Domain Sales Explode With a $3 Million Sale & Four 6-Figure Sales Logged in Past Two Weeks

[Ron Jackson]

The latest domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Americans expect to see fireworks on July 4th but they arrived more than a month early in the domain aftermarket with the top five sales alone totaling more than $4 million over the past two weeks. The boom has actually been going on all year with sales in 1Q-2014 soraing 47% over the same quarter a year ago.

This week’s sales were led by a $3 million blockbuster that is also the biggest non .com gTLD sale of the year. A ccTLD also landed in the top five after changing hands for $136,000. Even so, the .coms dominated sweeping 35 of the 41 entries on our expanded leader board (this week’s report covers the past two week’s worth of sales because there was no column last week while I was away covering the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in Las Vegas). You can get all of the details here: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2014/20140611.htm

 

[wot]

Barron Innovations was established in order to promote premium .xxx domains and turn them into top adult industry brands.

Domains that the company promotes include, among many others: sex.xxx, phone.xxx, black.xxx, shop.xxx, mate.xxx, horny.xxx, kinky.xxx, online.xxx and education.xxx.


"The $5 million deal includes more than 40 Premium Generic Keyword Domains and the highly desirable SEX.xxx accounts for $3 million of the total. Other notable names include cam.xxx, phone.xxx and black.xxx, all of which attracted six-figure sales prices, as well as web.xxx, market.xxx, mate.xxx and education.xxx."

Stats & stats - 40 premium for $5 mill but sex.xxx just happens to be $3 mill of that total? Perhaps I am just an old cynic but seems like hype to me?

And:

"We look forward to enjoying the benefits of ICM's unique Domain Matching Program, which gives .XXX holders an opportunity to secure matching .XXX domain names in .PORN, .ADULT and .SEX," says Efron. "And we would like to use this opportunity to thank Stephen and the rest of the ICM team, who made the negotiation process a very pleasant experience."

I am sure there is no connection whatsoever between ICM & BI

 

[McDuke]

Barron Innovations was established in order to promote premium .xxx domains and turn them into top adult industry brands.

Domains that the company promotes include, among many others: sex.xxx, phone.xxx, black.xxx, shop.xxx, mate.xxx, horny.xxx, kinky.xxx, online.xxx and education.xxx.


"The $5 million deal includes more than 40 Premium Generic Keyword Domains and the highly desirable SEX.xxx accounts for $3 million of the total. Other notable names include cam.xxx, phone.xxx and black.xxx, all of which attracted six-figure sales prices, as well as web.xxx, market.xxx, mate.xxx and education.xxx."

Stats & stats - 40 premium for $5 mill but sex.xxx just happens to be $3 mill of that total? Perhaps I am just an old cynic but seems like hype to me?

And:

"We look forward to enjoying the benefits of ICM's unique Domain Matching Program, which gives .XXX holders an opportunity to secure matching .XXX domain names in .PORN, .ADULT and .SEX," says Efron. "And we would like to use this opportunity to thank Stephen and the rest of the ICM team, who made the negotiation process a very pleasant experience."

I am sure there is no connection whatsoever between ICM & BI

Lets have a little debate!

Tell me why porn should remain in .com, .net, .equipment, .biz, .eu etc. and not be in it's own adult venue.

All porn should be forced to use .xxx period! There is no reason for porn to be so accessible to minors in a extension like .com. The only people who want porn to remain in .com are, scammers, degenerates, hackers and persons who need the millions of clicks from curious minds!

But of course the old dogs kick and scream bloody murder to the .xxx extension because they hold valuble adult .com's.

So i ask the anti .xxx'ers to step up and say why they feel porn should remain in easy accessible extensions such as .com.

.xxx is king! check and mate imo!

 

[Kate]

Unfortunately this sale will not change the fact that .xxx is a dead zone.
Of course, the registry is pretty much the only one making sales, as usual.

About 108,500 domains are currently provisioned in the zone file, while the registry is claiming about twice as many regs, that are in fact reservations but not resolving. As for the resolving 108K domains, the vast majority are inactive. In January 2014 .xxx has 109K domains in the zone file. Back in January 2013, the figure was around 115K.

So it is not only stagnating, but already losing numbers. In fact it didn't even take off really.
The trends are very depressing.

