ONLINE Extension Sales

The top sale for Oct 2, 2018 in the NameBio daily report was a new global top level domain (ngTLD).  The acronym DMV sold with the .online extension on Dynadot for $5101. While this is a single sale, when looked at in a broader context it seems part of a pattern of considerable momentum in the .online extension.

Sales of Online

As of writing the NameBio database shows 87 sales of online with an average price of $4804 (the link will show current values).  There have been 6 sales for more than $10,000 and 34 sales for more than $1000. The largest sale ever was casino.online that sold for $201,250 in 2017.  Second place is the recent (Sept 24, 2018) sale of design.online for $57,500.  The recent momentum is clear at the top of the price list, with 7 of the 10 highest value sales all in 2018 (2015, 2016 and 2017 have one each).

Discussion

I plan to do a full review of the .online extension in the not too distant future, but as background would point out that it is in the top 10 of ngTLDs in terms of registrations.  The extension, part of the Radix portfolio of ngTLDs, came into general availability on Aug 26, 2015.

I think .online has a bright future as it works naturally with many keywords to make a descriptive and memorable domain phrase. Names like casino.online, lodges.online, assurance.online and  counselling.online tell you exactly what to expect at the site.  While many of the sales have been in single words, a number of two word domain names have also sold in the extension, such as AirConditioning.online, FindMe.online, PayIt.online and MyWorld.online.

The extension has a lot of momentum. As noted earlier, 7 of the top 10 sales in the extension were in 2018.  As of time of writing 50 of the 87 sales overall in the extension were in 2018 (the link will show updated data).

For some time it has been true that .online is strong in actual website use, at least when compared with other ngTLDs.  As of writing date it had 1499 websites in the Alexa 1M, or one per every 575 domain names registered.  While this is about a factor of two less than .com, it is better than the vast majority of extensions.

I also view it as healthy that the extension has sales on many different venues including Dynadot, Flippa, GoDaddy, Sedo and Uniregistry.  While there have been initial premium registry sales, it would appear that the vast majority of sales (at least in NameBio database), both in numbers and value, have been in the aftermarket, another encouraging sign.

I might also point out that Dynadot, the venue for this sale, has become more active in ngTLD sales of late.

Original post Oct 3, 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 or NameStat databases. I acknowledge the makers of these for the valuable products that they make freely available to the domain name community. 

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 hold personally only a single .online domain name. 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. 

High Value Sales By Year

For today's post I used the NameBio list of the 100 all-time highest value sales to look at how high value sales have varied with year.  The sales on the list vary from $1 million to $14 million each.  There are other reported top sales lists (such as this one published by Sedo), that include higher value sales, but I thought it most consistent to use the NameBio verified sales list. The DN Journal top 20 sales of all time are at this link.

Results

The results are shown below (click on image for a higher resolution view).  Each year except 2001 and 2002 had at least one entry on the top 100 list, while the most in any year was 11 (2000 and 2014). 

Discussion

The most obvious trend is a correlation between major sales and stock market health. The periods during and just after, economic pullbacks had relatively few high value sales.  For example only one each in 2011 and 2012, and none at all in 2001 and 2002. The credit crisis induced stock market correction of 2008-2009 seemed to take a year or two to impact the high value domain name sales.  The peak of the dot com era is not surprisingly well represented by high value sales (6 in 1999 and 11 in 2000).

It turns out that 2014, the year when many of the new extensions became available, was tied for the most high value sales (11).

The current year, so far at least, seems on the low side, although the preceding years (2013 through 2017) were all consistent with the average over the 20 year period.

Many are predicting after one of the longest bull markets in history, particularly for the US based stock markets, that a correction is almost inevitable.  The data suggests that major domain sales will correlate with any pullback, although with a delay of a year or two typically.

Original post Oct 1, 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 database. I acknowledge the makers of these for the valuable products that they make freely available to the domain name community. 

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.