discuss Is .IN taking off? Cycle.in sold for $16,500

[Arpit131]

I came across this sale of Cycle.in for $16,500 on Sedo.
That is a great price for a ccTLD.

I wonder if .IN is taking off slowly. I spoke to some of the biggest .IN investors at DomainX conference and they said that big things are going to happen in .IN and that it's going to be one of the most popular ccTLD in the coming time.

What are your views?

 

[Together4Forever]

Its misleading.

The reality is indian population or companies doesnt spend miney on domains neithet does the general public.

And if they do, they would like to buy only .com if it isnt available than the maximum spent someone in india would look at would be a 1000$.

The complete indian domain market is speculated purchases by local domainers in keywords and in 3L.in it is purely lead by one chinese invester who spent 350000$ to buy up the market and jumped the prices in 6 months from 20 to 200$.

The bubble will burst. So beware

 

[mwzd]

The reality is indian population or companies doesnt spend miney on domains neithet does the general public.

And if they do, they would like to buy only .com if it isnt available than the maximum spent someone in india would look at would be a 1000$.

You can't even rent a shop for $1k in India, you really think that $1k is all that online businesses are willing to pay?

The complete indian domain market is speculated purchases by local domainers in keywords and in 3L.in it is purely lead by one chinese invester who spent 350000$ to buy up the market and jumped the prices in 6 months from 20 to 200$.

The complete Indian domain market? Really?!!

You sure you're not thinking about some of the ntlds which have had 500k+ regs on one day?

Afaik the growth for .in has been completely organic and the reg numbers have been going up steadily without any artificial 'jumps'.

The bubble will burst. So beware

Which bubble? The India growth bubble or the India startup bubble or the India usage bubble? I'd love to know more.

Chances are there will become a peak in .in and then a drop off.

The number of users is going up, the number of startups is going up, the economy is going up, the number of VCs and funds is going up, why do you think there will be a 'drop off' in .IN domain usage or prices?

I compare .in to .cn,

That is your main mistake right there. IN is an English word, a pretty popular preposition in fact, which .cn isn't, so the only demand for .cn is local or companies looking to target China. .IN demand is global, 228 countries from what people have said, hardly symptomatic of a niche usage.

I strongly agree with you. 2 Chinese investors and 20 Indian investors hold 85% of LLL.in market share. They have increased the prices from 10$ to 200$ in 6 months that's no natural demand.

Don't invest in categories or even tlds, invest in the domain in it's entirety.

So speculating LLL.in ... see what has happened with similar stories in other extensions.

Yes, see what has happened to LLL.com - do you consider that a good investment or a bad investment?

because an Indian Business owner will not pay over a 1000$ for a domain name. That's a fact.

When you say something is a 'fact' you better have data to back it up. You obviously have absolutely no idea about the Indian market so please don't mislead people.

As already said above by @Kate : "population" uses Facebook/Twitter/email etc.
Domain aftermarket - is another theme...

@Kate also said .pro would never go past 125k regs, where are we with that now? I hope you remember the exchange I had with @Kate in the .pro thread?

.IN names are registered by residents of 228 countries plus territories

And that ladies and gentlemen is the only fact you need to know. Usage is GLOBAL. Not a flash in the pan, not a niche, not even just local.

Does this mean you should use your rent money to invest in .in, no. But if you're a long term value investor looking for a sure thing, this is it.

 

[domainpundit]

Its misleading.

The reality is indian population or companies doesnt spend miney on domains neithet does the general public.

And if they do, they would like to buy only .com if it isnt available than the maximum spent someone in india would look at would be a 1000$.

The complete indian domain market is speculated purchases by local domainers in keywords and in 3L.in it is purely lead by one chinese invester who spent 350000$ to buy up the market and jumped the prices in 6 months from 20 to 200$.

The bubble will burst. So beware

how do you know that Indian population or companies doesn't spend money on domains? - Partly you were right a year or before....perhaps you are missing important data. India has received its first 100 million internet users in 2011 and then added 302 million internet users in 4 years.. this year adding another 100 million internet users... if you really look at the 400+ million internet users are quite young users and also little internet experienced users who are using Internet for social media and some eCommerce needs... as these users mature to 4 to 5 years of experience with the internet usage they will focusing on making websites or some will make online startups, that in turn will bring more demand for domain names overall.. where there is a demand there is business potential? IMO, do not form your investment opinions based on past experience... past experiences gives the wisdom and learnings, however the future need to be looked into... India's ecosystem is changing fast and Indians and Indian companies both can afford to acquire premium domain names... mind set change is already happening.. but however i do agree there is no magic wand it will change over night... if you put the dots together and look at the future .IN is promising...

