IT.COM

sales Recent New-Extension Sales: Outliers or Trends?

Spaceship Spaceship
Impressive recent new-extension domain sales have been widely discussed on NamePros. Not only are the five-figure sales noteworthy on their own, they may also represent new ways to use domain names. While it is natural to be excited about high-value sales, it is important to keep in mind that the rate of disclosed new-extension domain name sales remains low. Just 743 new-extension sales, accounting for $2.9 million in sales volume, have been listed on NameBio so far in 2019. By comparison, that volume of .com domain name sales happen in just over a week. Unless there is a turnaround, it looks like 2019 will be slower than the previous two years in terms of new global top level domain (new gTLD) sales.

Major New-Extension Sales
Domain Investor @New.Life released information on two previously unreported new-extension sales from earlier in 2019.

new.work sold for $38,000 via the Uniregistry market. This is not the highest-value sale ever reported in the .work extension, since in 2015 net.work sold for $100,000 according to NameBio records. This is the largest .work extension sale since that time, however.

all.life sold for $25,000 on Afternic. This is the highest reported sale in the extension, beating out the $20,000 sale of simple.life by WebQuest in summer 2019. It is perhaps significant that the two largest .life extension sales have both occurred in the past half-year.
Additional details of the new.work and all.life sales are revealed in the thread, including the European corporate purchasers. In the case of all.life, the company also secured a number of other new-extension domains for the same word. The two sales by @New.Life were from a portfolio of about 400 names, 98% in new extensions. Interestingly, the date of sale was identical for both domains, even though clearly the sales are unrelated.

Another 5-figure sale,CBD.world at a price of $20,000, had been announced earlier in the month. This sale was by Booth Domains who confirmed that the end user was UK company Haze Organics. The transaction took place on Afternic. In this case, over a rather short period of time, the domain name changed hands multiple times, with several domain investors each making a tidy profit. The process started with a hand-registration by @Grego85 not all that long ago.
Note that while documentation in support of the above sales was provided, they were not yet in the NameBio database at the time of writing.

In their weekly sales report, Uniregistry announced another 5-figure sale, diabetes.help sold for $15,000. The site has an under construction message in German.
While deservedly the 5-figure sales received most of the attention, there were also a number of 4-figure new-extension sales announced within the last month including:
  • hey.money $8888
  • investors.club $7000
  • SampleDoc.xyz $4100
  • counter.app $3625
  • bonus.club $2794
With HeyMoney.com selling at the same time as Hey.money, this sale was interesting for reasons beyond the prices paid. The idea of a business holding both a matching .com and new-extension domain name was debated by NamePros members. The associated trademark was filed in August by Advanced Planning Solutions, the apparent user for these domains, although no website is yet operational.

The SampleDoc.xyz sale is the highest-value two-word domain name sale ever in that extension, at least for sales recorded in the NameBio database.

While not a sale with released details, there was NamePros discussion on the decision by My.com to use the domain name My.games for their game division. If more companies follow this model, it will offer additional possibilities for new-extension domain sales. Almost certainly this name would have been a six-figure sale.

Top 10 New-Extension Sales in 2019
The top NameBio listed new extension sales so far in 2019 are listed below.
  1. free.games $335,000
  2. business.club $60,936
  3. support.app $30,000
  4. buy.game $29,999
  5. radio.cloud $28,000
  6. smart.bio $27,685
  7. UI.dev $25,000
  8. T.win $22,500
  9. simple.life $20,000
  10. DX.media $20,000
In compiling the above list, a few things stood out for me. The first is there are ten different extensions in the list.

In new extension domain investing, it is the match and word quality, not the extension, that mainly determine value.

It appears that at least 9 of the 10 top sales were by domain investors. It is not that the registries are not selling premium domain names, but rather that most of those registry sales are not being reported to NameBio.

Compared to the last few years, it is surprising .top is not on the list, although eleventh place is a .top extension sale. The last .top sale listed on NameBio was in early August. I am not sure if this is a change in reporting policy, or if sales in the extension have truly waned. Since .top accounted for so many of the high-value new gTLD sales over the last few years, much of the drop in new-extension sales activity is due to the drop in .top sales.

There is only one NameBio-listed six-figure sale so far in 2019, whereas there were six in 2018. Three of those six were in the .top extension.

Reflections
Congratulations to the sellers and buyers involved in these transactions. The experience of @New.Life in seeing potential in quality names and holding them for years, then rewarded with high-value sales at buy-it-now prices, is motivational.