 

[DU]

Lets have a little debate!

You tell me why porn should remain in .com, .net, .equipment, .biz, .eu etc. and not be in it's own adult venue.

Because global governments can't dictate that all countries and all hosting providers enforce rules that apply on a global basis that results in the financial benefits of a sole private enterprise?

 

[McDuke]

Unfortunately this sale will not change the fact that .xxx is a dead zone.
Of course, the registry is pretty much the only one making sales, as usual.

About 108,500 domains are currently provisioned in the zone file, while the registry is claiming about twice as many regs, that are in fact reservations but not resolving. As for the resolving 108K domains, the vast majority are inactive. In January 2014 .xxx has 109K domains in the zone file. Back in January 2013, the figure was around 115K.

So it is not only stagnating, but already losing numbers. In fact it didn't even take off really.
The trends are very depressing.

OK, lets ask ourselves why it is a dead zone, i believe it is a dead zone because;

- .com is easier to infect computers with malware etc "it is proven .xxx is safer, although there are less sites in .xxx"

- .com is less difficult to filter (geo restrictions and or company restrictions) adult sites will probably lose 60%~ of their traffic if moved to .xxx.

- .com adult sites get millions of hits from minors, super easy to access, or stumble upon, difficult to filter

- adult companies have invested time and money in and will have to invest more to develop in .xxx

- domain investors have purchased .com adult sites for high amounts and are scared their adult .coms values will drop "which they already have and will continue to do so!!!!!!!!!!!!"

- adult .com domainers don't like the high .xxx renewal rates, not as easy to just reg bad names, 60$ a year with renewal codes...

I thought .xxx was a fantastic idea when it came out and i was kind of appalled how the industry turned their back on it. For years these adult .com's made people millionaires and now the greedy got greedier at a new low. For all the above reasons the industry has shunned .xxx, which is sad.

I think it was expected for people to drop a few names, especially now! A year ago .xxx were sold for 10$/ ea so obviously people will be dropping some now during renewal time.

Over time more sites will be developed in .xxx and hopefully to the point .com adult sites are avoided by the general public. "It would not be hard to make it go viral to not go to .com adult sites, would be easy imo"

I will say, I think the ICM registry should have given existing .com owners the option to get their matching .xxx at a discounted long term renewal rate, but they didn't. So it's going to be a slower transition.

DU has a valid point to why adult sites can't be forced into .xxx, but i feel as a global internet community everyone should promote .xxx because i feel it is safer for all parties, especially minors.

I appreciate the stats snsinc.

Thanks for the replies i think it is important to bring this topic to light!

Please top dogs, get those adult sites into the adult extensions!

 

[Kate]

Industry-specific TLDs have always failed. .travel .museum .coop .aero etc
End users have their reasons not to use them (assuming they even know they exist). They are creatures of habits too.
Why should people be forced to use a particular extension ? Because you invested heavily in it ?
In the case of .xxx the amount of defensive registrations is disproportionate, to put it bluntly the new TLDs thrive on racket. When a TLD is 90% inactive and shunned by the adult industry it is supposed to serve - I think it is very clear that the TLD has failed to demonstrate its purpose. It is a huge embarrassment really. I would be ashamed to run such a TLD. How can you justify your existence with results so abysmal.

Oh yes, adult webmasters are cheap too. Very few will ever pay millions for domain names. .xxx pricing cannot compete against more mainstream extensions. No, pricing doesn't help at all. Maybe they should try $10 registrations. But hey I'm sure they deliberately set the price high enough with a view to encouraging high-quality development in the zone :p

"It would not be hard to make it go viral to not go to .com adult sites, would be easy imo"

Seriously, telling people to stop using .com is wishful thinking.
Example
Developers are not going to shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[McDuke]

Industry-specific TLDs have always failed. .travel .museum .coop .aero etc

This is totally different, your trying to relate .travel, .museum to .xxx lol, please! Your insulting everyone's intelligence..

Why should people be forced to use a particular extension ? Because you invested heavily in it ?

So .com should only be used? You seem very anti everything but .com. I am "heavily" invested hey LOL.

You don't think through social media people could get millions to stop using .com adult sites to protect children? are you sure? positive? maybe a test campaign is required?