coming to .COM and .IN for India, i will not even care to consider .com is preferred for India. Its the same message .com guys talk about it all the time.. kindly note 96 million of .com names are registered by US residents and approximately account to 76% of total .com registrations...Majorly an american ccTLD and also the GTLD as its the first extension available for general public and companies across all countries.

ccTLD is preferred in their respective home countries and its no different from India.. Have you read Indian IT ministry openly asking to ditch .com ? all government services are provided on .in ..etc... if you are consuming Indian government service in any shape or form you will require to use .IN name....IN is the default country of extension for India.. it doesn't need yours or my agreement as its proven across various countries already.... thats for 100% sure , its world wide proven .. examples are .de, .co.uk, .cn , .jp.etc

Even assuming people like .com and want .com ...... .COM is too expensive and its clearly known to every domainer ... coming to your own analogy do you think Indian companies or Indians who cant afford to pay 1000 USD will pay 100K to 500k USD to buy a LLL.com name from domainers? even if a re-seller need to pay a minimum of 20K USD to acquire lll.com when they can buy lll.in name at 200 usd.. perhaps can hand register some lll.extension for 1 cent or 5 cents or may be 1 usd ... then why they buy .com names? you are having conflicting thoughts in your own mind.. one hand you are saying Indians cant afford , the other hand you are saying Indians will go after .com only? check your thoughts once...you can introspect and decide whats right.. I will neither suggest anyone to invest or not invest in .IN as its individuals choice... take a relaxing moment and think in a open mind and make what is right for your circumstances.

One chinese investor putting $350K is pumped the market ....? lol - this is for sure incorrect... 6 months from 20 usd to 200 usd? show me some data that 6 months before any lll.in name sold for 20 USD? even if you show one piece of evidence showing 6 months before the lll.in name reaching 200 USD is sold for 20 USD?

 

[Michael R.]

I strongly agree with you. 2 Chinese investors and 20 Indian investors hold 85% of LLL.in market share. They have increased the prices from 10$ to 200$ in 6 months that's no natural demand.

NNN.in domains have also shot up 5 times at least, no body buys number domains in india. No body would in future to.

So speculating LLL.in, NNN.in, NNNN.in if people can't see where it is headed than they are either ignorant of the realities or Just don't have the vision to see what has happened with similar stories in other extensions.


With regard to Single Prime Words .in, I strongly feel that is a good investment for Short to Medium term but I wouldn't go crazy about it because an Indian Business owner will not pay over a 1000$ for a domain name. That's a fact.

Yes, there will be big business's who would lesser than often buy a premium domain for there business for 10s of thousand $ but the numbers are just not there to support the trend.

In last 10 years how many sales have been over 1000$ which excludes NNN/LLL are definitely not in many hundreds.

So that's my understanding of the market and belief however I completely accept and appreciate others as I am sure everyone has there own way of analysing the situation and market

I don't agree with the LLL.in investors distribution you are giving. I scan the LLL.in whois database regularly, and the figures you give are far from reality: http://our.in/lll-in-distribution-by-country/

Good LLL.in are dropcatched since years, and traded for mid $xx/low $xxx since years.

Just build an good .in portfolio, and you will have regular inquiries from end users. Everyone agree that the frequency of inquiries for .in domains increased these last months/years.

But .in investors are generally quoting very high prices to end users, resulting in lower sales frequency compared to other ccTLD. Indeed, all .in investors agree that .in market is not mature yet, and keep domains for next 5/10 years.

Thinking that .in extension will not gain value in the future, is like thinking that .cn was not a good investment a few years ago. In my opinion, it's just a bad appreciation when you look at the size of these countries.

 

[Together4Forever]

Just because investors are buying up .in names doesn't mean it's a great investment. Yes I think it is a growing extension but let's not let a few sales light a fire under our bums. Chances are there will become a peak in .in and then a drop off. Just ask people holding all those 5L chips, or look over all of the forgotten "LLL.xx buyout" threads.

I compare .in to .cn, both ccTLDs of extremely populous countries with growing internet presence. Even now most .cn sales are Chinese names or Chinese related. Last time I checked Indians don't have an affinity for numeric meanings or pinyin combos.

If I had to bet on it I'd stick with short names or premium keywords for investment purposes, and not ride another hype wave

Imo

I strongly agree with you. 2 Chinese investors and 20 Indian investors hold 85% of LLL.in market share. They have increased the prices from 10$ to 200$ in 6 months that's no natural demand.

NNN.in domains have also shot up 5 times at least, no body buys number domains in india. No body would in future to.

So speculating LLL.in, NNN.in, NNNN.in if people can't see where it is headed than they are either ignorant of the realities or Just don't have the vision to see what has happened with similar stories in other extensions.