I am also encouraged by the sequence of sales in the domain name CBD.world. I think this demonstrates the role of buying and selling to domainers, and NamePros offer us effective ways to do that.

I know that not all agree, but I am intrigued by the paired sales of a .com and matching new-extension domain name, and see potential for similar sales.

It is also significant that a successful company invests in a quality new-extension to use for one portion of their service, even though they already had a superb two-letter .com. When companies try out new ways to use domain names, it is positive for our community.

I personally have never seen domains as a competition between .com/.net/.org and other extensions, but rather each have their own roles, and can complement each other.

While I do see positive messages in the recent major sales, nevertheless it is always important to look at the big picture of sales using resources such as NameBio. To me those statistics do not signal an uptick in new-extension domain sales overall.

What Do You Think?
I would love to hear your reflections on any ideas related to this post. In particular:
  • Are things looking up, or down, for new-extension domain investing?
  • Do you see any trends or insights from these particular sales?
  • Do you see more companies using both a .com plus a new-extension domain in the future?
  • Do you plan to retain, liquidate, or increase your new-extension portfolio, or do you not own any currently?
  • Do you see legacy and new-extension domains as in competition or complementary?

 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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Thanks Bob. I still don't see these as a new trend yet because as you said, the numbers just don't add up yet when compared to .com

However, there's still time to see if that changes. I foresee some extensions doing better than others.

Thanks again
 
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Does hey mean anything? hey.co was also sold for high 4 figures. hey means as far as I know hi/hello/hey you. So it is like a slang. But if it also means something like high quality cbd , or a new cryptocoin please let us know.
 
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Another great post, @Bob Hawkes, and very well researched as always
I mainly stick to what I know, boring as it may be....dot com!
@MTB
 
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Outliers or trends?

I believe that after multiple years of one word NewG (keyword.extension) sales it can be called a trend and not an outlier. What we see in NewG sales we also see in .com, that is, better names sell and others don't. Extensions are not as much as a factor as some believe. I am not here to cast doom on .com, as I believe it remains the top of the hill, but certain NewG's can compete with certain .com's depending on the attributes of both.
 
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It is amazing how many time and thought you are investing in domaining @Bob Hawkes. You are a real idol and a rock.
 
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When looking at ccTLDs for investment, I view those as buying the cream of the crop, like the top 10% of what sells at .COM.

When viewing new gTLDs, I would use a similar example, only this time the cream of the cream of the cream of the crop, like less than 1% of the top domains.
 
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Outliers or trends?

I believe that after multiple years of one word NewG (keyword.extension) sales it can be called a trend and not an outlier. What we see in NewG sales we also see in .com, that is, better names sell and others don't. Extensions are not as much as a factor as some believe. I am not here to cast doom on .com, as I believe it remains the top of the hill, but certain NewG's can compete with certain .com's depending on the attributes of both.

I would not call that a trend, it's always been like that with other extensions as well. Good names sell. You have a better chance at selling new gtlds or other non .coms with 1 word or single letter, abbrev etc. vs 2, 3 word +. I'm 100% .com nowadays but look what I sold before:

666.me
Bahamas.me
Bourbon.me
Germany.me
Havana.me
HomeLoans.me
MortgageRates.me
Sacramento.me
Scorpio.me
Antarctica.cc
Barcelona.cc
London.cc
Scotland.cc
Computers.bz
Dating.bz
UnitedStates.bz
Electronics.cc
Montreal.cc
Holland.ws

1 word or the 2 words are money terms like home loans or mortgage rates or a big Geo like United States.

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As far as "Extensions are not as much as a factor as some believe"

Well, 3 different sources/examples not showing a good picture - https://www.namepros.com/threads/what-extension-are-you-going-with.1158385/page-2#post-7443366

I think most businesses would disagree with that. They usually go with what the public already knows and are familiar with. When you have brand new startups picking a name and they have all these options today and they still only pick new gtlds at an overall 2%, there is a reason for that.

Then "Unless there is a turnaround, it looks like 2019 will be slower than the previous two years in terms of new global top level domain (new gTLD) sales. "
 
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99.9% of domain sales are for less than $100. Thus any aftermarket domain sale for more than low $xxx could be considered an outlier. Otherwise, average portfolio turn would be much higher than the 1% figure we like to quote as typical.
 
