opinion What Will 2022 Hold? Input for future blog post sought.

Bob Hawkes · Dec 9, 2021

I hope that many NamePros members will help me out. I am putting together, for publication at the start of 2022, a NamePros Blog article summarizing views on what the year ahead might look like in domain name investing.

What trends do you see?

Is there a new niche that you think will become hot?
What sectors will be highly sought?
Are domain name prices on way up or down?
Do you see the top, middle or bottom of market, price wise, as offering best opportunities?
Will ETH, meta and NFT stay strong?
Will the surge in .xyz continue?
What about .io? .co?
What about national country codes?
Will there be more, or fewer, million dollar sales?
What changes do you predict in the marketplaces we use?
Will decentralized domain names grow in acceptance?
What trends do you see happening in branding?
Overall, do you think 2022 will be better or worse than 2021?
What is your biggest concern about the future of domain investing?
What one thing do you hope will happen? Perhaps a new service you think the industry needs.

I am not looking for you to comment on all of those topics! Just select one, or two, and give your opinion, or comment on something not on the list.

While space will not permit me to include everyone's comments, my intention is to quote, with attribution to you, a number in the NamePros article.

Please don't be hesitant to share. Having many viewpoints, from all parts of the world, and from different experience levels, will help produce a balanced article.

Thank you in advance.

Bob

PS Please vote in the associated poll as well!

fatter · Dec 24, 2021

Sad to say domaining will be pretty much a thing of the past, like the dotcom era. I believe this because for 9 dollars and a good name you could make some good money in the past. Now instead of regging 100 domains you can buy 100 startup crypto coins and make a killing in crypto market. There will still be a domain industry but I think there will be few newcomers, because crypto is much easier to strike it rich. I will let a bunch of my names where i was waiting for the technology to advance, or legislation to advance expire. So instead of keeping names for ten years i will buy 100 xrp tokens. There will still be a market for the best in this industry, but for the average domainer like myself Doesn't look like it. I learned a lot and made some good money but won't put much time in it anymore.

Global Rebrander · Dec 24, 2021

Bob Hawkes said:
I hope that many NamePros members will help me out. I am putting together, for publication at the start of 2022, a NamePros Blog article summarizing views on what the year ahead might look like in domain name investing.

What trends do you see?

Is there a new niche that you think will become hot?

What sectors will be highly sought?

Are domain name prices on way up or down?

Do you see the top, middle or bottom of market, price wise, as offering best opportunities?

Will ETH, meta and NFT stay strong?

Will the surge in .xyz continue?

What about .io? .co?

What about national country codes?

Will there be more, or fewer, million dollar sales?

What changes do you predict in the marketplaces we use?

Will decentralized domain names grow in acceptance?

What trends do you see happening in branding?

Overall, do you think 2022 will be better or worse than 2021?

What is your biggest concern about the future of domain investing?

What one thing do you hope will happen? Perhaps a new service you think the industry needs.

I am not looking for you to comment on all of those topics! Just select one, or two, and give your opinion, or comment on something not on the list.

While space will not permit me to include everyone's comments, my intention is to quote, with attribution to you, a number in the NamePros article.

Please don't be hesitant to share. Having many viewpoints, from all parts of the world, and from different experience levels, will help produce a balanced article.

Thank you in advance.

Bob

PS Please vote in the associated poll as well!

I think once again new developments in new technology will eventually bring in much of the new hot domains just like the words coin, token, crypto, nft, metaverse had in the last few years. It will be interesting to see what new developments we see in the crypto space as well as what new technologies under RND currently go into mainstream like LiFi

Bob Hawkes · Dec 24, 2021

Thank you for all the views, everyone, and hope we will have many more come in.

Particularly interested in predictions on hot niches, of course understand if people do not want to share!

redemo said:
What about voting for your favourite @Bob Hawkes blog post of 2021?

I would, respectfully, vote against that idea, but thank you for the thought, @redemo. I find that the existing system gives me lots of feedback on the type of posts people most appreciate. I am truly appreciative of NamePros for allowing me the opportunity to write a weekly blog post, and this amazing domain community.

redemo said:
What about voting for the best posts from all members in 2021, ranking the top ten and giving the top three a prize like a free subscription to Namepros

Offhand I don't know if this has been proposed or not. Probably this thread is not the place to discuss it (but I do see the link with year). There is a section for suggestions to NamePros, or its own thread are probably the best place to discuss it.

