new gtlds The Potential For Big Jumps in New Extension Prices

[Bob Hawkes]

For some time I have been bothered by statements that the worth of a domain name is 'reg fee' simply on the basis of a limited (or nonexistent) sales record in that extension. Since I have been closely following the ngTLD sales for about a year and a half I have constantly seen cases where a high value sale represents a big jump from previous sales.

That happened again in the most recent (Sept 17) NameBio daily report, where smile in the direct extension sold for $7018 on Sedo. There had, before this, only been ever 4 sales in the extension, and the previous one was almost two years earlier and just $111 (can see the list here).

Now I know that the ngTLD sceptics will jump in and say it is a fluke and the purchaser paid too much (see I said it for you so you don't need to! ). That is a possibility, I readily admit, but I think if you take a multi-faceted detailed appraisal look that the price of the smile sale is about right.

I do such an analysis in this new post on my blog.

I also addressed the question of whether this was the only time a big jump happened. Some of the more dramatic ones I list below (there are many others, but I think these are the biggest jumps)

• When home.loans sold for $500,000, the previously highest sale in loans was just $7500 and there were only 4 previous NameBio listed sales at any value in the extension.
• When autism.rocks sold for $100,000 on Sedo in 2015 there had not been a sale at all previously in the extension.
• Vacation.rentals sold in late 2017 for $500,300. The previous highest sale in that extension was just over $1500, and even today there are only 5 other sales in the extension listed on NameBio.
• The .online extension has sold many times, but when casino.online sold for $201,500 in March 2017 the previous highest sale in the extension was just over $16,000 (there have been some higher sales in the extension since them, but not nearly at the casino level).
• The great domain name video.games sold for $183,000 in 2017. The next highest sale in the extension is only $1101.

Thanks for reading!

Bob

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks @gpmgroup for the interesting history re ICANN and the research report. I must look into that and read it.

Most people looking to invest in domains would think fasting.com was worth owning. the only other exact match name of interest for my company other than fasting.com would be fasting.info but only a few others here think the same way.

So far I agree that most domain owners and brokers think exactly as you describe. Whether that will change for end users, is I think, at least a crack open. Re fasting in specific, I would think that the diet extension would have possible interest to some in the space. I guess we will see as I notice it is up for sale currently on Sedo.

Thanks again for the historical background. Chicago has a great behavioural economics group so the report will be interesting reading.

 

[gpmgroup]

Fasting.diet doesn’t really work for a number of reasons but primarily because it’s too cluttered for most purposes, with perhaps the exception of a very small niche exact match and then the dot is in the wrong place as it interrupts the expression and makes it more akin to a domain hack which rarely become mainstream.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

?.. and then the dot is in the wrong place as it interrupts the expression and makes it more akin to a domain hack which rarely become mainstream.

Admit you are not alone in thinking that way but it seems to me that replacing spaces between words with dots is both aesthetically pleasing and natural. Works particularly well in Twitter where that is all you need to do to make it an active web link. I'm not nearly as much a fan of hacks as splitting words seems less pleasing to me.

With Apple starting this week their marketing of the new iPhone models with the domain phrase Experience.Apple it will at least get a marketing test.

https://domaininvesting.com/apple-marketing-new-iphones-on-a-apple-domain-name/

 

[gpmgroup]

I think you're right it will be interesting to see what happens with experience.apple fasting.diet is sooo niche I don't see much value. In a more general way Sony tried make.believe back in 2009 before new gTLDs.