Anyone who thinks that Dot Com domain prices are not losing value rapidly. has their eyes shut. Sure, the top 10 percent will always fetch a premium but the rest will be of no or little value in the future.
The prices of domains (as a whole) have been slipping over the years. This is more to do with disposable income (of businesses and people) circling the drain.
The total aggregate amount of spending income has dropped the world over in the last few years and this can be seen in the "velocity of money" drops among the populace. The value is still there... just less people have the extra disposable income to purchase them and on the flip side, more people are letting them go at lower prices because they need/want the extra liquidity.
With that said, there WILL come a time where we will hit an equilibrium among domain names and their extensions. It is NOT now however. There are many other things that need to take place first.
Nanox - another one who needs a reality check. As if a couple of hundred people who use these forums are going to make a difference to the registry. I am sure the 15k sold in Germany must be followers of domain pros and this forum, Right!
I could be wrong, but I remember reading somewhere that NAMEPROS boasts over 1 million registered users (could have been 1.5 million but something along those lines).
At any given time there are normally several hundred to a few thousand users online (if memory serves). These members are strewn about world wide as I have had conversations with some in different countries.
Namepros is the premier spot for domainers to congregate, from all walks of life, from all parts of the world, and from all different belief styles when it comes to domains.
Chances are that if 15k names where sold in Germany, a good many of those people visit Namepros at least on occasion.
Which leads me to my next point BUT before I get there, I would be remiss if I did not ask on where you get your stats from?
Granted I do not actively seek out information on .ONLINE but you seem to be tossing out numbers and stats and I am wondering where these numbers are coming from? Can you point me in the right direction so that I may do my due diligence?
Just look at the numbers, say what you will. You cant do anymore than smash the previous records! You keep flipping ridiculous .com names and I will keep my .online for a few years. We will see who comes out on top.
This is exactly where my problem lays with this extension. The numbers... I have no other problem with the extension out side of the numbers. They just do not add up!
It has already been shown and proven that different registries will go out on purposely manipulate the registration numbers to appear better then they are.
It is not something new that we "could" be looking at here. I raise my question(s) because of the fact that prior to the launch of .ONLINE, there was a lukewarm reception (at best) among the many domainers who frequent this place (numbers stated in response above) and after the launch... there where few domainers speaking of their registered names, which is ODD to say the least considering the "smashing" (as you put it) of records.
It has normally been the case that when something is popular, you can not get the domainers to keep quite about it.
"I picked up this name".... "I hand reged this name"....It is like a juvenile competition really on who can get the best names but that was not seen in this .ONLINE launch.
Yes there are a few people who picked up names and posted them here but that was AFTER .ONLINE made its press release about smashing records.
The same thing can be said about XYZ and its press release in regards to Google picking up a singular domain name from them. How many people went out and registered names after that news?
The numbers to not add up here. Looking at nTLDstats (dot) com, the same 7 Godaddy Group registrars have not moved and are still packed together (with 18 names separation between the top and the last one).
This rings of something running afoul.
I hope that makes sense from a logical point of view with no emotions attached to it.
Cheers