sales John Colascione says .com market in 35% decline

[Rhythm8]

Top 100 .com Domain Name Sales in 2015 Verses 2016 Shows 35% Decline

Top 100 .com Domain Name Sales in 2015 Verses 2016 Shows 35% Decline

June 9, 2017 By John Colascione

The top 100 .com domain sales in 2015 (left) accounted for a total of $37,670,400.00 in sales while the top 100 domain name sales in 2016 (right) accounted for $24,427,430.00. A 35% Decline in overall sales value.

Have an opinion on what’s causing the decline? Put it in the comments below.

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Related:

• Extraordinary Opportunity for Well-Positioned Players; Declining Industry?

 

[Kuffy]

Every domain name is unique, so it is difficult to compare sales figures. Maybe the top 100 names haven't been sold in the last 20 years, or only a few of them. porno.com isn't comparable with hg.com, and neither are we.com and vivo.com.

 

[dordomai]

meaningless due to small sample size and outliers (porno.com)

that being said it would not surprise me if there is less activity. China had a large part of the market but this year they are investing less in domains and more in other assets.

 

[Kate]

Really ? Very distorted sampling.
What happens if we the top 20 or top 50 ? Or maybe the top 333. Let's screw the numbers even more.
Let's look at the whole volume of sales, and average prices if you want. Then we can talk.

 

[4pm]

there's a slowdown indeed... at least in the number of sales

as per Namebio
(number of reported $1K+, $10K+, $50K+ sales for .com & all extension including .com)

i have not calculated $$$ amounts though..

 

[Asfas1000]

here's a slowdown indeed... at least in the number of sales

as per Namebio
(number of reported $1K+, $10K+, $50K+ sales for .com & all extension including .com)

i have not calculated $$$ amounts though..

Thanks for the graph although I think YTD and 2017 are reversed and >50,000 doesn't look right for 2017.

 

[4pm]

Thanks for the graph although I think YTD and 2017 are reversed and >50,000 doesn't look right for 2017.

sorry, YTD was actually meant to be last 365 days.
all data is correct for 2017

here's attempt to filter out Chinese stuff - only names with no numbers and longer than 5 letters:

* YTD should be read as last 365 days (TTM). Sorry for the confusion

 

[urlurl]

the one thing Namebio doesn't capture very well are sales to end users. none of my end user sales are reported as they are done through non reporting market places, buy now pricing or private sales.

namebio does a very good job capturing auction sales - usually to resellers and investors.

 

[4pm]

the one thing Namebio doesn't capture very well are sales to end users.

sure. but there's no ground for assuming that % of unreported sales was lower in 2017 vs 2016 vs 2015. hence the trend is clearly downhill.

i'd even call it a collapse
lets take $10K+ .com sales: 387 in the last 12 month vs 1,281 in 2015 = 70% drop (!)

looks quite alarming to me...

 

[Rhythm8]

Let's look at the whole volume of sales, and average prices if you want. Then we can talk.

\

vol and avg in com are both in decline

still want to talk?

 

[Rhythm8]

funny how .commie cartel perfectly fine using data and stats when it suits their agenda (e.g. ngtld reg no. falling)

then when .com myths gets exposed suddenly data is meaningless because there goes the pyramid scheme....

not saying .xyz is any better, I agree xyz will never replace .com

I do not agree that .com will never be replaced or displaced

 

[urlurl]

If someone could get the sales and dollar volume from Brand bucket over the past 3 years - that would be a better indicator of the enduser market.

 

[ValleyRock]

\

vol and avg in com are both in decline

still want to talk?

Market fundamentals will always prevail.

Is their any real proof that the price of a domain ".com" has risen or fallen - permanently ?

You buy when the market is down.

 

[loano1]

I guess, if you add all the sales of ntlds to the list, the total market volume has grown. With so many options available, the sales are now more spread.

 

[promo]

I personally had the most profitable year in domaining ever in 2016.. And thats only from selling legacy extensions. 70% .com.

 

[Lox]

Maybe the bubble indicator interfering with the sales. Mostly affecting micro-regional economies. Small to mid businesses slowing down with the expansion.

fred.stlouisfed.org

 

[DzAH]

seems like 2017 is better then last 365 days... u can 2x (+a little more) 2017 numbers and compare with "YTD"...

not so much a decline then...

 

[Michael]

the one thing Namebio doesn't capture very well are sales to end users. none of my end user sales are reported as they are done through non reporting market places, buy now pricing or private sales.

namebio does a very good job capturing auction sales - usually to resellers and investors.

Yea, obviously we can't capture sales that happened in private, and weren't reported by the venue or one of the parties involved. People should feel free to email us screenshots though, we're happy to add your private sales. Just takes a second to send it and helps everyone else quite a bit. A majority of sales in our database are wholesale, but there are lots of retail records from Uniregistry, Sedo, DomainMarket, etc.

sure. but there's no ground for assuming that % of unreported sales was lower in 2017 vs 2016 vs 2015. hence the trend is clearly downhill.

i'd even call it a collapse
lets take $10K+ .com sales: 387 in the last 12 month vs 1,281 in 2015 = 70% drop (!)

looks quite alarming to me...

I don't think you searched correctly, those numbers aren't right for sales $10k+. Past year is 910 sales not 387, you might have searched just 2017 although your number seems too low for that as well.

2017: 437 (extrapolated out would be 979 - but probably higher as start to the year is slower)
2016: 1,346
2015: 2,329
2014: 1,220
2013: 1,354
2012: 1,414

Total dollar volume of $10k+ sales is:

2017: $23,899,664 (extrapolated to $53,517,652)
2016: $54,013,113
2015: $94,212,855
2014: $65,763,226
2013: $53,763,852
2012: $46,344,736

So 2015 was a banner year as we all know due to the Chinese market, which also bled a little into 2016, but all the other years are pretty close to each other. Many people were cashing out at the top so sales were more frequent, which is why both quantity and dollar volume were almost double in 2015. The correction leveled out some time ago though.

Now people are bag holding domains they overpaid for in late 2015 and early 2016 so sales are less frequent, but the dollar volume is still in line with previous years and average price of $10k+ sales are actually higher this year (even compared to 2015). It's just that less people are willing to sell and actually realize the loss, not an alarming sign of a crash.

 

[urlurl]

thanks for sharing the info, looking at pre 2015 figures you can see that the numbers aren't off from 2012-2014.

Looks like 2015 was a banner year and should be excluded from trending.

"numbers don't lie, but you can paint a different picture with the numbers one uses"

DP

 

[4pm]

I don't think you searched correctly, those numbers aren't right for sales $10k+. Past year is 910 sales not 387, you might have searched just 2017 although your number seems too low for that as well.

in the second table all names shorter than 5 chars or having numbers in them are excluded to filter out "Chinese" markets.

could you please post dollar amounts for these domains (no short & numerics)