In December, we brought you news of China's first ever domain name conference in Shenzhen. Along with reports of the event itself, we showed you the impressive results of the premium domain name auction. The data available to us at the time showed that the auction produced a total of $17million worth of bids.
We referenced the fact that the sales figures may not actually be the final sales prices due to the fact that buyers had the option to pull out of deals, or negotiate deals with sellers after the auction had taken place.
Today I decided to check out the auction listings to see whether the domains had actually sold or not. From what I've found, it seems that many bidders took the option to pull out of their deals.
Yao.com - 21,500,000 CNY ($3,316,314)
Yao is a common Chinese surname, so it is no surprise to me that this domain received bids of over 20million CNY. My research shows that it has been registered to a generic 4.CN brokerage email address ([email protected]) since August 2013. However, this doesn't mean that it hasn't changed hands.
Many domain names pass amongst clients of large brokerage houses without the public WHOIS details ever being updated. The website has changed since Screenshot.com's last update in August 2015, and Archive.org's last entry on 29th September, so there is a possibility that Yao.com did in fact sell at this event; although the $3.3million price tag cannot be verified.
GG.com - 17,000,000 CNY ($2,622,202)
GG.com was sold from a UK registrant to China in July 2015 and the domain changed registrants to it's current owner on 4th December 2015, over two weeks before the auction took place. The listed owner's email address changed from [email protected] to another Chinese brokerage house, so a sale seems to have taken place at this point.
Whilst the sales price is plausible, the WHOIS details have remained the same since the beginning of December, with no changes in the name servers. From the data I have, I am undecided on whether this name sold at auction, but remained behind the same generic email address.
House.com - 16,200,000 CNY ($2,498,804)
The news of this bid sent rumours around the domain industry, suggesting that Chinese buyers had moved on to acquiring premium one-word .COM domains. There isn't any evidence to suggest this has happened, or that the domain actually sold at the auction event.
House.com was sold by Domain Holdings in 2014 to a 4.CN client. As with many premium domains, the generic [email protected] email address has been listed as the registrant ever since then. Whilst it is possible that it has changed owners internally during that time, I don't think that the domain sold at December's auction on the evidence available.
HG.com - 16,000,000 CNY ($2,467,955)
Here is another valuable LL.com domain name that was acquired by a Chinese buyer in February 2015. The current registrant has been listed as the owner of the domain since 26th June 2015, so on this evidence I would say that no domain sale occurred at the event.
Banana.com - 13,200,000 ($2,036,062)
Another premium one-word .COM domain that received a multi-million dollar bid at the auction. The domain name's listed registrant has been the same since 2014, and whilst the registrant is a part of another Chinese domain brokerage house, I don't believe that this domain would have sold at this price to a Chinese investor.
LP.com - 6,880,000 CNY ($1,061,220)
Another popular two-letter .COM domain name that was owned by an American company until November 2015, when it was sold to a Chinese investor who owns many other two and three letter .COM domains. It hasn't changed registrant since November 2015, so a sale didn't happen in the December auction.
NR.com - 5,700,000 CNY ($879,209)
This domain is currently for sale through 4.CN, and the 4.CN brokerage email [email protected] is again listed as the registrant. 4.CN's brokerage house have been the registrant of this name since acquiring it from Numerical Recipes in October 2015. Again, this could have sold internally, and it could have sold at the auction; especially considering the sub-$900,000 price tag.
886.com - 5,560,000 CNY ($857,614)
An excellent numerical domain that received a large bid at the December auction event, beating Rick Schwartz's three public numeric sales from last year. I believe this domain did sell at the auction, or perhaps just afterwards. 886.com changed registrant on 5th January 2016.
828.com - 4,400,000 CNY ($678,687)
Here is another premium numeric domain, but I'm a little less certain about this name. Sometime between 20th October 2015 and 9th January 2016, the name switched to show a new owner. It's possible, maybe even probable, that this domain sold at the auction, but I cannot be certain.
123.cn - 4,200,000 RMB ($647,838)
This is another domain name that I think did sell at or just after the auction. WHOIS data shows a change of registrant on 7th January 2016.
--
Out of the ten auction listings we posted in December, it seems that two domains were likely to have been sold at or just after the auction, with a further three domains possibly selling. This would mean that out of the $17million worth of bids that were placed, between $1.5m and $5.6m worth of domain names were actually sold.
Data from auctions inside China can be very misleading, and whilst this data can be of interest, you need to take into consideration the fact that some Chinese auction events do allow bidders to pull out of sales by paying a small fee. This could be done for many reasons, from bidder's mercurially changing their minds to owners of similar domains bidding publicly in an effort to drive prices higher.
Note: I have no official information on the domain names that sold or didn't sell, and the above are just observations I have made based upon WHOIS data and other resources.
