question Domain industry is dying slowly?

[souren]

Since beginning of the internet .com .net .org were always the best option for any business or personal use
names were too limited in a sense that generated a solid valuable market for the domaining business
and domain investors

Most of us as the people who are buying this so called land , imo are unaware of the fact that everyday new lands ,are being generated by the Icann ( Internet's Allah )

every year 10 to 20 new domain extension were being released to the public witch in my opinion wouldn't create a serious problem
until 2014 and beyond where +400 tld has been released to the public witch followed similarly and here were are in 2017 with 882 domain extension
witch in my opinion make owning a premium name easy,cheap, for any potential buyer
witch at the end will affect the tld market valuation
imagine if you own solarenergy.com in 2000 and the value would be a good $$$,$$$
then time passes and here we are in 2017 where you can have names like
solar.energy energy.solar and more.. combinations for
a reg fee or very cheap price
Then it would seriously affect the valuation of solarenergy.com
I see a world (in near future )where anyone can have a short and premium looking domain
that he just registered for 10$
and a market witch looses it's value everyday


That's just my thought about the future of this industry
What you guys think about this?

 

[ben pedri]

if it is dying slowly.. then its dying mega slowly... and we'll all be very dead before it is dead.

I think it went from a peak two, three years ago to a valley right now,it really looks bleak nothing is really selling lately ,domainers are dying ,there is gonna be a lot of good opportunities to buy good domains 20 cents on the dollar,Mike Cyger is no idiot ,he got out of this industry because he saw this coming.

 

[Kate]

Even 3% growth is not bad. When there is negative growth we can officially call it a recession.
But nobody said Germany was dying when it recorded a negative Q3 2018.

 

[BRANDERX]

I think it went from a peak two, three years ago to a valley right now,it really looks bleak nothing is really selling lately ,domainers are dying ,there is gonna be a lot of good opportunities to buy good domains 20 cents on the dollar,Mike Cyger is no idiot ,he got out of this industry because he saw this coming.

Isn't Cyger the owner of DnAcademy?

 

[ben pedri]

Isn't Cyger the owner of DnAcademy?

Yes its a school ,schools never close because there is a lack of jobs or business ,but in the past things got real slow and mike was giving lifetime memberships to dn academy for 99 bucks. Domain Sherpa peaked and he could not get more advertisers willing to pay ,Drew Rosner bought it for his own reasons to basically own the industry,he carved out the right slot for himself with Tess diaz managing the ship as workhorse Chris Zuiker stays chained to his desk and is tased by drew if he puts down the phone. {only kidding}

 

[BRANDERX]

Yes its a school ,schools never close because there is a lack of jobs or business ,but in the past things got real slow and mike was giving lifetime memberships to dn academy for 99 bucks. Domain Sherpa peaked and he could not get more advertisers willing to pay ,Drew Rosner bought it for his own reasons to basically own the industry,he carved out the right slot for himself with Tess diaz managing the ship as workhorse Chris Zuiker stays chained to his desk and is tased by drew if he puts down the phone. {only kidding}

sure, but still, it's kinda like saying the dean of some school at Harvard quit education just because he doesn't lecture anymore.

Why Harvard, coz DnAcademy is the only one of its kind AFAIk, so lets put it up there.

Doesn't he have any domains listed for sale? well, the minute one sells, he is once again a domainer.

Point is, domaining in my view isn't something you just quit or go full speed on whenever you choose to, one day is for you, the other against you.

just saying

 

[frank-germany]

Even 3% growth is not bad. When there is negative growth we can officially call it a recession.
But nobody said Germany was dying when it recorded a negative Q3 2018.

deads live longer

"Gross Domestic Product of Germany grew 1.4% in 2018 compared to last year. This rate is 8 -tenths of one percent less than the figure of 2.2% published in 2017.

The GDP figure in 2018 was $3,998,866 million, leaving Germany placed 4th in the ranking of GDP of the 196 countries that we publish. The absolute value of GDP in Germany rose $321,427 million with respect to 2017."

 

[johnnie018]

At DomainNameBroker.com, we predict that 99% of gTld will go bankrupt and disappear. Remember .mobi? No one uses it. There is a seller on this forum, selling toys.xyz for the price of its renewal. There is a limited demand for dot coms, which is why this asset class is considered illiquid. But the demand for alternative domains is virtually non existent.

How will 99% disappear? There is a bunch of Icann rules that pretty much prevents that. Mostly they are getting bought by larger registries.

Also, pretty obvious there is no "we", why to people say this stuff?

 

[Tia Wood]

There is plenty of evidence that the domain industry is in trouble. Domains themselves? They will be fine and fine for a long time. But the 'domain industry'? ............what industry? Ask yourself, who is looking out for domainers that has some real teeth in politics and commercialism?

I have preached and will always preach that while domain investing is a good side thing (and there are people who've had some great successes but they are an exception), you really need to become an entrepreneur with your best domain(s) while domaining.

But no one listens to me.