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For 2019 from my personal experience this can be said:
  • Are things looking up, or down, for new-extension domain investing?
Definitely up. People can say what they want, but when someone has good new gTLD name, it is nowdays almost impossible to purchase it (for example here at Namepros). In 2016 I was buying good names for $20-50, in 2017 $80-100 was enough, in 2018 I needed to pay $150 / name to get something from fellow domain investors, and in 2019 when I open WLTB thread I am offered names for $1000 wholesale...so we see the trend.
  • Do you see any trends or insights from these particular sales?
Many sales I know about are not reported at all. For those who reports KUDOS, but most new gTLD domain investors I am in contact with do not care or wish to report.
  • Do you see more companies using both a .com plus a new-extension domain in the future?
Even those with established .com will probably want to buy the new gTLD version of their brand, particularly if they are branded as 2 worders, and last word happens to be also a new gTLD extension. This just make 100% sense.
  • Do you plan to retain, liquidate, or increase your new-extension portfolio, or do you not own any currently?
Of course I plan to retain, particularly when I see prices achieved for some similar names I own are getting really high, and it is still only a beginning - we are only in 5th year from new gTLDs start. I do not think it is really possible to increase much my new gTLD portfolio now, as even wholesale prices here at Namepros for good new gTLD names are now getting really high, and math does not hold for some of those acquisition costs. Unfortunatelly this is not 2016 anymore. I really like when some legacy investors say that they will invest in new gTLDs, but only once "they are fully proven and established among end users". All I think when I hear that is: good luck with that - they probably think the good names wil wait for them forever :) :)

  • Do you see legacy and new-extension domains as in competition or complementary?
I personally do not care about .com at all, while probably 90% of people here do and that must be respected. If end users want .com, they can buy it from those 90% of people, as I do not own any. If they want new gTLDs and I happen to own suitable one, they can buy it from me. From this perspective I see them as complementary.
 
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@Bob Hawkes , thanks for another nice article, one thing that should also be looked at and analyzed is the method of pricing these domains, understandably if some of these domains had been priced in the three figures or very low four figures then they might not have made the news.

As of now it seems like it's more the matter of luck to have a big company becoming interested in your New gTLD and as such perhaps people should price all their New gTLDs in the five figures so that if they get lucky and make a sale then at least they can brag about it and help create more recognition for New gTLDs. IMO
 
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Thanks for starting this thread Bob.
 
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As of now it seems like it's more the matter of luck to have a big company becoming interested in your New gTLD and as such perhaps people should price all their New gTLDs in the five figures so that if they get lucky and make a sale then at least they can brag about it and help create more recognition for New gTLDs. IMO

@oldtimer I think you make a great point about it being somewhat do do with luck. Maybe there are key features that make new-extension domains more likely to sell?

@Bob Hawkes If you give me a list of new extensions to run the data on then I will do a statistical analysis post and link back to this thread
 
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Thanks for the wonderful article @Bob Hawkes.

I am particularly inspired by @New.Life sales of new.work and all.life sales on the same day and that gives some hope for the New Extensions but still considering the renewals to hold on for long-term Investing I am a bit hesitant to fully go there.

So still .Com is the king but if renewals get reduced then we can see.Mind you even when .Com was first launched the renewals were high compared to todays prices.So who knows the New Extension may also do over the year reduce the price.Donuts is already doing it on Nov 5 this year.
 
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Not trend definitely.
Just lucky sales.
 
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And how many years they will be marked as "New"???
5+ years behind already...
 
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one thing that should also be looked at and analyzed is the method of pricing these domains,
While I totally agree with that a price analysis would be helpful, and plan to do one at the end of the year when I do my summary of new gTLD sales for entire year, I think it is challenging to get meaningful pricing intelligence just because the data is so sparse for most extensions or even types of words. Possibly it would be interesting to look at the range of prices in new extensions for some of the most popular words that have sold multiple times in different extensions, but I think we would mainly see a lot of variability and the best matches in general sell for more, sometimes hugely more. I agree that in new gTLDs we occasionally see massive prices, like these, but many more times see low prices, so it is hard to know how to price. Even if you subtract registry sales, it seems that new extensions sell for more, on average, but it is very variable.
@Bob Hawkes If you give me a list of new extensions to run the data on then I will do a statistical analysis post and link back to this thread
The list of new gTLDs on Wikipedia is pretty current, or you could use the nTLDstats list, or ICANN have them all but they are arranged in this list by date of delegation. One difficulty is that new gTLD is applied to both brand new extensions (sponsored and not open to others) and general availability ones.

