The first half of 2019 has been great for domain sales with the rate of NameBio-reported sales up 28% and the average price up almost 17% compared to full year 2018. The sales rate is up in all three major legacy extensions
The rate of sales in
Sales in new domain extensions taken as a whole are down just over 30%, although the average price is up slightly to about $4000.
Sales Numbers
I used the NameBio database to look at how the rate of domain sales in the first half of 2019 compares with 2018. There are possible seasonal variations so we would not expect the full year to necessarily follow the trend of the first 6 months.
Average Prices
I also took a look at how average prices during the first six months of 2019 compared to 2018.
Sales Data
I used the NameBio database for these comparisons. It's worth noting that not all venues report to NameBio (e.g. Afternic, DAN/Undeveloped, Efty sites, and most private sales are not reported). Also, even though I used data for sales $100 and up, there will still be a mix of wholesale and retail transactions in the sample. Furthermore, some sales are reported well after the sale, and occasionally a sale may be removed, so the precise numbers will vary slightly depending on when you access the database. The lower-than-average prices and higher-than-usual sales numbers (rate) that we are seeing in
What Is Your Experience?
Please share in the comments section your own experience on how good the first half of 2019 has been.
Also, do you have plans to change your domain investing strategy as a result of the trends you are seeing? For example, are you encouraged by the strong sales and prices in the first half of 2019 and thinking about increasing your domain investments, or are you changing your weighting in different country-code extensions?
—
Hat tip to Michael Sumner (@Michael), CEO of NameBio, for creating and maintaining the domain sales data resource used for this analysis.
.com, .net, and .org, although average prices are down in .net and almost unchanged in .org.The rate of sales in
.ai is strongly up. Several other country code extensions (such as .co and .de) continue to have high average sales prices. The .me extension is up in both sales rate and average price.Sales in new domain extensions taken as a whole are down just over 30%, although the average price is up slightly to about $4000.
Sales Numbers
I used the NameBio database to look at how the rate of domain sales in the first half of 2019 compares with 2018. There are possible seasonal variations so we would not expect the full year to necessarily follow the trend of the first 6 months.
- In the first 6 months of 2019, there were about 53,200 NameBio-recorded sales across all extensions, compared to 82,900 in all of 2018. If that rate continues for the rest of 2019, we will see a year-over-year increase of 28%.
- Since
.comdominates the aftermarket, the.com-only numbers are also very healthy: about 46,000 sales in the first half of 2019 compared to 70,000 in all of 2018, or an increase of just over 31%. - The number of sales in
.netis up almost 22% with 1,482 sales in the first 6 months of 2019 compared to 2,432 for the full year 2018. - Sales in
.orgare up by almost 23% to 2,651 sales in the first half of 2019. - Sales in the
.infoextension are down 5% with just 123 sales in the first 6 months compared to 259 in 2018. - Sales across all new domain extensions combined are down 31% in the first half of 2019 with 507 sales in the six month period compared to 1,474 in all of 2018.
- If we look at all country code extensions, the number of sales is up almost 12%, but that hides some huge differences across individual country codes.
- The sales rate is down in the
.cc,.co,.de, and.iodomain extensions, but it's up in.ai,.me, and.tv. - While there were 340 sales in the
.ioextension in the first half of 2019, the rate is down over 26% compared to the 921 sales in the extension in all of 2018. - While
.aireporting changes may partially account for the difference, the rate of sales in the.aiextension is substantially up (more than 375%) with 745 sales in just the first 6 months of 2019 compared to 311 in all of 2018.
Average Prices
I also took a look at how average prices during the first six months of 2019 compared to 2018.
- Across all extensions, the average NameBio-reported domain sales price was about $1545 in the first six months of 2019, up almost 17% from the 2018 average of $1323.
- If we look at
.comalone, the increase is even more significant with a 26% increase from $1582 compared to $1256 in 2018. - Average
.netprices are down almost 22% from $722 compared to $924 in 2018. - There is almost no change in average
.orgprices at $844 during the first six months of 2019. - Perhaps surprisingly, average
.infoextension sales prices are up by 21% to $787, although the number of sales is limited. - The new domain extensions saw the average sales price up slightly to $4020 from $3878 in 2018. Notably, many of the higher-priced sales were sold directly from the registry that owns the domain extension ("registry sales").
- If we look at country-code extensions in total, the average price is down almost 17%, although the average is still strong at $1923, higher than the major legacy extensions.
- While the number of sales in the
.aiextension has increased substantially, the average price in.aiis down 62% to $531 compared to $1416 in 2018. - While
.coprices are down slightly in the first six months of 2019, the $2272 average price is still higher than most other extensions. - The
.deextension remains strong, with an average price of $5170 in the first 6 months of 2019 compared to $4576 in 2018. - While it seems to have largely passed under the domain radar, the
.medomain extension is having a good 2019. Not only is the rate of sales in the extension up more than 21%, but the average price is also up by almost 55% to $1504 in the first half of 2019 compared to $972 in 2018.
Sales Data
I used the NameBio database for these comparisons. It's worth noting that not all venues report to NameBio (e.g. Afternic, DAN/Undeveloped, Efty sites, and most private sales are not reported). Also, even though I used data for sales $100 and up, there will still be a mix of wholesale and retail transactions in the sample. Furthermore, some sales are reported well after the sale, and occasionally a sale may be removed, so the precise numbers will vary slightly depending on when you access the database. The lower-than-average prices and higher-than-usual sales numbers (rate) that we are seeing in
.ai may reflect more domainers investing in domain names related to artificial intelligence.What Is Your Experience?
Please share in the comments section your own experience on how good the first half of 2019 has been.
Also, do you have plans to change your domain investing strategy as a result of the trends you are seeing? For example, are you encouraged by the strong sales and prices in the first half of 2019 and thinking about increasing your domain investments, or are you changing your weighting in different country-code extensions?
—
Hat tip to Michael Sumner (@Michael), CEO of NameBio, for creating and maintaining the domain sales data resource used for this analysis.
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