With regard to Single Prime Words .in, I strongly feel that is a good investment for Short to Medium term but I wouldn't go crazy about it because an Indian Business owner will not pay over a 1000$ for a domain name. That's a fact.

Yes, there will be big business's who would lesser than often buy a premium domain for there business for 10s of thousand $ but the numbers are just not there to support the trend.

In last 10 years how many sales have been over 1000$ which excludes NNN/LLL are definitely not in many hundreds.

So that's my understanding of the market and belief however I completely accept and appreciate others as I am sure everyone has there own way of analysing the situation and market

 

[deez007]

I think the .in extension has loads of potential for investment purposes...it;s on of my top 3 fav ccTLD's but I also think it;s important not to get caught up with massive prices jumps on a few domains.....it's an awesome ccTLD with loads of potential..but I think massive high ticket sales figures will be the exception and not the norm...

My expectation is that it would provide a consistent flow of good domains sales ranging from low $xx to low $xxxx and obviously the odd high ticket sale here and there --- off course this is just my theory and opinion and I could be completely wrong.

 

[LeDomain]

Strong .IN and .CO.IN keywords are going to be valued and don't think you need to be a rocket scientist for that. For those who are interested, there is an .IN domainer youtube series that started a few months ago,see http://www.INDomainNames.in . Yes, its not for everyone, I don't invest in any other cctlds, because just don't have the funds to do so. Is the .IN domain market going to go straight up, probably not , but tough to deny that it wont be in the same league as .co.uk or .de or even higher in a few years. Just got back from India, from my little world could see ecommerce is just beginning to take off and many large corporations with much larger stake than domainers are driving the growth. And oh by the way, those of us have been in this since the early .com days, we have been through the ups and downs of many new extensions and "experts" , cctlds tied to strong economies and growing economies are in it for the long haul.

 

[chandldj]

Investment in the .in extension is a no brainer. Anyone who can't see that is BLIND.

lol @ bubble

 

[domainpundit]

Just because investors are buying up .in names doesn't mean it's a great investment. Yes I think it is a growing extension but let's not let a few sales light a fire under our bums. Chances are there will become a peak in .in and then a drop off. Just ask people holding all those 5L chips, or look over all of the forgotten "LLL.xx buyout" threads.

I compare .in to .cn, both ccTLDs of extremely populous countries with growing internet presence. Even now most .cn sales are Chinese names or Chinese related. Last time I checked Indians don't have an affinity for numeric meanings or pinyin combos.

If I had to bet on it I'd stick with short names or premium keywords for investment purposes, and not ride another hype wave

Imo

Indeed.. one sale doesnt translate into the whole extension growth... but it sets the precedence for future sales.. this year ITJObs.in sold for 26K+ USD , now Cycle.in sold ..these are publicly reported sales... few of the unreported sales higher than this range also happened, at the same time as they are unreported its fair to ignore from the present discussion...

Its one of the promising extensions, one example i quote here is US Owns at least over 120 million domain names as .com share itself is 96 million names... same way China has around 50 to 60 million names at least and heading fast to increase its share.. how many names India has ... around 7 million overall across all extensions... its a country of 1.25 billion population and majority of them are below the age of 35 years so far from saturation... it has more potential and can consume few extensions easily , by default its own ccTLD .IN

If anyone cant believe in this revisit this thread in 2020 and see if my words has meaning or no meaning...

 

[kn65]

.in is better in my opinion than .cn here's why?

.in sounds better
.in is an easily "hackable" tld, meaning you can combine the domain with the tld and produce a word.
India is in it adolescence in technology when you think about the population
India is still in it infancy in the domain market, and has a lot of potential.

 

[Truekumar]

I too completely disagree with Kate in regards to the relationship of the number of internet users and domain name value. Although the correlation may not be direct, they DO have a strong relationship with each other and it would be absolutely absurd not to think in that manner. As the number of internet users increases, the value and worth of owning a keyword domain name also becomes more appealing to businesses or to those whom wish to have a presence on the web and direct their business towards web users in that particular country.

Ok, other factors do play a part in all of this, which includes the overall data value of each user and what they use the web for. At the moment, many young indians are using it primarily for social networking but this IS CHANGING massively and at a very rapid rate. More and more indians are now moving past the social networking stage and also increasingly using e-commerce on a daily basis, as well as other services such as for entertainment & education. The government is backing the .IN extension and useage of the web in an enormous marketing push.

India is unlike any other market in the world, it is leapfrogging older technologies, moving straight onto 4G, it has started with social networking useage and then moving onto other areas of use, which is actually the opposite of what has happened in more mature markets such as in the west BUT India's rise is happening at a much faster and rapid rate, yes it is an extremely young market but one which is growing faster than any other in the world right now. I think everyone should watch .IN extremely closely, as I think it will easily outperform any other extension for ROI.

