opinion What Will 2022 Hold? Input for future blog post sought.

[Bob Hawkes]

I hope that many NamePros members will help me out. I am putting together, for publication at the start of 2022, a NamePros Blog article summarizing views on what the year ahead might look like in domain name investing.

What trends do you see?

• Is there a new niche that you think will become hot?
• What sectors will be highly sought?
• Are domain name prices on way up or down?
• Do you see the top, middle or bottom of market, price wise, as offering best opportunities?
• Will ETH, meta and NFT stay strong?
• Will the surge in .xyz continue?
• What about .io? .co?
• What about national country codes?
• Will there be more, or fewer, million dollar sales?
• What changes do you predict in the marketplaces we use?
• Will decentralized domain names grow in acceptance?
• What trends do you see happening in branding?
• Overall, do you think 2022 will be better or worse than 2021?
• What is your biggest concern about the future of domain investing?
• What one thing do you hope will happen? Perhaps a new service you think the industry needs.

I am not looking for you to comment on all of those topics! Just select one, or two, and give your opinion, or comment on something not on the list.

While space will not permit me to include everyone's comments, my intention is to quote, with attribution to you, a number in the NamePros article.

Please don't be hesitant to share. Having many viewpoints, from all parts of the world, and from different experience levels, will help produce a balanced article.

Thank you in advance.

Bob

PS Please vote in the associated poll as well!

 

[Lox]

1) Is there a new niche that you think will become hot?

Crypto Mortgage

2) What sectors will be highly sought?

Follow / Analyze startuplister.com

3) Are domain name prices on way up or down?

T2 & T3 30% Down. T1 Up

4) Do you see the top, middle or bottom of market, price wise, as offering best opportunities?

You see, the market showed you a resistance level ... thanks to inaccurate automated valuation, then obviously, that's your potential top.

5) Will ETH, meta and NFT stay strong?

Yes... till 2025

6) Will the surge in .xyz continue?

Yes. XYZ > Wallet, chain protocol and related services / variables.

7) What about .io? .co?

... fast-growing & acquired startups/freelancer companies formerly known as .io & .co

8) What about national country codes?

More local/national companies think their business could benefit from global expansion & is not easy w/o .com

9) Will there be more, or fewer, million dollar sales?

The most innovative $funded (targeting international growth) companies planing to rebrand & to upgrade domain name to .com in 2022. (I know 173 of big companies plan to rebrand products and brand name in 2022)

10) What changes do you predict in the marketplaces we use?

Since only a fraction of domain names is currently sold, there is still huge growth potential in micro-marketplaces. The problem is: why unqualified brokers/experts get "hired" by marketplace easily than the qualified ones? In essence, the Marketplace should not play a role in making appointments between buyer and seller and brokers. There will come a time very shortly, where brokers will be fighting each other for first to sell/broker.

11) Will decentralized domain names grow in acceptance?

Yes. Many big brands have been able to understand this concept and have used it to expand their brand awareness.

12) What trends do you see happening in branding?

More quirky names (back to the 80's) v disruptive/messy/amateurish names, less "skills" and permanent related names.

13) Overall, do you think 2022 will be better or worse than 2021?

If you deliver a higher-quality, satisfaction/confidence & voice command-friendly T1 & T2 domain names ... you're good. For the rest of people providing donations to various registrars and registries ... receiving a thank you for your donation should feel good .. but ain't gonna happen.

14) ** What is your biggest concern about the future of domain investing?

500% more well-organized frontrunners listing your domain names.

15) What one thing do you hope will happen? Perhaps a new service you think the industry needs.

A Rock Solid verification process @ Sedo, Afternic, Dan etc ...

-----

** 14a)

2022 - Customers will buy more through messaging apps, social and mixed reality (hologram boutique) channels v websites.


Regards

 

[D Haynes]

I see the domain industry as a while gaining strength. The pandemic is forcing more people to work from home, whether for their existing employer or starting a business anew. I think this will see an increase in demand for good domain names of all kinds (EMDs, brandables, 4L's etc). Simple supply and demand. I also see extensions other than .com fetching higher prices as good coms become scare and over priced.

I also predict more insanity in the decentralised and blockchain spaces.

All pretty safe predictions I think.

