This article looks at
There were 123 sales above $5000, accounting for a total sales volume of just over $1.6 million.
The highest value sale,
Based on the sales venues and current use, it appears that, even in this price range, a number of the sales were wholesale acquisitions. About half of the sites are in active use, either directly or through redirection. While only about 15% of the names are for sale again, another 32% are not currently operational.
The majority of
The average length for the domain names in the analysis is 8.7 letters.
There was considerable diversity in how the domains are being used, with reference and data/statistics sites, promotion of causes, health, canna/CBD and gambling/gaming all relatively popular for the domain names from this analysis.
Keep in mind that data from many sales venues are not reported in NameBio, so the sales here only represent a minority of all
ORG Extension Sales
Here is a NameBio list of the 123 sales included in this analysis. It shows the names, dates, prices and venues. It is possible to apply your own filters by category, length, price, etc.
The total sales volume was $1.6 million, compared to $4.4 million if we consider all sales above $100. In other words, sales above $5000 represent, by sales volume, 36% of all listed
If we compare with
The graph below shows the distribution by price range. The highest-value sale,
Domain Name Length
The domain names in the study varied in length from 2 to 25 letters. There were 8 two-letter names sold, and another 11 three-letter sales. The breakdown is shown in the graph below.
The longest name was 25 letters,
The average length of a domain name in this analysis was 8.7 letters, while the median length was just over 7 letters.
Type of Domain Name
Length alone does not specify the types of domain names sold. I categorized each of the 123 domain names by number of words, with the results shown below.
I considered an acronym as a single word, and a name like
Numbers do not appear very common in premium
Three of the sales included a hyphen.
A fair number of plural words sold, including bonuses, casinos, cats, images, radicals, sunglasses, and values, although single words were more common.
Sales Venue
Sales venue is dominated by GoDaddy, Sedo and NameJet. Together, they accounted for almost 79% of the sales. The complete breakdown is shown below.
Keep in mind that the analysis is based on NameBio data, and venues such as Afternic and DAN do not report sales, nor are most sales made at Efty sites reported.
The venues where the domain names were sold suggest a fair number of wholesale acquisitions by domain investors, and that is confirmed when we look at the current status of each domain name.
Current Status
For each of the 123 names, I tried to go to the corresponding website to see the current status. About half of the domain names were in active use, either directly or as redirection to an active website.
I considered the few sites that gave security warnings as not in use.
While three of the sites had monetized parking without being obviously for sale, many of the sites categorized for sale used some sort of parking as well.
It is significant that all of the 2-letter domain names in the study were either listed for sale again or not in operation.
Application Niche
For those sites that were active, including those used for redirection, I categorized the type of use into one (or occasionally two) of 19 possible categories.
There was considerable diversity in type of use, as the graph below shows.
The largest number of sites had some sort of reference or review function. The actual nature of these sites varied extensively, however, with some operated by major organizations while others seemed single-person operations. Also, clearly some had a monetization focus, while others did not.
The next most prominent applications were related to promotion of causes or on data and technology. That was followed by health related sites.
Two niches popular in
While most of the sites were English language, there were two Chinese, and one each German, Japanese and Finnish sites.
The most obvious finding is that there was much diversity in type of use with few clear trends.
My reason for confining the analysis to developed names is that often it is difficult to know what the real niche is without seeing the developed website. For example,
The great name
OpenOffice and LibreOffice initiatives.
The above analysis was done by hand, and I only considered sites with operating websites.
The word Wikipedia was part of two sales, as was the word art.
There were four country names sold during the 2019, Iceland, Germany, Spain and England. Only Iceland was in active use at the time I checked. Several city or location names also sold in 2019.
Recent Historical Trends
The multi-year analyses of sales volume and average prices give a sense of trends in different domain name extensions. I have extracted the
Over most of the past decade there has been a slight increase in relative use of the
What About 2020?
