Domains as a long-term investment?

[windycityxx]

Are .com's going to continue to rise in value as more people get online and there are only so many .com's etc.?

Or will the other .net, .org, and million other extensions dilute the prices on .com's?

What about in the next 5-25 years?

What else could come along to make .com domains drop in value?

 

[Name Trader]

I think everybody has a crystal ball if you are going out that far. But for me personally, I think .com will still rule the roost of domain extensions, way into the future. Not needing a domain name to get to where you want to go on the web, would probably diminish .com values.

 

[The Rover]

Not needing a domain name to get to where you want to go on the web, would probably diminish .com values.

Yep, that's pretty much the only event that I can see killing this industry. Otherwise, dot coms will probably increase, not decrease, in value.

 

[lincolndsp]

for .com to fall in value you need the total number of sites on com * their traffic drop lower than that of .whatever

 

[Kate]

There is value in ccTLDs too. Not all of them of course.
In a number of countries ccTLDs are already dominant/rising, .com still can have value locally but is preferred for companies with a wider scope than the local market.
So I think the value of .com is already eroded outside the US.

I think domains will be there for many years to come, because businesses will always need to advertise their online location. Domain names, like phone numbers, are unambiguous identifiers (aside from the typo problem).

Telling customers to go to facebook or google is like telling customers to look up the yellow pages - where they are exposed to your competitors too. Not smart.
The mobile apps or the search engines have not made the Internet less dependent on domain names.

 

[Fonzie]

Are .com's going to continue to rise in value as more people get online and there are only so many .com's etc.?

Or will the other .net, .org, and million other extensions dilute the prices on .com's?

What about in the next 5-25 years?

What else could come along to make .com domains drop in value?

To determine value, you first have to understand what drives value.

What drives value of any given .com domain name is need and demand of that particular name.

You can own a name that might make domainers ooh and aah with amazement that falls flat when presented to every relevant industry entity. We've seen several of these make the rounds at the domainer auctions in the past few years. Go ahead. Try your hand with it at 30K or 50K. Try calling the CEO of Company X who you're just certain will collapse with desire and rush for his checkbook to hand you a blank... You won't be the first owner of (CategoryKiller).com he's talked to and told to piss off. Expensive lesson learned.

The strange thing with some domains is that while there may be no demand for them now, that could change in 24 hours, 24 days or 24 months as business plans change, CTOs change, new startups are formed, new web applications are built. Today's wallflower could be tomorrows belle of the ball.

Domains in general have definitely 'arrived' in terms of value. Don't let usual suspects- the asshole carnival barkers, used car salesmen, etc- tell you otherwise, about how there's infinite headroom and growth left to be had. There's always schmucks just like that crowing at the tail end of every growth industry, even as it's imploding... The idea that truly premium, definitive domain names are 'something with value' is no longer some novel, esoteric thing, even if a surprising number of idiots still insist on emailing with offensively low offers.

The game is a lot harder, but you can still make money. The easy money is all gone. You have to be smart now. There are a lot of dumbasses who succeeded early on who wouldn't stand a chance in hell if they had to start right now.

 

[ecalc]

What about in the next 5-25 years?

What else could come along to make .com domains drop in value?

Pestilence, war, famine, death, radical technology, government … hey, everyone deserves a fair shakedown.

 

[sahostking]

I too think .com will rule. I'm patiently waiting on my companyname.com to become available and already put a backorder on it. It's vital to anyone's business to have a .com now adays is my opinion.