 

[DU]

Regulating porn has nothing to do with extensions and everything to do with regulating porn.

 

[McDuke]

Regulating porn has nothing to do with extensions and everything to do with regulating porn.

Porn is always going to be around, if it is used in a specific extension i think it will be easier to keep it away from prying eyes.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

People who run porn sites and other dodgy sexual services tend not to brag about it, so, perhaps, .xxx is too graphic for a porner who wants to hide in the shadows.

It's a dirty business, too often involving minors, sex trafficking, prostitution, exploitation, and sex slavery, so adopting an .xxx extension is like placing a bulls eye on your back and in the cross hairs of law enforcement.

In the end, a porn webmaster would rather have a lousy .com than a keyword .xxx -- and remain in the shadows of the dark web. Kinda difficult to do that with an in-your-face .xxx label, smack dab in your url.

So this is most likely why .xxx has been, overall, a disappointment.

*

 

[Kate]

This is totally different, your trying to relate .travel, .museum to .xxx lol, please! Your insulting everyone's intelligence..

I'm not. All these TLDs are industry-specific extensions. The only difference is the numbers. Yet there is much more bona fide development in these extensions than in .xxx. It is actually flattering for .xxx that I'm tossing it in the same basket.

You don't think through social media people could get millions to stop using .com adult sites to protect children? are you sure? positive? maybe a test campaign is required?

To begin with, protecting the children is a very common excuse for cracking down on the Internet, along with 'terrorism' of course.
The thing is, nobody can mandate a worldwide move of all 'porn' activity to a specific TLD as DU said. Therefore, porn will continue to remain accessible through any extension.
I will also add: parents need to do their job.

Besides, quite many countries already filter the Net heavily for porn, notably the Middle East. The UK too. ISPs are now supposed to apply an adult filter to your connection - unless you opt out. Of course, this is the beginning of censorship, Russian-style. Because you know, there are always plenty of legitimate websites that end up in the blacklists by 'mistake'. You are always going to get more than you ask.
But you see, .xxx is not even needed when you have censorship and DPI. Governments have not waited for .xxx.

 

[Keith]

.xxx isn't going to happen. There will be no rules that say porn has to be on .xxx. Just like there will be no rules that say car related sites have to be on .auto. The internet doesn't work that way.

In many instances folks defend new extensions by saying, "just wait a few years and my new regs will be worth a fortune". As if decades of public branding and awareness with .com will fade away. If history and experienced domainers don't teach you, your monetary losses certainly will

 

[Kate]

I am sure there is no connection whatsoever between ICM & BI

According to Dun & Bradstreet Barron Innovations (founded: 2008) had an annual revenue of $99,000.00. Which means their funding must come from somewhere else. This is a secretive outfit, but it doesn't surprise me that people involved in the porn business would rather keep a low profile.

Now on to something else: remember the $500K sale of gay.xxx ? I was wondering why this expensive domain is still not developed. Perhaps some of the reasons are laid out here.

America’s most litigious and newest barebacking porn studio, Liberty Media Holdings (aka Corbin Fisher) has purchased the URL “gay.xxx” from the ICM registry for the low price of half-a-million dollars. But before you go thinking that they’re looking to turn gay.xxx into a anal sex wonderland, you might want to know that Corbin Fisher is also a member of a Californian porn trade group that opposed even having an “xxx” domain extension for porn-related sites to begin with.

Turns out that Corbin Fisher’s parent company is also a member of the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), an outspoken opponent of the ICM registry’s push to label online porn with an “xxx” extension

...

The bottom line is that the reported sales are not always a vote of confidence from end users, especially in .xxx.

 

[-EM-]

IMO, I am very skeptical with .xxx sales. They tend to advertise big sales just to promote the registrations.
Why do you need words like sex, porn etc in a .xxx domain? What's the point of .xxx in this case?
With $3m budget you can easily get the .net version which makes much more sense.

 

[Jasonn]

*

People who run porn sites and other dodgy sexual services tend not to brag about it, so, perhaps, .xxx is too graphic for a porner who wants to hide in the shadows.

It's a dirty business, too often involving minors, sex trafficking, prostitution, exploitation, and sex slavery, so adopting an .xxx extension is like placing a bulls eye on your back and in the cross hairs of law enforcement.