This article looked at sales from 2019, but even though not yet one-quarter through 2020 at time of writing, there are indications that it is going to be a strong year in the
Final Thoughts
To some degree, the
The analysis here indicates the broadening of market for
The type of names that sell are diverse. Acronyms and short single words are common, but some names that sell for premium prices are not short.
This analysis pointed out that a fair amount of the activity, even at this price point of $5000 and above, is wholesale trade. Clearly these investors see potential in the extension, particularly for very short domain names.
The degree to which removal of price caps on future renewal prices, or the likely sale of the registry to private equity, will influence the market for
What Do You Think?
Whether you are a long-term
Thanks to NameBio for the data used for this analysis.
.org extension domain name sales during 2019. I use data from the NameBio database, only considering sales at prices of $5000 or more.There were 123 sales above $5000, accounting for a total sales volume of just over $1.6 million.
The highest value sale,
casinos.org, accounted for about 25% of the overall sales volume. Only 38 of the sales in 2019 were at prices of $10,000 or more. Based on the sales venues and current use, it appears that, even in this price range, a number of the sales were wholesale acquisitions. About half of the sites are in active use, either directly or through redirection. While only about 15% of the names are for sale again, another 32% are not currently operational.
The majority of
.org domain names sold in this price range are either an acronym or a single word.The average length for the domain names in the analysis is 8.7 letters.
There was considerable diversity in how the domains are being used, with reference and data/statistics sites, promotion of causes, health, canna/CBD and gambling/gaming all relatively popular for the domain names from this analysis.
Keep in mind that data from many sales venues are not reported in NameBio, so the sales here only represent a minority of all
.org domain sales.ORG Extension Sales
Here is a NameBio list of the 123 sales included in this analysis. It shows the names, dates, prices and venues. It is possible to apply your own filters by category, length, price, etc.
The total sales volume was $1.6 million, compared to $4.4 million if we consider all sales above $100. In other words, sales above $5000 represent, by sales volume, 36% of all listed
.org sales for the year. However, by number they are only 2.3% of the total .org sales for the year.If we compare with
.com sales in this price range for the same time period, there were 123 .org sales compared to 5252 .com sales. In other words, for every .org sale above $5000, there were about 42 .com sales.The graph below shows the distribution by price range. The highest-value sale,
casinos.org represents almost 25% of the sales volume for the year, but sales in the $5000 to $10,000 range dominate the number of sales.NameBio reported (>$5000) year 2019
.org sales by price range. There were 123 sales in total. Domain Name Length
The domain names in the study varied in length from 2 to 25 letters. There were 8 two-letter names sold, and another 11 three-letter sales. The breakdown is shown in the graph below.
Breakdown by domain name length of year 2019
.org extension sales above $5000 in price. The longest name was 25 letters,
RegulateMarijuanaInAlaska.org. It is also the only four-word domain name sale.The average length of a domain name in this analysis was 8.7 letters, while the median length was just over 7 letters.
Type of Domain Name
Length alone does not specify the types of domain names sold. I categorized each of the 123 domain names by number of words, with the results shown below.
Analysis of high-value year 2019
.org extension sales by type. Note that acronyms are classified as a single word. I considered an acronym as a single word, and a name like
OJPDiagnosticCenter was interpreted as three words, with the acronym being one of the three words. Almost 30% of domain names in this analysis are either simply an acronym, or contain an acronym.Numbers do not appear very common in premium
.org extension sales. Only one of the sales was purely a number, with three others being mixed-mode with a combination of a word or letters along with a number.Three of the sales included a hyphen.
A fair number of plural words sold, including bonuses, casinos, cats, images, radicals, sunglasses, and values, although single words were more common.
Sales Venue
Sales venue is dominated by GoDaddy, Sedo and NameJet. Together, they accounted for almost 79% of the sales. The complete breakdown is shown below.
Sales venue for the 123 names in the study.
Keep in mind that the analysis is based on NameBio data, and venues such as Afternic and DAN do not report sales, nor are most sales made at Efty sites reported.
The venues where the domain names were sold suggest a fair number of wholesale acquisitions by domain investors, and that is confirmed when we look at the current status of each domain name.