 

[Samujjal]

..am from India and yeah I can say that...in is rising and will rise...

i ain't creating any Hype around it..but its happening here slowly and steadily

most of the mundane people here buy .in instead of .com for there work...partly its Nationalistic..partly cz they are cheap and short than .coms (remember that we Indians loves great Bargains..or we buy untill and unless we find a reasonable price for it..for anything)


...its in vogue..with the common day to day people..so the big companies in turn also buys the .in as well as .co.in domains for there companies...all the major sites have .in/.co.in domains..and it will be a tremendous loss for them and their business if they don't have them


am not preaching .in or .co.in...but as a locale..just telling you all the scene around our gullies

...sAm

 

[Michael R.]

I would like to point out that .in has been made available to the public in 2005.

If we compare this date to the introduction date of .co.uk (1985) or .de (1986), we can say that .in is late of 20 years. This also mean that .in is very very young. Adoption in India will continue for the next decades.

.de is 30 years old and .in 11 years old... Where .in will be in 19 years? I think this is the question investors must try to answer.

I bet for a continuous growth over the years, more or less correlated to the Indian economic evolution.

 

[gilescoley]

Its certainly one of the growing cctld's

There is 330 pages on it here

https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-official-in-co-in-discussion-and-showcase.173911/

 

[D Haynes]

I haven't completely read this thread so sorry if someone else has already mentioned this but you have to take into account that this extension is a usable word in itself for hacks. For instance cycle.in can be used for cycle.in/France or cycle.in/London .

 

[Kate]

My impression is that many .in are still bought by foreigners...

 

[Kate]

@Kate also said .pro would never go past 125k regs, where are we with that now? I hope you remember the exchange I had with @Kate in the .pro thread?

I remember that, and I still wonder how many regs are not by domainers. Anyway, I am just reminding people that the vast majority of Internet users will never buy their own domain name. At least that's how it's been over the past two decades.
It's not like we have 100 million new buyers ahead just because they went online. On the other hand .in is still underutilized so there is lots of room for growth. And .in is not an artificial string like the new gTLD.

 

[AlokDomain]

I am meeting Nixi guys soon and giving a Presentation on promoting .in as a true international Domain. .in could be international, internet any many more things. It needs to be promoted aggressively.
Perception plays a very vital role. if .co can enjoy similarity baith .com so .in could be true representative of internet.

 

[kemjika11]

, continue with ur hyping of .in domains.

is he hyping it up or are YOU hyping it down?
Can you pls explain why LLL NNN in .in today has high price(on forums for e.g) than LLL NNN in .biz, .co, .info? Despite .in being quite young compared to them?

 

[Casey L]

Just because investors are buying up .in names doesn't mean it's a great investment. Yes I think it is a growing extension but let's not let a few sales light a fire under our bums. Chances are there will become a peak in .in and then a drop off. Just ask people holding all those 5L chips, or look over all of the forgotten "LLL.xx buyout" threads.

I compare .in to .cn, both ccTLDs of extremely populous countries with growing internet presence. Even now most .cn sales are Chinese names or Chinese related. Last time I checked Indians don't have an affinity for numeric meanings or pinyin combos.

If I had to bet on it I'd stick with short names or premium keywords for investment purposes, and not ride another hype wave

Imo

 

[kemjika11]

I will not compliment ignorance with good knowledge.

Give us more "theories"!!!!!is that all?

 

[ivey]

I am not persuaded yet, to invest hardcore in .in but any news that helps the domain business is great news!
I currently own two .in's and If i get a good keyword with it,I would sure reg it. It definitely has the potential to sell.

 

[Kate]

how do you know that Indian population or companies doesn't spend money on domains? - Partly you were right a year or before....perhaps you are missing important data. India has received its first 100 million internet users in 2011 and then added 302 million internet users in 4 years.. this year adding another 100 million internet users... if you really look at the 400+ million internet users are quite young users and also little internet experienced users who are using Internet for social media and some eCommerce needs... as these users mature to 4 to 5 years of experience with the internet usage they will focusing on making websites or some will make online startups, that in turn will bring more demand for domain names overall..

The actual pool of potential buyers is nowhere near that. There is no correlation between the number of Internet user and domain sales. Even in developed countries, few people own domain names. It's mostly for business use, and some savvy people who want to have their blog or vanity E-mail.
Maybe one percent of those new users will need a domain name for their ventures, and out of that 1%, maybe 1% will be willing to buy one on the aftermarket. And I'm being generous... I don't think that in the West 1% of businesses are buying their future brand on the aftermarket.

 

[domainpundit]

My max. bids from India were:
$400 on .in (keyword);
$1K on .PRO (keyword).

Depends on quality of names you have..