In the end, a porn webmaster would rather have a lousy .com than a keyword .xxx -- and remain in the shadows of the dark web. Kinda difficult to do that with an in-your-face .xxx label, smack dab in your url.

So this is most likely why .xxx has been, overall, a disappointment.

*

wow you are completely ignorant. sure there is the underground illegal sites out there but 99% are people running a business within the law.

as for .xxx being a filter, its just as easy to filter by content. there will never be a consensus across the globe that all porn should be on .xxx, not to mention enforcement is next to impossible.

 

[McDuke]

wow you are completely ignorant. sure there is the underground illegal sites out there but 99% are people running a business within the law.

as for .xxx being a filter, its just as easy to filter by content. there will never be a consensus across the globe that all porn should be on .xxx, not to mention enforcement is next to impossible.

I think MSDomainer is far from ignorant. I think if anything her posts hit most topics bang on.

I think those legit sites who operate within the law should want to operate in .xxx. Then the scumbags who don't operate within the law can't hide within the legit sites as easy. Maybe you're right and it is impossible to enforce, .xxx has it's safety benefits and i feel more than a couple people here should acknowledge this.

@ EM - maybe the sale reports are just pumpers, but one thing is for sure, i think legit operators in .xxx have 100% more class than anyone who operates in .net or .com. "if you can talk about adult sites and class in the same sentence..."

@ snsinc - many businesses are tax write offs for larger ventures.

@ kieth -.com will never fade away but it is never going to be what it was with all the new extensions available.

All i will say is kudos to the companies who have made the move to .xxx, in my opinion the adult companies who shun .xxx and remain in .com, .net etc aren't cool. But it is a shady industry so....

I'm not a bible thumper or anything, i just feel there is way too much adult content in .com where all ages search, work, learn and play and the big players should make the move to .xxx for this reason. I'm thinking on the morality of the topic and others seem to argue on the technical / pro .com view point. People try to protect .com way too much. .com is just a gtld like the others, the only difference is it was used first.

In time the internet will change, hopefully for the better.

 

[-EM-]

I'm not an expert in adult sites and I have no idea to what are you referring with "class", I only compared the domains alone. Using a specific area TLD doesn't make your site better. We have .pro which was created especially for pros and most of the .pro sites are such "unpro" :p
I understand that moving all adult websites on a specific TLD will make the internet more ordered but it is hard to be done. .xxx came too late.

 

[McDuke]

I'm not an expert in adult sites and I have no idea to what are you referring with "class", I only compared the domains alone. Using a specific area TLD doesn't make your site better. We have .pro which was created especially for pros and most of the .pro sites are such "unpro" :p
I understand that moving all adult websites on a specific TLD will make the internet more ordered but it is hard to be done. .xxx came too late.

sorry, I wasn't directing it at you personally. I know many of you don't operate these types of sites but rather think the new extensions are a waste of internet space. Regarding my classy comment, I'm saying the adult industry is not classy but moving from a .com to .xxx is a classy move.

Maybe .xxx came too late because of the monetary implications of switching to .xxx, but i don't think it is too late to switch extensions. Adult entertainment will always be around, it is human instinct to enjoy it. Whether sites operate in .com or .xxx is irrelevant, people will go to where the larger sites are. Those sites will still get traffic if in .xxx, only the traffic they get will consist of more legal aged persons.

 

[Keith]

Those sites will still get traffic if in .xxx, only the traffic they get will consist of more legal aged persons.

Is there research to back up your statement? Underage people can type .xxx just as easy as .com.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

If I were someone in law enforcement (I'm not), you better believe I would be monitoring .xxx sites, which is the very reason why a porner would NOT want to use .xxx, no matter how many "safeguards" are set in .xxx. You know that "safeguards" are constantly ignored on the internet, especially when it comes to money, the registries, and ICANT.

A porner would rather hide behind a .com, even a bad one.

After all, if .xxx were so popular, the porners would be falling all over themselves registering them. When I do a search for domains on Domainmonster (who shows all the availables), more times than not, the .xxx is available.

I find that name callers tend to be the ignorant ones, barely worth one's attention.



*

 

[McDuke]

Is there research to back up your statement? Underage people can type .xxx just as easy as .com.