 

[branding]

Most domainers will lose money in 2022. But the dollar sales will probably increase as the internet becomes even more important in everyday life. AI will make domain name investing even more difficult for the average Joe or Jill. I hope that other domainers continue to ignore the option to develop websites and earn revenue from the multitude of channels available, because it means less competition for me. For the same reason I hope that the majority of people who take the wise decision to start developing domain names for profit quit as early in 2023 as possible. I hope that the domain name industry, this forum, other domain name forums, domain name advertisers and those here who dictate the general conversation, including your good self Bob, will continue to ignore/belittle domain name development as not really a part of being a domainer and therefore not worth the time-to-proft ratio - and not spend any time posting articles and blogs which publicise it. I hope to meet a concise band of people on this forum (ideally not direct competitors, although that would be fun) who do in fact develop their domain names for profit and that we can share tips about how we can improve. I also hope to receive high quality contacts and that I don't have to sift through 20-30 low quality private messages of amateur domain developers who aren't really serious and don't offer me any tangible benefit in conversing with them. None of this was sarcastic. Most of you domainers will lose money on your investments in 2023. Remember the big money sales go to individuals and not the collective. Most domainers will lose money in 2023. The only guaranteed way to make a profit is to develop your domain names. I wish you all namaste, namaskar and namaskaram for the year ahead. Most domainers will lose money in 2023.

You ramble on a lot about developing domains. As you wish people to continue to ignore this option it's quite the opposite of what you're doing. iow, hyping domain development.

I don't disagree on the fact that development can be a very successful pivot for a domainer but 99% lack the knowledge and skillset to do it.

Also, it's a totally different game. Apples to oranges.

 

[karmaco]

We had some breakout stars if you will in 2021 with the NFT explosion and now meta and metaverse related terms. This will carry over and we will continue to see some high figure sales in these areas be it meta, spatial, haptic, gamefi immersive etc

I do think overall holders will have to temper their price expectations a bit. Not everyone is going to or is able to fork out mid 5 figures. With many extensions regged in the best terms pricing will have to be very competitive and checked more often than usual and adjusted If you want sales sooner than later.

Net co io and xyz will continue to be viable options for a higher priced dot com imo. Dot com remains king but more and more consumers are turning to other extensions as acceptable alternatives and pricing structures should be taking that into consideration.

 

[FolioTeam]

I expect to see more inflated domain prices on the aftermarket as global inflation keeps going up.

Right now, there are too many startups reminiscent of years leading to the 2008 crisis and I see that number growing in 2022. Now, whether that's a good thing, only time will tell. If things go well, that means more sales domain-wise. On the other hand, the global economy might see a retracement or an outright crash next year.

But, these are just predictions.

 

[Catalyst01]

Thanks for starting this discussion, @Bob Hawkes. As meta takes the center stage, I see more organizations adopting or using meta. We should not forget that there are several innovations surrounding the META rush, so, it's not just about meta. AI, 3D, VR, AR, robots, remote working, and several virtual-related innovations will get some good attention as we transit or adjust to the several demands of Covid. As you can see, Linkedin is gradually getting into freelance gigs as a part of their services to the network. Let's keep our eyes and ears open as we explore a new world where covid dictates the pace. Merry Xmas in advance. Wishing everyone the best of the seasons. Regards

 

[Tommys Domains]

I expect to see some more ridiculous sales of meaningless Meta domains. I expect the meta domains to die off in the next 12 months.

I just can't see why anyone would want to live in a digital world but hey I am an oldschool fella so maybe I am wrong.

I think 2022 will be very strong and even better for domainers than 2021.

 

[Kingslayer]

I've gone for probably weaker (reported sales wise) and i hope i'm wrong about that.

The reason why i voted 'weaker' is because the first half of 2021 was fantastic for sales, 2nd half i don't think was quite as strong and the reason for that is NFT's, i think a lot of top domain sellers and domain brokers have taken their eye off the ball slightly, their full attention doesn't seem to be on domains anymore, most of these guys Twitter posts are now about NFT's and half of domain sherpa seems to be about NFT's lately.

Booth brothers made sales 2nd half of 2021, but a few of those came from BIN's on Dan - I'm just looking at one of their profiles on Twitter (Andy) he doesn't even call himself a full time domainer anymore, now it's "known as a domainer but considering new frontiers".

 

[branding]

Sorry if I ramble and this bothers you. I'll try to be more succinct in my future delivery. We can all improve.

On the contrary. I think it's refreshing. Lots of people here with different expertise. We improve by learning from each other

They lack the motivation to be consistent rather than the the technical ability to be successful. Developing websites is extremely easy these days. Am I wrong?

