just that week. The sales venues were predominantly Jiangsu Bangning, the .TOP registry, but also included sales during this one week period at Alibaba Cloud and NameSilo.

So why were the .TOP domain sales missing from the daily report? I believe the answer is that naturally each daily report can only include sales reports received by the time the report is assembled, so venues that report sporadically or from other time zones are often excluded. Although this bias is of course not deliberate, if you base your impressions only on the NameBio daily report they will be skewed. In particular there is bias against trades in the Asian domain markets, and extensions like TOP.  Of course everyone realizes there are other biases related to which venues report to NameBio, and the fact that domain name sales under $100 are not publicly reported.

So What Did I Miss?

I present the TOP sales in the NameBio database for the week of Aug 5–12 in the table on the right (click on the table if you need a higher resolution view).  Not only are the total number and value significant, but there are some noteworthy individual sales.

The two letter domain name bg sold for more than $51,000, and several 3 letter domain names sold as well. I was interested in the sales of a number of animal names: koala, frog, dolphin and zebra, which each sold for more than $1000.

Conclusions

While I urge you to read the NameBio daily report each morning, make sure you remember that sometimes sales do not make it into the NameBio database in time to make the daily report. This is particularly true for venues that only report sporadically to NameBio and those from venues located in the far east time zones.

Some may say 'I don't really care if I miss the odd ngTLD sale'.  This perception bias if you look only at the daily report can be very significant.  For example, in the period considered here the missing .TOP sales equalled the combined  number of sales in that period for .CO, .DE and .INFO (16 in total), almost equal to .IO sales in that period (19), and represented about 50% the number of .NET sales (32) during the period. 

I am not sure how much effort this would  entail, but one way around the issue is to include at the bottom of a daily report recent database additions that were not shown  in a previous daily report.  But all each user needs to do is to periodically do a NameBio search to make sure that they are not missing sales of interest to them.  The time frame setting for previous week and month make this easy to do.

This is a good time to acknowledge the amazing service offered to the domain name community by Michael and NameBio.  Their database currently has more than 614,000 sales representing over $1.6 billion.  The oldest sale recorded in the database is from 1997 (for you trivia fans, it is business.com which sold for $150,000 in a 1997 private sale.)

Any sort of significant domain name analysis would be impossible without NameBio.  That Michael makes it freely available to us all, in such a powerful and user friendly format, is indeed wonderful.  Thank you! A day without NameBio is a day without domain name sales data!

Links:

• NameBio Daily Reports
• NameBio database
• Our site NamesThat.win - thanks for visiting
• Permanent link to this blog post

Original post Aug 16, 2018.

Disclosure:  I am  not associated with NameBio, but would like to acknowledge their incredible database and their generosity to make it available to the domain community. My portfolio of domain names is mainly ngTLDs, as well as a number of .co, .com and .ca (and a few other country codes). I do invest in the .top domain extension, along with many others.

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis.  If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.  

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually. 

The images used are either those associated with a product or service, my own images, or Pixabay images believed to be available for use without attribution. If you see any image that you believe is problematic, please let us know and we will immediately correct the situation.

New Extension Sales Data Jun 23 - Jul 22, 2018

Another month has gone by, so let's take a look at "new" global top level domain (ngTLD) name sales reported in the NameBio database over the past 30 days.  The number of sales (102), average selling price ($3372) and number of extensions (19) are all similar to the previous reporting period.  The .top extension dominated again this month, accounting for 73 of the 86 sales. The .global, .app and .life extensions also had good months. You can see the list of ngTLD sales for the reporting period here.

Summary

During the monthly period ending July 22, 2018 there were

• 102 recorded ngTLD domain name sales;
• The average sales price was $3372, while the median price was $1330;
• In terms of major sales, 7 were for $10,000 or more;
• The highest price sales in this period were qb.top for $52,777, xt.top for $47,904, do.global for $19,000, host.app for $13,981,  get.top for $12,814, pen.top for $11,779 and industrial.group for $10,000; 
• There were sales in 19 different extensions during the reporting period, although .top dominated with 73 of the sales;
• So far in 2018 there have been 620 ngTLD sales in total listed on NameBio, with an average sales price of $5676, accounting for a total of $3.5 million in sales. 

Extension Breakdown

Here is the breakdown by number of domain sales reported in each extension during this monthly reporting period.

• app 2
• bio 1
• cards 1
• club 1
• cooking 1
• eco 1
• fit 1
• global 9
• group 1
• life 3
• network 1
• one 1
• solutions 1
• space 1
• top 73
• toys 1
• ventures 1
• work 1
• xyz 1

Names That Span Dot Effectively

Some of the domain names from this reporting period that I personally like include raise.top, be.fit, dev.global, cat.life, dog.life, DNA.life, MilkyWay.space, b.cooking, and industrial.group. While I understand why some shorter names sold for higher prices, I think these names do a great job of 'spanning the dot' with congruence between the domain name and the extension.  It will be interesting to see the websites that develop on these names. Why not look through the entire list and pick your own favourites?

