Flippa Surpasses $150 Million In Domain Name & Website Sales

$150 million in 6 years is rather impressive.

However, I suspect their growth will plateau soon unless they successfully pivot their business model. The platform is suffering from saturation issues. 1 million listings sounds like a bragging point but in honestly it's going to hurt their bottom line and their sellers final sales prices.

I've stopped listing there and have started buying. Might as well take advantage of the success handicap they seem to be experiencing.

Completely agree with @Shane Bellone

You are on point @Shane Bellone

Congrats sounds like a ton collected in fees for them.

Yes, I am also agree with @Shane Bellone . . For websites I think flippa is still best but for domain names, exposure is no where near as compare to 6 to 8 months before . .

Flippa is such a great platform. I'm doubling (maybe tripling?) down on my auction listings this month. Hopefully I can add $10k or so to that $150 million in the near future.

Arpit131 said:

What do you think?

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Well, since you asked what I think, I must say that I think that the wonderful sounding numbers may be, at least in part, due to the system of allowing Flippa employees to participate as bidders in Flippa auctions, unbeknownst to the bidders who are not Flippa employees. To me, it seems possible for that system to allow prices to be inflated by employees bidding-up the those prices. That's what my common sense tells me. What does your common sense tell you?

100% agree with Shane Bellone there!

I have also noticed some signs of plateau in the nearby future. I am a regular seller of websites and now have started selling domains as well. The marketplace is simply isn't at it's best at the moment, doesn't matter if it has reached 1 million listings, as I believe the quality of the listings had certainly decreased with Flippa giving away all that free credits and free listings last month! I don't think it was a very bright move, more listings does not mean more sales!

The viewers on the listings are also very low now compared to how much they were when I started six months ago.

I hope the best for Flippa's future.

HeyNow said:

Well, since you asked what I think, I must say that I think that the wonderful sounding numbers may be, at least in part, due to the system of allowing Flippa employees to participate as bidders in Flippa auctions, unbeknownst to the bidders who are not Flippa employees. To me, it seems possible for that system to allow prices to be inflated by employees bidding-up the those prices. That's what my common sense tells me. What does your common sense tell you?

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When I worked with Flippa, we had "super secret" meetings about how we could increase revenue. It was at this time that I suggested that we, the Flippa employees, bid up everyones auctions and they loved the idea! As a matter of fact, I was given the title of HOE (head of everything). The first thing I did as the HOE was to recruit more employees so we could shill harder. However, employees started winning these lucrative auction so they fired me. Now there is a new HOE at Flippa. I miss being the HOE. However, every great HOE gets eventually replaced by a new HOE.

Shane Bellone said:

When I worked with Flippa, we had "super secret" meetings about how we could increase revenue. It was at this time that I suggested that we, the Flippa employees, bid up everyones auctions and they loved the idea! As a matter of fact, I was given the title of HOE (head of everything). The first thing I did as the HOE was to recruit more employees so we could shill harder. However, employees started winning these lucrative auction so they fired me. Now there is a new HOE at Flippa. I miss being the HOE. However, every great HOE gets eventually replaced by a new HOE.

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Just quoting this so it doesn't get edited.

That is some breaking revelations, then I guess they must also know the reserves for the auctions.

Shane Bellone said:

When I worked with Flippa, we had "super secret" meetings about how we could increase revenue. It was at this time that I suggested that we, the Flippa employees, bid up everyones auctions and they loved the idea! As a matter of fact, I was given the title of HOE (head of everything). The first thing I did as the HOE was to recruit more employees so we could shill harder. However, employees started winning these lucrative auction so they fired me. Now there is a new HOE at Flippa. I miss being the HOE. However, every great HOE gets eventually replaced by a new HOE.

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WOW. I wish they'd bid up some of my auctions.

Could this mean that the market pricing is, therefore, somewhat artificially inflated? I think this pretty much kills any chance of an IPO.