Update on Feb 3, 2015: I have received verifiable confirmation of some of the sales and non-sales of the auction:
We referenced the fact that the sales figures may not actually be the final sales prices due to the fact that buyers had the option to pull out of deals, or negotiate deals with sellers after the auction had taken place.
Today I decided to check out the auction listings to see whether the domains had actually sold or not. From what I've found, it seems that many bidders took the option to pull out of their deals.
Yao.com - 21,500,000 CNY ($3,316,314)
Yao is a common Chinese surname, so it is no surprise to me that this domain received bids of over 20million CNY. My research shows that it has been registered to a generic 4.CN brokerage email address ([email protected]) since August 2013. However, this doesn't mean that it hasn't changed hands.
Many domain names pass amongst clients of large brokerage houses without the public WHOIS details ever being updated. The website has changed since Screenshot.com's last update in August 2015, and Archive.org's last entry on 29th September, so there is a possibility that Yao.com did in fact sell at this event; although the $3.3million price tag cannot be verified.
GG.com - 17,000,000 CNY ($2,622,202)
GG.com was sold from a UK registrant to China in July 2015 and the domain changed registrants to it's current owner on 4th December 2015, over two weeks before the auction took place. The listed owner's email address changed from [email protected] to another Chinese brokerage house, so a sale seems to have taken place at this point.
Whilst the sales price is plausible, the WHOIS details have remained the same since the beginning of December, with no changes in the name servers. From the data I have, I am undecided on whether this name sold at auction, but remained behind the same generic email address.
House.com - 16,200,000 CNY ($2,498,804)
The news of this bid sent rumours around the domain industry, suggesting that Chinese buyers had moved on to acquiring premium one-word .COM domains. There isn't any evidence to suggest this has happened, or that the domain actually sold at the auction event.
House.com was sold by Domain Holdings in 2014 to a 4.CN client. As with many premium domains, the generic [email protected] email address has been listed as the registrant ever since then. Whilst it is possible that it has changed owners internally during that time, I don't think that the domain sold at December's auction on the evidence available.
HG.com - 16,000,000 CNY ($2,467,955)
Here is another valuable LL.com domain name that was acquired by a Chinese buyer in February 2015. The current registrant has been listed as the owner of the domain since 26th June 2015, so on this evidence I would say that no domain sale occurred at the event.
Banana.com - 13,200,000 ($2,036,062)
Another premium one-word .COM domain that received a multi-million dollar bid at the auction. The domain name's listed registrant has been the same since 2014, and whilst the registrant is a part of another Chinese domain brokerage house, I don't believe that this domain would have sold at this price to a Chinese investor.
LP.com - 6,880,000 CNY ($1,061,220)
Another popular two-letter .COM domain name that was owned by an American company until November 2015, when it was sold to a Chinese investor who owns many other two and three letter .COM domains. It hasn't changed registrant since November 2015, so a sale didn't happen in the December auction.
NR.com - 5,700,000 CNY ($879,209)
This domain is currently for sale through 4.CN, and the 4.CN brokerage email [email protected] is again listed as the registrant. 4.CN's brokerage house have been the registrant of this name since acquiring it from Numerical Recipes in October 2015. Again, this could have sold internally, and it could have sold at the auction; especially considering the sub-$900,000 price tag.
886.com - 5,560,000 CNY ($857,614)
An excellent numerical domain that received a large bid at the December auction event, beating Rick Schwartz's three public numeric sales from last year. I believe this domain did sell at the auction, or perhaps just afterwards. 886.com changed registrant on 5th January 2016.
828.com - 4,400,000 CNY ($678,687)
Here is another premium numeric domain, but I'm a little less certain about this name. Sometime between 20th October 2015 and 9th January 2016, the name switched to show a new owner. It's possible, maybe even probable, that this domain sold at the auction, but I cannot be certain.
123.cn - 4,200,000 RMB ($647,838)
This is another domain name that I think did sell at or just after the auction. WHOIS data shows a change of registrant on 7th January 2016.
--
Out of the ten auction listings we posted in December, it seems that two domains were likely to have been sold at or just after the auction, with a further three domains possibly selling. This would mean that out of the $17million worth of bids that were placed, between $1.5m and $5.6m worth of domain names were actually sold.
Data from auctions inside China can be very misleading, and whilst this data can be of interest, you need to take into consideration the fact that some Chinese auction events do allow bidders to pull out of sales by paying a small fee. This could be done for many reasons, from bidder's mercurially changing their minds to owners of similar domains bidding publicly in an effort to drive prices higher.
Note: I have no official information on the domain names that sold or didn't sell, and the above are just observations I have made based upon WHOIS data and other resources.
Update on Feb 3, 2015: I have received verifiable confirmation of some of the sales and non-sales of the auction:
- Yao.com: Not sold
- GG.com: Sold before the auction. The buyer also bought four other LL.com's at the same time.
- NR.com: Not sold
- 828.com: Not sold
- 123.cn: Sold
- House.com: Not sold