Current Status
For each of the 123 names, I tried to go to the corresponding website to see the current status. About half of the domain names were in active use, either directly or as redirection to an active website.
The current status of each of the 123 names in the study.
I considered the few sites that gave security warnings as not in use.
While three of the sites had monetized parking without being obviously for sale, many of the sites categorized for sale used some sort of parking as well.
It is significant that all of the 2-letter domain names in the study were either listed for sale again or not in operation.
Application Niche
For those sites that were active, including those used for redirection, I categorized the type of use into one (or occasionally two) of 19 possible categories.
There was considerable diversity in type of use, as the graph below shows.
Type of use for those sales that had an active website.
The largest number of sites had some sort of reference or review function. The actual nature of these sites varied extensively, however, with some operated by major organizations while others seemed single-person operations. Also, clearly some had a monetization focus, while others did not.
The next most prominent applications were related to promotion of causes or on data and technology. That was followed by health related sites.
Two niches popular in
.com in recent years, canna or CBD related sites, and gambling or gaming sites, were also well represented here.While most of the sites were English language, there were two Chinese, and one each German, Japanese and Finnish sites.
The most obvious finding is that there was much diversity in type of use with few clear trends.
My reason for confining the analysis to developed names is that often it is difficult to know what the real niche is without seeing the developed website. For example,
KnowYourStuff.org could be used for many things, but it is a Japanese language financial technology site. Similarly, a word like impacted.org has many possible applications, but is used for a discovery learning initiative.The great name
office.org is used to support the popular open sourceOpenOffice and LibreOffice initiatives.
StarsAndStripes.org is used for redirection to a support and information page for the USA sailing team in the America’s Cup.The above analysis was done by hand, and I only considered sites with operating websites.
The word Wikipedia was part of two sales, as was the word art.
There were four country names sold during the 2019, Iceland, Germany, Spain and England. Only Iceland was in active use at the time I checked. Several city or location names also sold in 2019.
Recent Historical Trends
The multi-year analyses of sales volume and average prices give a sense of trends in different domain name extensions. I have extracted the
.org data below. There has been a modest but steady increase in sales volume in recent years, and average prices have remained approximately constant.NameBio-reported (>$100) sales volume and average prices for the
.org extension in recent years. Over most of the past decade there has been a slight increase in relative use of the
.org extension in web traffic.What About 2020?
This article looked at sales from 2019, but even though not yet one-quarter through 2020 at time of writing, there are indications that it is going to be a strong year in the
.org extension. There are already, at time of writing, 51 sales above $5000 in 2020, with a sales volume of $597,000. So far 2020 seems to be more active than 2019. Also, there is already one sale above $100,000, and another above $50,000.Final Thoughts
To some degree, the
.org extension retains a concentration within its traditional use by not-for-profit organizations, reference sites, and causes, while broadening somewhat into almost any type of application. The top sale was a for-profit business, as are the multiple sales related to canna or CBD, and gambling and gaming.The analysis here indicates the broadening of market for
.org, but without dominant concentrations in specific niches. The type of names that sell are diverse. Acronyms and short single words are common, but some names that sell for premium prices are not short.
This analysis pointed out that a fair amount of the activity, even at this price point of $5000 and above, is wholesale trade. Clearly these investors see potential in the extension, particularly for very short domain names.
The degree to which removal of price caps on future renewal prices, or the likely sale of the registry to private equity, will influence the market for
.org domain names, is not clear at this time.What Do You Think?
Whether you are a long-term
.org domain name investor, or have only recently focussed on it, I would love to hear your comments.- What trends do you see in the types of names that sell in the extension?
- Do you feel positive about future prospects in
.org? - Are there aspects of selling
.orgdomain names that are distinctly different from.com? For example, with respect to pricing, promotion or negotiation. - Feel free to share your best sale of an
.orgextension domain name, along with any details of the sale, or a single.orgdomain name that you currently have, if you wish. Please do not post your entire list of offerings in the extension, however.
Thanks to NameBio for the data used for this analysis.