Thank you everyone, and best wishes for 2022.

Bob

redemo · Dec 24, 2021

Global Rebrander said:
new technologies under RND currently go into mainstream like LiFi

That's one I hadn't heard of before reading your post. Cheers mate. Living is learning. Sharing is caring. Anybody investing in LiFi domain names?

Global Rebrander · Dec 24, 2021

redemo said:
That's one I hadn't heard of before reading your post. Cheers mate. Living is learning. Sharing is caring. Anybody investing in LiFi domain names?

LiFidevice.com

Corey · Dec 26, 2021

I will continue to invest in liquid domains, LLLL.com as a long term investment.

Cheers
Corey

FolioTeam · Dec 26, 2021

Reyginus said:
Dan pays in Crypto and it is a Netherland company. BrandBrucket, a Brandable marketplace, recently worked with BitPay to pay sellers in Crypto too.

Even Porkbun, a registrar, now accepts payment in crypto when registering a domain with them

RogueWriter · Dec 26, 2021

Bob Hawkes said:
Still early days in poll, but surprised how positive everyone feels about the momentum continuing.

Bob

For me, my offline business was extremely strong in November and December, which finally gave me balance to move forward. I am feeling confident looking at the new year, and I think that confidence is simply flowing into my other side hustles, such as domaining. I am setting a goal of finding and buying a xx,xxx domain to develop by the end of 2022. It is not something that will happen right away, and I will probably have to buy on contract. That may not sound like a huge leap, but given most of my acquisitions are hand registrations, for me that will be quite the commitment.

ixex · Dec 26, 2021

Kris88 said:
xyz, io, co will keep selling and prices will keep going up and up on them

this would be great!

redemo · Dec 26, 2021

Drum-roll please!

My 22 predictions for the domain name industry in 2022 are:

Dot com will continue to be the world's most popular domain name extension (duh!).
Dot com domain name registrations will continue to rise (duh-duh!).
Overall domain name registrations will continue to fall.
Average domain name character length will continue to become shorter.
More companies will use descriptive domain names (buy.tickets, visit.london).
" Meta ", " metaverse " and " xr " related domain names will be become more popular, as will sub categories including " vr ", " ar ", " mr " and other gaming related domain names.
I do not expect there to be a noticeable surge in " immersive " keyword domain names (no source).
" Eco ", " solar ", " sustainable ", " electric / e... / electro / electricity ", " enviro(mental) " no pun intended, " ethical ", " canna(bis) ", " cbd ", " hemp " and related environmental / organic / medicinal domain names will become more popular.
" virtual " related domain names will become more popular as people continue to isolate socially and work remotely professionally.
" machine learning ", " ml ", " ai " and " (ro)bot(ics) " related domain names will become more popular.
" invest(ing) " " crypto(currency) ", " loan " and related financial domain names will become more popular.
" app " domain name sales will continue to surge as mobile phones take over the world and Google airdrops solar powered Google Chromebooks to Chief Madidi of the uncontacted Toromona tribe living near the upper Madidi River in northwestern Bolivia (no source, but stranger things have happened).
More domain name marketplaces will have https landing pages by default for free (no source) while Estibot gives all paid Namepros members free access to domainleads.com (no source).
More domain name marketplaces will accept cryptocurrency transactions (no source).
TikTok will remain the world's most popular domain name, ahead of Google, by traffic.
Brand protection will become critical with more companies acquiring their dot com (and exact match social networking names).
The number of W.I.P.O. domain name U.D.R.P. dispute cases will continue to rise noticeably in 2022 as it has for the past three years (2019 saw 3693 cases, 2020 saw 4204 cases, 2021 saw 5051 cases), and over 90 % of U.D.R.P. complainants will continue to win their cases and have domain names transferred.
Physical business address will become more important for SEO as Google robustly pushes Business Listings as a core part of its organic (and to a lesser extend paid) algorithms.
Consumers and search engines will expect everything on the internet to be faster, especially when visiting domain names (domain name marketplaces and domain name portfolio owners, you have been warned), oh and they need to be mobile friendly, and voice search friendly, and stray cat friendly....
LiFi might become a thing, in which case I predict " lifi " domain names will also become a thing.
Crafty domainers will be monitoring the S.S.A. (Social Security Administration) website to find the latest trending baby names and swiftly register any new ones twenty years before an end user is old enough to actually use them, before which they will probably never be developed or sold and therefore dropped many times over by different registrants before anyone makes any profit (apart from the registrars, of course).
Your taxes will be due in both the U.S. and U.K. in April of 2022 (multiple sources).

