Investing in domain names in other languages.

[Ayodeji]

I have come across a couple domain names in languages like Portuguese, crotian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish etc been sold at good prices.
I noticed most are one word and always sell for high figures. Anybody with experience or portfolio in these kind of names should please share...Are they worth investing in and what should one look out for before registering them.

 

[gilescoley]

Are you referring to .COM names? Be careful registering .com names in foreign language, you need to know what the country primarily uses (.de, .fi, .nl etc)

 

[Kate]

As hinted above, names in foreign languages may be valuable in ccTLDs only, not in .com. For example, Polish is hardly spoken outside Poland. So Polish names are valuable in .pl but that's it.

What can have value in .com is international languages like Spanish or French but there is more demand for English domains overall.

 

[garptrader]

It is easier to acquire Spanish domains than English domains. It is not so easy to sell them.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Easy to buy but very difficult to sell different language domains in .com

 

[Bernard93]

Easy to buy but very difficult to sell different language domains in .com

Totally agree with this.

 

[nomen]

A big problem with domains in languages you don't speak is that any kind of research on those domains becomes very time-consuming if not impossible.

 

[Domaniak]

Easy to buy but very difficult to sell different language domains in .com

First of all, obscure (no disrespect - meaning spoken in one country only) language names in .COM come in second to their respective ccTLD equivalents. Another words, odpady.pl is more valuable than odpady.com. Still, had no problem selling the .COM version for a pretty penny, something on the order of US$ 1,000 some 10-12 years ago. As well as many a dozen others, all in that price range.

A couple of caveats:

- Google Translator or not, don't even think of playing this game unless you are fluent in the respective language and well versed in the culture. Again from personal experience: comfortable in Mandarin 15 years on, I'm aghast at my mad foray into first IDN's in that language and registering, with the help of a sworn translator, no less, a couple hundred incredibly idiotic names, costing me thousands of $$$. Still remember the translator explaining to me how "bookshop" will sound much better as "book city" in Chinese. I wasn't at all sure about that! Chinese is an extreme case, of course, but the above rule holds true for other languages - and cultures! - as well. That name odpady.com I mentioned above? Dictionary translation is "waste" or "rubbish", in actual fact it's much more valuable as it's more akin "recycling"

- forget about Sedo, Afternic and the like. Each country/ language have local domain marketplace(s). Find them and do business there. Most potential buyers' proficiency in English will be low to none and they will be looking locally and for a name in their local ccTLD. You can successfully interest them in the .COM option, provided you market it in the right place...

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

@Domaniak
Quite right but in the end what I said earlier "Easy to buy but very difficult to sell different language domains in .com" stands still. Generally speaking, it's difficult to sell excluding some high class keywords of non-English languages which can be sold in 5 and even 6 figures and have been sold in the past as well.

 

[matrigaldo]

And, never forget, each local domain market has different behaviour than the generic one.
I'm in Italy and i can say with no doubt it's really difficult to make good money with italian domains, even if you have a strong keyword .it one.
Investors and companies (small or big) tend to prefer to register a crap one more than buy a good one for even $xxx.

 

[Ayodeji]

Thank you all for the great insights. From my little research, it is obvious English is the most used language on the internet, closely followed by Chinese but the competition for a valuable English word/combinations is massive.

I picked interest in this thinking the competition in these languages will not be as fierce because the internet 'exploded' with English...but percentage increments of some other languages' contents are even more than English. Languages like Russian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Spanish, french, Portuguese etc are now having significant percentage on the internet with a few ones like Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic growing in percentage more contents/websites than English.

I quite agree with @Domaniak, @garptrader, @matrigaldo, @AbdulBasit.com and others about how difficult or time consuming it is to sell and domain attitudes of some countries. For example, in my country u sell anything scrap faster than u sell a valuable name, not even talking of at a good price. But I believe there will be few countries that have interest in names in their languages either in ccTLDs or .com. Please share your experience with names from these languages, how and how much you sold them?

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Thank you all for the great insights. From my little research, it is obvious English is the most used language on the internet, closely followed by Chinese but the competition for a valuable English word/combinations is massive.

I picked interest in this thinking the competition in these languages will not be as fierce because the internet 'exploded' with English...but percentage increments of some other languages' contents are even more than English. Languages like Russian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Spanish, french, Portuguese etc are now having significant percentage on the internet with a few ones like Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic growing in percentage more contents/websites than English.

I quite agree with @Domaniak, @garptrader, @matrigaldo, @AbdulBasit.com and others about how difficult or time consuming it is to sell and domain attitudes of some countries. For example, in my country u sell anything scrap faster than u sell a valuable name, not even talking of at a good price. But I believe there will be few countries that have interest in names in their languages either in ccTLDs or .com. Please share your experience with names from these languages, how and how much you sold them?

Sold a few to date but I could only recall the recent sale of mine - Enkla.com for $12,500.

 

[Ayodeji]

Sold a few to date but I could only recall the recent sale of mine - Enkla.com for $12,500.

That was a good sale. It shows having or keeping a valuable word (or two words) in the top languages is a risk worth taking. If it is valuable, then someone will come for it.

 

[eugene@domains-index]

As it was mentioned above there are some language/mentality difficulties about buying domain names in different languages, and different ccTLDs. Same time, why just not go for most popular numeric combinations? like register most of them in all ccTLDs. I made some research about that recently.

 

[domeen]

I have had some success with German .com-s. Sold a few over the years.

 

[Ayodeji]

As it was mentioned above there are some language/mentality difficulties about buying domain names in different languages, and different ccTLDs. Same time, why just not go for most popular numeric combinations? like register most of them in all ccTLDs. I made some research about that recently.

can you shed more light on your numeric combination in ccTLDs research. Thanks

 

[eugene@domains-index]

can you shed more light on your numeric combination in ccTLDs research. Thanks

Sure, https://domains-index.com/nine-millions-domain-names-just-numbers/

You can download the lists of them from the article.

 

[Feadueal]

I don't think it will your waste of time or loss of money. No problem investing in domain name if is another language. Keep it up!