Go read earlier posts and figure it out "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see whats going on". As i said above, yes minors could type .xxx but it will be filtered easier, and when they type certain common terms they don't get adult sites popping up. I am not an internet techno wizard so i have no idea how to gather these types of stats.

The current internet is like the wild west, in time it will become more civilized.

 

[DU]

@ EM - maybe the sale reports are just pumpers, but one thing is for sure, i think legit operators in .xxx have 100% more class than anyone who operates in .net or .com. "if you can talk about adult sites and class in the same sentence..."

They have more class because they've decided to use the gTLD of a private business that more or less was created to extort money from non-adult businesses through removing potential association? If the goal was to get everyone to .XXX why did they apply for .PORN, .SEX, .ADULT? The .XXX is just another piece of the adult industry and one that the rest of the industry has shunned.

I'm all for protection of minors, I'm all for education of people into the dangers of porn addiction, I'm all for teaching men that women have individual wants/needs/desires that may or may not always jive with yours. I'm all for getting society to a point where all men and all women have as much right as each other to be promiscuous or abstinent or whatever level in between of their own choosing without any cultural prejudice... whether that be same sex, bisex, heterosex.

The solution to any problems is not one that can be solved by just tagging a url with an extension. We don't have urls for "Search index don't follow" because that's not the right solution.

@ snsinc - many businesses are tax write offs for larger ventures.

I hear this argument all the time. The idea that some company deliberately loses money to write it off on their taxes? That's not how it works... you come up with novel ways to have "tax losses" that you write off. You don't actually want to really lose money.

I'm not a bible thumper or anything, i just feel there is way too much adult content in .com where all ages search, work, learn and play and the big players should make the move to .xxx for this reason. I'm thinking on the morality of the topic and others seem to argue on the technical / pro .com view point. People try to protect .com way too much. .com is just a gtld like the others, the only difference is it was used first.

If you want to regulate porn, you have to regulate porn. Your argument is like saying that if we want everyone to be energy efficient then we should force everyone to buy a Toyota Prius. Your argument is literally that specific. Everyone should use ICM and .XXX.

Maybe .xxx came too late because of the monetary implications of switching to .xxx, but i don't think it is too late to switch extensions. Adult entertainment will always be around, it is human instinct to enjoy it. Whether sites operate in .com or .xxx is irrelevant, people will go to where the larger sites are. Those sites will still get traffic if in .xxx, only the traffic they get will consist of more legal aged persons.

There you have defined an issue - too much access to people you consider too young to view porn. So - work with search engines, work with browsers to filter, work with meta data, try and enforce codified web architectures. The adult industry wouldn't mind that much.

*
If I were someone in law enforcement (I'm not), you better believe I would be monitoring .xxx sites, which is the very reason why a porner would NOT want to use .xxx, no matter how many "safeguards" are set in .xxx. You know that "safeguards" are constantly ignored on the internet, especially when it comes to money, the registries, and ICANT.

*

I rather hope that someone in law enforcement spent time enforcing law and not monitoring .xxx sites. What would you be looking for exactly? There are law enforcement divisions working every day on cp, sex trafficking, abuse etc. I want my police force doing what they are tasked with - policing their jurisdiction.

 

[DU]

As i said above, yes minors could type .xxx but it will be filtered easier, and when they type certain common terms they don't get adult sites popping up. I am not an internet techno wizard so i have no idea how to gather these types of stats.

Perhaps, as an admitted less than techno-wizard, you are ill-qualified to determine the best way to filter data in the manner you would want?

 

[Jasonn]

*

If I were someone in law enforcement (I'm not), you better believe I would be monitoring .xxx sites, which is the very reason why a porner would NOT want to use .xxx, no matter how many "safeguards" are set in .xxx. You know that "safeguards" are constantly ignored on the internet, especially when it comes to money, the registries, and ICANT.

A porner would rather hide behind a .com, even a bad one.

After all, if .xxx were so popular, the porners would be falling all over themselves registering them. When I do a search for domains on Domainmonster (who shows all the availables), more times than not, the .xxx is available.

I find that name callers tend to be the ignorant ones, barely worth one's attention.



*

here is a big news flash for you: most illegal porn sites don't use domains at all.

btw, saying you were ignorant was not name calling but merely pointing out your lack of knowledge on the subject judging by your inaccurate reply.