As always, I could be wrong.

Sources

Bob Hawkes · Dec 30, 2021

I will be starting to write the article on Jan 2, with aim to publish probably Jan 11 or 12, so if you have not yet shared your thoughts, please consider doing so by around the end of coming weekend. I will check for last minute additions just before I publish, though.

Also, thanks to everyone who voted in poll, and please vote if you have not already. I continue to be surprised by level of optimism, given that 2021 was already a strong year.

Bob

redemo · Dec 30, 2021

Domain Name Events and Meetups in 2022?

Bob Hawkes · Dec 30, 2021

redemo said:
Domain Name Events and Meetups in 2022?

Probably state of Covid will determine whether we see in-person, online or hybrid events in 2022. I may have missed them, but have NamesCon event(s) for coming year been announced? ICA has a 15th anniversary event in Las Vegas - not sure if they plan to hold others.

Of course every day on NamePros is like an online conference!

Re meetups, if you are having a local domain name meetup it can be announced on NamePros here. I see various late 2021 announcements from around the world, but none yet for 2022 as far as I notice.

Bob

jim h · Dec 31, 2021

Metas, NFTs, Daos and even ENS are rising rapidly in 2021,many can clearly feel that .I think in 2022 .app will continue to rise slowly but powerfully. This year the large transaction of .APP has not been disclosed,according to the confidentiality agreement or other reasons. Transaction amount will increase significantly next year. Personal view.

redemo · Dec 31, 2021

jim h said:
Metas, NFTs, Daos and even ENS are rising rapidly in 2021,many can clearly feel that .I think in 2022 .app will continue to rise slowly but powerfully. This year the large transaction of .APP has not been disclosed,according to the confidentiality agreement or other reasons. Transaction amount will increase significantly next year. Personal view.

Dot app is an extension I would like to invest in next year.

BrandableDomain · Dec 31, 2021

This chart from the US Census Bureau displays the last nine years of business formations.

NAICS means North American Industry Classification System.

The data in Europe and other advanced economies is likely to be comparable since the pandemic is a global phenomenon.

Prior to when the impact of the pandemic hit, US monthly business formations grew slightly each year and had reached around 300,000 per month.

Then, in March 2020 it dipped to 257,673 and April was even worse at 234,838.

Business formations must surely be correlated to domain name sales. I can remember making almost no sales around those months.

May was back to normal, June went way up and July peaked at 552,748. Formations then fell for about six months but now seem to have stabilised at around the 430,000 mark.

So business formations seem to have now settled at a consistent rate about 43 percent higher than pre-pandemic.

Since the pandemic is ongoing, it's likely business start-ups will continue at this new elevated rate, which means the accelerated demand for domain names should continue. The new normal.

The chart numbers may remain high in 2022 or they might go into decline, it's hard to say.

I sold 102 domains in 2021 compared to 73 in 2020. My results seem to correlate with this interpretation of this US Census chart.

I think 2022 sales will be a little better than 2021 due to normal growth, market forces and supply and demand, but don't have any reason to believe there will be a big jump in growth as happened 18 months ago.

Since the end game of the pandemic is uncertain, it's difficult to make predictions for 2022.

SOURCE:

https://www.census.gov/econ/current...Adjusted=1&submit=GET+DATA&releaseScheduleId=

(Then click on the Bar Chart option.)

imwangi · Jan 1, 2022

BrandableDomain said:
Show attachment 207161

Show attachment 207162

This chart from the US Census Bureau displays the last nine years of business formations.

NAICS means North American Industry Classification System.

The data in Europe and other advanced economies is likely to be comparable since the pandemic is a global phenomenon.

