Do you think domaining will ever become mainstream business?

[Hidigo]

Do you think domaining will ever become mainstream business and will they be interesting to rich investors?

 

[rathead]

possibly.

 

[Kate]

No.

 

[Bullock]

Do you think domaining will ever become mainstream business and will they be interesting to rich investors?

It is already...

GoDaddy paid $50 million for two latest domain portfolio acquisitions

In October 2017, we completed two domain portfolio acquisitions for aggregate cash consideration of $50.0 million, including $4.2 million payable upon expiration of the contractual holdback periods.

That comes out to about $167 per domain name.

 

[SpareDomains]

GoDaddy keeps buying portfolios. They basically buy portfolios in bulk that weren't marketed correctly add them to their distribution network with buy it now pricing and profit. Recipe for all business acquisitions, find weakness and pay weak pricing, improve that weakness and profit.

As far as awareness that taken domains can still be for sale I think distribution networks help...
https://www.afternic.com/domain-reseller-network etc... as it brings inventory into the natural registration path combined with GoDaddy advertising on TV etc... slowly bringing in more end users to see these distributed domains.

So I think a good investment if you have your own domain sales sites combined with using distribution partners. If the goal is investing and just sitting on them don't think as strong since domain parking income has fallen over the years, ad blockers etc... So a good investment in bulk if you have the sales channel to bring sales in at an acceptable rate.

GoDaddy would be a natural buyer on the sales angle since they have the established sales channel. Parking companies would be the natural buyer on the domain parking angle as they have the "real" earning numbers that you will never see.