How many domainers in the world?

[sags]

There are many millions of domain names registered, but I was wondering how many people in the world actually participate in domaining. I have yet to meet anyone who has any idea of what a domain name is. When I was working, I came into contact with late year business students all the time and they didn't have a clue. One would think they would at least cover the basics in university business classes. Maybe that is why many CEOs etc. are not interested in domain names until they have to buy them for xxx,xxx dollars.

So how many people own all the domains? Thousands, tens of thousands?

 

[fonzie_007]

My estimate is that there are less than 5,000 people/legal entities globally that are active domainers (people who hold more than 50 domains with the hope of reselling them for a profit).

EDIT: Fixed type (was "5", but was suppose to be "50").

 

[ofclean]

My estimate is that there are less than 5,000 people/legal entities globally that are active domainers (people who hold more than 5 domains with the hope of reselling them for a profit).

I'd put that number over a million.

 

[briman1970]

I've heard from a reputable source that there are approx. 20,000 individuals and entities who own domains as investments. This statement came from an article/interview with one of the big-name domainers. That was their estimate, but unfortunately I can't remember who that domainer was or where I read the article. :yell:

 

[RegisterRants]

Well, I am one

I am sure that at least 20% of the people here could be considered domainers, so that's around 10k...

 

[VURG]

12321

 

[Dan]

There's no where near 50k active members here, so I'd say that number for here would have to be a LOT lower.

However, I would say 10k total.

 

[VURG]

A lot of people I sell domains to don't know about namepros. Assuming that somebody holding onto only 5 domains for investment is classified as a domainer, I would have thought most domainers(>90%) would not be members of namepros.

Ofcourse, if we lifted the classification for a larger collection, the percentage of domainers being namepro members would increase.

 

[Kate]

My estimate is that there are less than 5,000 people/legal entities globally that are active domainers (people who hold more than 5 domains with the hope of reselling them for a profit).

I would estimate that number at 20000. Pure speculation of course.
It depends on your definition of active domainer.
My own definition would be: a company or individual active in trading and monetization of domain names, that owns portfolio of at least a few hundreds of domains and derives part or all of his income through domain names.

Just for the record there seems to be more than 20000 registered users on forums like NP or DNF. So it is safe to assume that there are a lot of people interested in domains but not all are professional domainers.

Maybe that is why many CEOs etc. are not interested in domain names until they have to buy them for xxx,xxx dollars.

Well not all CEOs are clueless about domains. The big corporations are often touchy with intellectual property rights and like to register many domains including variations of their brands under many TLDs.
You would be surprised to find out that certain companies are early players to the game.
Some of the most premium keywords have been held by large corporations for a long time, that since the mid-1990s. Research the large companies like Procter & Gamble for example

 

[Sam]

If someone had the resources you can extract whois email via zone file, would take a long time... then use the countif function via excel =_=

 

[cache]

I bet 99% registered NP are domainers.

 

[rontol]

My guess will be less than 100k people.Anyway,the number is increasing each year thanx to the online media heh

Maybe we should give a random percentage?

America 50%
Europe 30%
Australia 20%
Asia 5%
Others 5%

 

[Bill1]

There are around 13000 domainers in the world according to an article on dnjournal, I fell the figure is pretty much accurate

 

[accent]

Sure seems like they are all there when I want a name at snap!

The few domains I have sold on ebay (low $) have mostly gone outside the US, so I do not think half are Americans - maybe half those with the big bucks???

 

[Kate]

If someone had the resources you can extract whois email via zone file, would take a long time... then use the countif function via excel =_=

Ahah Excel is limited to 65536 rows so it will be hard for the .com zone to fit in with 58 million records :lol:
However you can try to spot the big players by isolating the most common name servers in the zone files...

 

[RegisterRants]

Indeed, it ould be a challange...that's why we have MySQL :hehe:

 

[Archangel]

The speculated number depends on your definition of "domain investor." Boiled down to its rawest form, a domain investor is an entity who purchases domains and resells them for profit. With that in mind, realistically, how many are there? Probably over 100,000 I'm guessing. Can I justify my guess? Sure:

When I started out, 5, 6 or so year ago, I was a teenager who heard about domains being a "good source of income." It didn't take me long before I met many other teens and kids (some as young as, maybe, 12-14) who were in this to make a buck. Even these days, I find kids on NP and elsewhere trying to sell a random 4-letter .com for $200 or so.

A guy I know, aged 19 (I think), asked me "what do you do for a living?" I told him I'm a writer and I occasionally dabble in domains. I told him I don't get rich with domains but I make a bit every now and then. He then became interested in domains, seeing it as a way to help support a lifetime that he and his g/f hope to live together.

It all just shows me that people of any age can get drawn into investment -- with dangerously high hopes. Kids get into this wanting to make a quick buck and early adults, thinking this could replace hard labor, jump in the same. I think there must be at least 100,000 domain-ers out there, although less than 5% have ever made more than $100 from it. And from my guesses, I'd say 60-80% of domain-ers are under the age of 25 -- these make up most of those domain-ers who have yet to get a $100 paycheck.