Prior to when the impact of the pandemic hit, US monthly business formations grew slightly each year and had reached around 300,000 per month.

Then, in March 2020 it dipped to 257,673 and April was even worse at 234,838.

Business formations must surely be correlated to domain name sales. I can remember making almost no sales around those months.

May was back to normal, June went way up and July peaked at 552,748. Formations then fell for about six months but now seem to have stabilised at around the 430,000 mark.

So business formations seem to have now settled at a consistent rate about 43 percent higher than pre-pandemic.

Since the pandemic is ongoing, it's likely business start-ups will continue at this new elevated rate, which means the accelerated demand for domain names should continue. The new normal.

The chart numbers may remain high in 2022 or they might go into decline, it's hard to say.

I sold 102 domains in 2021 compared to 73 in 2020. My results seem to correlate with this interpretation of this US Census chart.

I think 2022 sales will be a little better than 2021 due to normal growth, market forces and supply and demand, but don't have any reason to believe there will be a big jump in growth as happened 18 months ago.

Since the end game of the pandemic is uncertain, it's difficult to make predictions for 2022.

SOURCE:

https://www.census.gov/econ/current...Adjusted=1&submit=GET+DATA&releaseScheduleId=

(Then click on the Bar Chart option.)

Great analysis. I agree with your tempered optimism. You say you sold 102 domains in 2021. That's out of a portfolio of how many domains, if I may ask?

DomainNature · Jan 7, 2022

I think the 2021 year was the foundation of what is yet to come, take it as planting a seed and see it grow.
That is what 2021 year was for me and many of us, now i will look up to growing and reaping the rewards.

The Durfer · Jan 7, 2022

things to watch for global warming, tech startups, crypto, 4L and 3L dot com domains, about the same as 2021 so thats the way i voted. ty.

Kai W. · Jan 7, 2022

Bob Hawkes said:
Will ETH, meta and NFT stay strong?

Will the surge in .xyz continue?

Absolutely yes.
Predictably, META is the best way for technology to change the way of life. And NFT is more like a way for the Internet to link literary creations, which until then had negligible rights protection on the Internet, more as a result of the push for intellectual property protection. NFT is an explosion in a short period of time, and in the future there may be a replacement for it with broader keywords or technologies, after all, the Internet's intellectual property protection is more focused on the intangible.

Two years ago XYZ was worthless. But now that it's hotter because of crypto, it will continue to add heat. I'm not really sure why this is the case, but I believe CentralNic operational strategy will continue to work.

Bob Hawkes said:
Will decentralized domain names grow in acceptance?

Overall, do you think 2022 will be better or worse than 2021?

What is your biggest concern about the future of domain investing?

I don't agree. The value of the domain generation is to replace machine IP addresses, and securing it for proper operation requires considerable technical expertise. Distributed domains do not go unmonitored by data. My point is to emphasize the use value of domains, not the division of property rights.

Better. For the industry, not the individual.

The popularity of virtual reality. The full popularity of META applications requires smart hardware, which will replace Internet access. Unless the IP address of every device can be bound to a domain name in the future, this will completely wipe out the domain name industry.

The above views are personal and have not been proven

Bob Hawkes · Jan 7, 2022

Any last minute contributions to this thread?

Particularly interested in what TLDs and sectors you plan to emphasize in 2022 and why.

Thanks to all who have contributed and voted.

Bob

Tewksbury · Jan 9, 2022

Bob Hawkes said:
Is there a new niche that you think will become hot?

With Internet fragmentation accelerating, premium, exact-match Internationalized Domain Names offer great investment opportunities.

Happy New Year!

DomainNature · Jan 10, 2022

Hello Mr.Bob
I hope in 2022 i will be more lucky to drop/catch domains from sheeple.

mazharul41 · Jan 18, 2022

Many good domainers are rising in this platform in 2022. ....

trelgor · Feb 1, 2022

2022 is 1/12 down. No flattening of this curve.

opinion What Will 2022 Hold? Input for future blog post sought.

Do you see 2022 as stronger than 2021 in domain name investing? Sort by votes

Yes, definitely

Probably

I think about the same, overall

I see 2022 as probably weaker than 2021

I think 2022 will definitely not be as good as 2021

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