 

[johnnie018]

Stupidity and greed is what is killing the domain industry. A 30% ROI in real estate is considered amazing. Yet, many domains will receive a 1000% ROI on their domain and still turn it down because it's not their asking price. This is why most domains will never sell.

ya gotta understand the industry, the chance of selling any domain is very low and the holding costs are often high, if people sell everything for 10x they may not make much money because the registration fees on the entire portfolio will sink them and the time to pick and manage names is huge.

Bit like an artists trying to sell a painting for 10x what it cost to make. Some businesses just need huge margins.

 

[Asfas1000]

Doesn't he have any domains listed for sale? well, the minute one sells, he is once again a domainer.

Not really. If he only puts a couple hours a month to respond to inquiries, but doesn't reserach and buy.....this is not domaining. ( IMO )

 

[BRANDERX]

I have preached and will always preach that while domain investing is a good side thing (and there are people who've had some great successes but they are an exception), you really need to become an entrepreneur with your best domain(s) while domaining.

I like this part

thanks

 

[BRANDERX]

Not really. If he only puts a couple hours a month to respond to inquiries, but doesn't reserach and buy.....this is not domaining. ( IMO )

What if one of those inquiries results in a sale? & the domain sold?

Would it happen because he is a doctor? No, but because he is a domain investor "domainer" .

Be it part or full time, if you do it, you are it.

imo

 

[Asfas1000]

What if one of those inquiries results in a sale? & the domain sold?

Would it happen because he is a doctor? No, but because he is a domain investor "domainer" .

Be it part or full time, if you do it, you are it.

imo

As I see it....it happened because he WAS a domainer and decided to buy that domain back in the day.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

The article and the last CENTR report it is based around deals mainly with registrations. While it is concerning that this is the slowest YOY change since they started the series, it is still positive growth. I was surprised that some, not all, of the European country codes have dropped in registrations, but presume there is a reason for those. Overall I would say a few percent per year is about the right level of growth - real use growth I am sure does not go faster than that, so faster growth means more speculation, and we already have really high speculation in domains in my opinion.

I do see a number of challenges for the "industry" and certainly things are not as rosy as when parking revenue was substantial so that one did not necessarily need sales to pay for renewals.

There seems evidence that the market was more lively even a few years ago, but is far from dead now.

Bob

By the way I don't understand the talk about Michael not being a domainer. He applies a careful analytical approach to his portfolio and he regularly does "hygiene" (his term) to keep what is truly worth keeping. As a result he has a quality portfolio of a modest number. He does what main of us don't (well me ) quality over quantity. He said in one of his presentations at NamesCon that he currently has 37 domain names in his portfolio. As we know he had the major sale of brew in the past year and I believe at least one minor one.

 

[branding]

Everything dies... Eventually.

 

[poweredbyme]

Whole internet (.com TLD) is oldish, is 2019-1985= 34 years old.
34 years is way too long in our tech age.
All major companies even small ones bought their domains long years ago. Only new startups, bloggers/hobbyists would need a second hand domain. Domain demand is way too small compared to second hand domain supply. Domain industry is already dead.

 

[johnnie018]

There is Domains themselves? They will be fine and fine for a long time. But the 'domain industry'? ............what industry? Ask yourself, who is looking out for domainers that has some real teeth in politics and commercialism?

I have preached and will always preach that while domain investing is a good side thing (and there are people who've had some great successes but they are an exception), you really need to become an entrepreneur with your best domain(s) while domaining.

But no one listens to me.

The parking decline stuff is valid, the rest is a bit of a whinge and not anything solid.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Domain demand is way too small compared to second hand domain supply. Domain industry is already dead.

I don't agree, at least not entirely. Some estimates say that 50,000 new businesses start every day. That is many orders of magnitude more than the number of domains sold in a day, even if we assume NameBio only represents 10% of the total market. Many businesses are either hand registering a domain name or using a service such as Wix (they now have 110 million users). There is potential for a more robust domain aftermarket if we can better serve the needs of the new business owners, who will be primarily in China and India in the coming decade.
Bob

 

[Hootsifer]

When Mike Garguilo acquired vpn.com he stated something in the order of 8 million 800 searches a month. Now a few years later it appears to be 16 million and some change searches. Quality .coms single dict will remain relevant, quality 2 words .com, and single dict .net / org and short name .net / org imo. gTLD's outside of a few will remain pump and dumps, ccTLD's will probably have their place awhile being so similiar to .com. If you can't see the rising in short name, and dict .org / .net then you need to wipe your eyes.

Just my opinion.