Shane Bellone said:

When I worked with Flippa, we had "super secret" meetings about how we could increase revenue. It was at this time that I suggested that we, the Flippa employees, bid up everyones auctions and they loved the idea! As a matter of fact, I was given the title of HOE (head of everything). The first thing I did as the HOE was to recruit more employees so we could shill harder. However, employees started winning these lucrative auction so they fired me. Now there is a new HOE at Flippa. I miss being the HOE. However, every great HOE gets eventually replaced by a new HOE.

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Wow! Thanks for the candor. If true, this is huge!

Shane Bellone said:

When I worked with Flippa, we had "super secret" meetings about how we could increase revenue. It was at this time that I suggested that we, the Flippa employees, bid up everyones auctions and they loved the idea! As a matter of fact, I was given the title of HOE (head of everything). The first thing I did as the HOE was to recruit more employees so we could shill harder. However, employees started winning these lucrative auction so they fired me. Now there is a new HOE at Flippa. I miss being the HOE. However, every great HOE gets eventually replaced by a new HOE.

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Beezy said:

Just quoting this so it doesn't get edited.

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Genius327 said:

That is some breaking revelations, then I guess they must also know the reserves for the auctions.

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Nick V said:

WOW. I wish they'd bid up some of my auctions.

Could this mean that the market pricing is, therefore, somewhat artificially inflated? I think this pretty much kills any chance of an IPO.

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HeyNow said:

Wow! Thanks for the candor. If true, this is huge!

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Shane was being facetious, guys.

Interesting topic. Have to keep in mind what @Shane Bellone says.

Shane Bellone said:

When I worked with Flippa, we had "super secret" meetings about how we could increase revenue. It was at this time that I suggested that we, the Flippa employees, bid up everyones auctions and they loved the idea! As a matter of fact, I was given the title of HOE (head of everything). The first thing I did as the HOE was to recruit more employees so we could shill harder. However, employees started winning these lucrative auction so they fired me. Now there is a new HOE at Flippa. I miss being the HOE. However, every great HOE gets eventually replaced by a new HOE.

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That is serious. I am shell shocked.

FlippaDomains said:

Shane was being facetious, guys.

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As Kevin noted, I wasn't being serious. I thought that was blatantly obvious.

Shane Bellone said:

As Kevin noted, I wasn't being serious. I thought that was blatantly obvious.

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Can you say "foot-in-mouth?" Sure, I knew you could.

Flippa is really slowing down !!!! I agree !! No more exposure as it used to be

please can You tell more ? and what other ideas You have to increase revenue in a marketplace like flippa ?

I've just started listing domains on Flippa. I agree with the comments about saturation. Unless you pay the bucks, your listing is going to stay buried in the haystack, no different from Sedo or GD.

DGoodwin said:

I've just started listing domains on Flippa. I agree with the comments about saturation. Unless you pay the bucks, your listing is going to stay buried in the haystack, no different from Sedo or GD.

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But why would you assume it would be different?

I think one thing they need to do is separate the auctions and portfolio listings in searches, and also when visiting "listings" on a profile.

For example, I just posted 3 auctions in the past few days and bunch of portfolio domains - and when I go to my listings, one of my auctions is at the top, then a full page of my portfolio domains, and then my other 2 auctions which are from 2 days ago are somewhere on another page.

These types of lists should default to showing the auctions first (which I want to be the most visible because they are timely and action leads to more action), and then below that, should be the portfolio listings (in addition to a button that switches you back and forth at the top).

Also, two ways to get your names found more often in searches is to get them on the "Reserve Met" or "Most Active" filters.

Beezy said:

But why would you assume it would be different?

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I think it was more different at the beginning. There was a discussion earlier in the year about all the freebies from appraisals, the specials, and now the free relistings. I mentioned some sellers might stop listing and then I see people posting exactly that. It's like letting low end into your neighborhood, property values go down. Domain extensions that have freebies or $1-$3 domains, attract spammers, low enders. Kevin even mentioned something about the homepage buy being a waste of money since it doesn't stay there that long. I think people were hoping it would be different from the other marketplaces, now it's going more of the same.

Side note, I hope your PotMag.com does well, since I have the azine of it.

I'm also curious to know the breakdown, Websites Sales vs. Domains, how much each is getting. Then you can track if the Domain sales are going up or down.