Year to Date 

So far in 2018 there have been 620 NameBio reported ngTLD sales with an average sales price of $5676.  Note that this is as Namebio report sales dates. Both home.loans for $500,000 and The.club for $300,000 are listed as 2018 sales, since they were reported in 2018, even though the sales terms were completed in 2017. On the other hand, vacation.rentals that sold for $500,300 is not reported in 2018 in their database. The total value of 2018 reported ngTLD sales up to the day of writing (July 23, 2018) is $3.5 million. In terms of number of ngTLD sales, the rate is similar to that recorded in 2017, although the total value of ngTLD sales if it continues at current rate through the rest of the year will be somewhat higher than last year that saw $5.2 million in total new extension sales.

Notes

The NameBio database (or at least the portion publicly reported) does not include sales with value less than $100, nor sales from a number of venues such as Afternic, Undeveloped or Efty (unless buyers or sellers report them individually), nor from most of the ngTLD registries, so it is difficult to estimate how complete a record this is of all  #ngTLD domain name sales. Note that host.app sale appeared in the previous month, then disappeared from the NameBio database, and now has appeared again with a later date and a marginally lower price. Sometimes sales are posted on NameBio after their recorded sales date.

Links

Here are links to the three previous reports in case you want to do monthly comparisons:

• Period ending June 22, 2018
• Period ending May 22, 2018
• Period ending April 22, 2018
• Period ending March 22, 2018

Next Report and Other News

We will issue our next report in late August, and it will cover ngTLD sales for the period from July 23 through August 22. This monthly update on publicly reported ngTLD sales is offered as a service to the domain community.  While we strive to be accurate, no implied guarantee or warranty is associated with this report, and readers should independently verify information before using it in any domain investment decisions. As always we welcome comments and corrections. We report regularly on domain name news, with a special emphasis on the new extensions, on our Twitter feed.  Why not join the more than 1300 domain investors, venture capitalists, tech experts, startup owners and other great people that already follow us @AGreatName?  If we can be of assistance in helping you find a domain name at a value price, or using a domain name phrase in a marketing campaign, don't hesitate to contact us through our website (or via direct message at Twitter). 

ngTLD Sales Report May 23 - June 22, 2018

Another month has rolled around, and it is time again to take a look at "new" global TLD (ngTLD) domain name sales reported in the NameBio database.  While the number of domain extensions sold is down slightly, there were still 104 sales over 16 different extensions during this reporting period. The total number of sales and the average sales price were both similar to the previous month. This was certainly a 30 day period in which the .top extension dominated, accounting for 78 of the 104 sales. 

During the monthly period ending June 22, 2018 there were

• 104 recorded ngTLD domain name sales;
• The average sales price was about $3450, while the median price was $1580;
• In terms of major sales, 8 were for $10,000 or more;
• The highest price sales in this period were bz.top for $53,904, RN.app for $15,000, host.app for $14,162 bet.top for $13,861 and ttt.top for $13,130; 
• There were sales in 16 different extensions during the reporting period;

This report saw sales in 16 different extensions (compared to 23 and 18 in the previous two months). Top dominates, while the extensions global, app, link and work also had multiple monthly sales. Considering the newness of the app extension, it seems off to a great start in the resale marketplaces with 3 sales including 2 in the top 5. Here is the breakdown by number of domain sales reported in each extension.

• app 3
• capital 1
• club 1
• community 1
• directory 1
• finance 1
• gift 1
• global 8
• guru 1
• live 1
• link 2
• storage 1
• surf 1
• top 78
• work 2
• yoga 1

So far in 2018 there have been 524 NameBio reported ngTLD sales with an average sales price of $6127.  Note that this is as Namebio report sales dates. Both home.loans for $500,000 and The.club for $300,000 are listed as 2018 sales, since they were reported in 2018, even though the sales terms were completed in 2017. On the other hand, vacation.rentals that sold for $500,300 is not reported in 2018 in their database. The total value of 2018 reported ngTLD sales up to the day of writing (June 24, 2018) is $3.2 million. In terms of number of ngTLD sales the rate is similar to that recorded in 2017, although the total value of ngTLD sales if continued at current rate through the rest of the year will eclipse last year.

The NameBio database (or at least the portion publicly reported) does not include sales with value less than $100, nor sales from a number of venues such as Undeveloped or Efty (unless buyers or sellers report them individually), nor from most of the ngTLD registries, so it is difficult to estimate how complete a record this is of all  #ngTLD domain name sales.

Here are links to the three previous reports in case you want to do monthly comparisons:

• Period ending May 22, 2018
• Period ending April 22, 2018
• Period ending March 22, 2018

We should note that after our last report a major .top sale was added to the NameBio database with a sales date that fell within our previous observing period. The name 8.top sold for $172,758 on May 22, 2018.

We will issue our next report in late July, and it will cover ngTLD sales for the period from June 23 through July 22. As always we welcome comments and corrections.