 

[poweredbyme]

I don't agree, at least not entirely. Some estimates say that 50,000 new businesses start every day. That is many orders of magnitude more than the number of domains sold in a day, even if we assume NameBio only represents 10% of the total market. Many businesses are either hand registering a domain name or using a service such as Wix (they now have 110 million users). There is potential for a more robust domain aftermarket if we can better serve the needs of the new business owners, who will be primarily in China and India in the coming decade.
Bob

If an industry is not worth to invest, I call it dead. Take cigarette industry as an example. It's declining, is not actually dead but is destined to dead. Smoking cigarette is getting restricted in more public places, etc. In the past people were smoking anywhere, demand was higher. Would you invest in cigarette industry, would you consider buying shares of a cigarette brand to hold it for long term? If not, it's a dead industry, even if it's still active. Domain industry is declining, is not worth to invest for long term, so is dead. Of course you may pick particular domains and may make profit. You can make profit even in a declining idustry. It's not impossible but would be very difficult. 34 years is too much time in a tech related industry. Internet is no longer a new technology. Things were easier 10 years ago, before social media. Internet = social media for many people. Companies don't rely on website traffic as much as before. Total benefit of running a website is little. Online advertisement is almost dead. Internet got cartelized largely. To advertise a product having a domain + website is no longer enough. You must advertise it. Therefore you don't really need a website to sell a product. Today most websites are functioning mostly as a formality or prestige/reliability factor.

 

[JB Lions]

If an industry is not worth to invest, I call it dead. Take cigarette industry as an example. It's declining, is not actually dead but is destined to dead. Smoking cigarette is getting restricted in more public places, etc. In the past people were smoking anywhere, demand was higher. Would you invest in cigarette industry, would you consider buying shares of a cigarette brand to hold it for long term? If not, it's a dead industry, even if it's still active. Domain industry is declining, is not worth to invest for long term, so is dead. Of course you may pick particular domains and may make profit. You can make profit even in a declining idustry. It's not impossible but would be very difficult. 34 years is too much time in a tech related industry. Internet is no longer a new technology. Things were easier 10 years ago, before social media. Internet = social media for many people. Companies don't rely on website traffic as much as before. Total benefit of running a website is little. Online advertisement is almost dead. Internet got cartelized largely. To advertise a product having a domain + website is no longer enough. You must advertise it. Therefore you don't really need a website to sell a product. Today most websites are functioning mostly as a formality or prestige/reliability factor.

This is basically another nonsense post. Particularly:

"Domain industry is declining, is not worth to invest for long term, so is dead."

No, it's not dead.

This one especially:
"Online advertisement is almost dead."

It's actually growing/soaring

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=internet+advertising+dollars

I have preached and will always preach that while domain investing is a good side thing (and there are people who've had some great successes but they are an exception), you really need to become an entrepreneur with your best domain(s) while domaining.

It's always good to be diversified but if you treat something as a side thing, that's exactly what it will be. Probably won't put in as much work if you look at it that way. Look at it this way. There are plenty of people that do this for a living. Somebody will be starting this month and one day will get there. What is the difference between those that fail and succeed.

 

[Kate]

How will 99% disappear? There is a bunch of Icann rules that pretty much prevents that. Mostly they are getting bought by larger registries.

If a TLD gets in trouble, it will be put on life support for 3 years but not forever. So a TLD can be removed if nobody wants to resuscitate it.

.wed has been in EBERO for some time.

And two dozens private strings have been already been retired: https://www.namepros.com/threads/list-of-retired-new-extensions.991424/
Just the beginning. More TLDs will follow.
This is a segment of the domain industry that is dying slowly: nTLDs.

 

[Tia Wood]

There are plenty of people that do this for a living. Somebody will be starting this month and one day will get there. What is the difference between those that fail and succeed.

I agree with you but that is not the case for most people and in order for the domain industry to survive it needs to be most people.

 

[JB Lions]

I agree with you but that is not the case for most people and in order for the domain industry to survive it needs to be most people.

I agree that it's not the case for most people but most small businesses fail and I think most people here are hobbyists, do this on the side, have a job etc. So most opinions here are going to be thru that experience.

I disagree that this industry is incumbent on most people succeeding, that's never been the case in domaining, never will be, but domaining goes on. It's probably single digit percentage that can make a go of this.

 

[poweredbyme]

This is basically another nonsense post. Particularly:

"Domain industry is declining, is not worth to invest for long term, so is dead."

No, it's not dead.

I call it dead in a more abstract sense. Domaining is a declining industry. For me it's equal to dead as an industry, compared to other industries that are not declining. In other words, domaining is a living dead.

This one especially:
"Online advertisement is almost dead."

It's actually growing/soaring

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=internet+advertising+dollars

Ad blockers is one side, for the people who run websites for ad revenue.
Other side is for the people who want to sell their own products online. Websites as a means of advertising a product are mostly dead compared to the old days. Today people spend their time on social media sites. Companies try to be active in social media sites. In the past, website was a must to sell something online. Today, it does not affect sales as before. Therefore, actual value of websites/domains is much less than before. Of course some business models like ecommerce sites still need a website and domain but mostly to process orders only, receive payment, etc.. But those websites are no longer creating great exposure. When I say online advertisement, I include websites and domains as a type of online advertisement. Advertisement function of websites is weaker. So domain is less important in profitability of a company.