Thank you both for your contributions!

Bob
 
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Donuts is already doing it on Nov 5 this year.
Although important to be clear that it is the premium names that are coming down in prices (both by price reductions and moving to standard). They increased their regular renewal rates by an average of about 6% on Oct. 1. Nevertheless with one million names going from premium to standard will indeed open up some interesting investment possibilities, and thank you for pointing it out.

It is amazing how many time and thought you are investing in domaining @Bob Hawkes.
Thank you for your kind and generous comments, @Blitzpotz. My highest interest is actually in trying to provide insights on interesting domain questions and presenting them in a fair and balanced way. Unfortunately it keeps me from putting the effort into selling my own names, that I should be investing more effort in :|! But thank you so much for your kind remarks! :xf.smile:

Good names sell. You have a better chance at selling new gtlds or other non .coms with 1 word or single letter, abbrev etc. vs 2, 3 word +
Since we don't always agree on some issues, @JB Lions, can I say I agree 100% with this statement. Also, thank you for providing some examples of names outside .com that you have successfully handled in past. Nice list! Even includes Canadian content :)

What we see in NewG sales we also see in .com, that is, better names sell and others don't. Extensions are not as much as a factor as some believe. I
Nice summary @Internet.Domains (y)

Maybe there are key features that make new-extension domains more likely to sell?
I actually think it is the opposite. Just because they are somewhat new (yes I know 5+ years @Jurgen Wolf :xf.wink:) they are sometimes overlooked from consideration, even by branding and naming experts. Also, the search engines at some of the big players seem not to propose them. For example if I search for word1.word2 at GD and it is not available they suggest, reasonably Word1Word2 in .com, .net or .info if available, but if I search for Word1Word2.com they do not suggest, to me at least, Word1.Word 2 even if it is available. Also, as discussed in another thread searches at DAN totally do not show an exact result including the extension. I think that what we need is either an influential marketing company to make it their thing to promote online marketing using new extension phrases or a few major companies do it in a big and sustained way to see new extensions get routine consideration. Until then the sporadic sales, sometimes at very high values like these, will happen but overall sell rate will be low.

I will comment on your nice points @lolwarrior and @DomainRecap but will do so in another post to keep this one from getting even longer! :xf.eek:

Thank you for the great points everyone. And have a great domain week.

Bob
 
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Does hey mean anything? hey.co was also sold for high 4 figures. hey means as far as I know hi/hello/hey you. So it is like a slang. But if it also means something like high quality cbd , or a new cryptocoin please let us know.
HeyMoney.com sold for 40 K, and Hey.Money sold for 8888, I'd imagine HeyCrypto.com would be worth a lot, as would HeyBit.com or HeyBTC.com and HeyGold.com. What did Crypto.com sell for? 12 mllion? CBDOil sold for ? Money sold for ?
 
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Bob, you always do an outstanding job of reportage. NP is lucky to have you. Always unbiased. Just the facts. Thank you.
 
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I would imagine at one point someone was asking the same questions about .com sales decades ago. The big issue for many nTLDs is renewal cost. (Sharastar points out above) Can you hold on to a name long enough to have a shot at a good sale? After all, domain investors are in many ways the risk takes of first resort. We often refer to such risk takers as speculators, which in my view is not a negative term at all. You need to have someone take the risk or the other side of a trade for a market to work, or develop.

Pricing is a sensitive issue for domain investors because you would like for it to be as cheap as possible, so you can wait on a sale to happen. Cost of inventory is real. Having said that, if you price a TLD too cheaply, it could be ripe for abuse and spam registrations. That also hurts the value and usability of the TLD. An interesting though is perhaps the TLD should partner with individual specialists (domain investors) or market makers that specialize in making a market in that specific TLD, and could be approved for lower renewal rates to hold a portfolio. You would have to be re-certified by the TLD to keep operating as the market maker, to ensure things are done ethically over the long term. (Other mechanisms that could be in play that could enhance the Registry's marketing and sales efforts beyond it's own office)
 
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Does hey mean anything? hey.co was also sold for high 4 figures. hey means as far as I know hi/hello/hey you. So it is like a slang. But if it also means something like high quality cbd , or a new cryptocoin please let us know.
Hej pronounced hey means Hello in all Scandinavan languages... but it's also a common way to get somebodys attention in english. Was before the Yo days.
 
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