Not wrong at all. But to get back to my fruit analogy, developing domains to create revenue does take another mindset. Not that researching/buying/selling domains isn't hard work but the revenue generating side of it is pretty passive which is the main attraction for a lot of people I guess.

 

[CS85]

Thanks for this Bob, and I for one look forward to the fruits of your labour on this.

I think 2022 could be an excellent year for domainers IF the pandemic is brought under control (I’m not opening a Pandora’s box debating that subject, just making an observation).

Much of the stimulus funding government’s provide to kickstart their economies will, in my opinion, go to ‘future tech’ startups. They, of course, need branding, domain names and the like….

 

[62.com]

Thanks for this Bob, and I for one look forward to the fruits of your labour on this.

I think 2022 could be an excellent year for domainers IF the pandemic is brought under control (I’m not opening a Pandora’s box debating that subject, just making an observation).

Much of the stimulus funding government’s provide to kickstart their economies will, in my opinion, go to ‘future tech’ startups. They, of course, need branding, domain names and the like….

In this year in China, the government also called companies to pay attention to internet branding, improving companies‘ self-ability of overseas market development. Meanwhile, the government started in Shenzhen, as the top four city in China, already provided startups funding support on the building of self platform on the internment, called independent station which means the website construction with your own domain name. All we hope the government in other big cities one after another will call and implement the same funding supports to kickstart and make the economy more active in the new year of 2022 in china, stimulating the domain name marketplace in China. And in the other words, China is a very big country with very active marketplace to influence the whole world marketplace. We all believe that the pandemic will be brought under control globally in 2022.

 

[AEProgram]

It will be great for those that adjust their prices for inflation and a sad year for those that don't.

Raising money is getting easier and more people know a good name matters. A lot of people will also start their own business.

I predict 70 names will sell for over 1 million.

 

[imwangi]

My prediction as a newbie is that as more big companies embrace the metaverse, metaverse, nfts, crypto and gaming and related domains will maintain their current momentum.

Another area that could see modest growth is space tourism as the super rich seek for out-of-this-world ways to spend their wealth.

I also see workplace-related domains pick up as the new normal settles in virtual office spaces.

Lastly, domains in the digital learning sector are likely to witness modest growth.

 

[Ariff BD]

• Is there a new niche that you think will become hot?

only possible to tell when it is newborn & being sold in 3-4 extension in a high value.

• What sectors will be highly sought?

something like NFT META SKIN type. off course digital things

• Are domain name prices on way up or down?

depends on quality of sold domain

• Will ETH, meta and NFT stay strong?

yeah. I got 4 one word Meta/Metaverse.extension , 3 Eth.extension but unfortunately no NFT one word .

• Will the surge in .xyz continue?

- Yes it should I guess. xyz pass the both radio/voice type test than .io (check voice type with google.xyz)

• What about .io? .co?

-like as usual. .co may rise but Io will remain tech/digital niche

• What about national country codes?

yeah for local business & global business like meta will ensure them for exact match category killers(NFT/META)

• What changes do you predict in the marketplaces we use?

sav.com is a new interesting one. So it will creat a news (positive/negetive). Afternic /sedo/might have change for payment issue.

• Will decentralized domain names grow in acceptance?

yeah sure. But tech niche & some certain digital industries.

• What trends do you see happening in branding?

no new trend i see should be predict.

• Overall, do you think 2022 will be better or worse than 2021?

Better.

• What is your biggest concern about the future of domain investing?

HNS domain( block domain)

• What one thing do you hope will happen? Perhaps a new service you think the industry needs.

A good auction system is better. what approves domain like namejet or squadhelp but allow extensions like sav (new tlds) . Allow small reserves like epik (at least reg fee) .

 

[Kris88]

xyz, io, co will keep selling and prices will keep going up and up on them

 

[Corey]

I will continue to invest in liquid domains, LLLL.com as a long term investment.

Cheers
Corey

 

[FolioTeam]

Dan pays in Crypto and it is a Netherland company. BrandBrucket, a Brandable marketplace, recently worked with BitPay to pay sellers in Crypto too.

Even Porkbun, a registrar, now accepts payment in crypto when registering a domain with them

 

[redemo]

Drum-roll please!

My 22 predictions for the domain name industry in 2022 are:

1. Dot com will continue to be the world's most popular domain name extension (duh!).
2. Dot com domain name registrations will continue to rise (duh-duh!).
3. Overall domain name registrations will continue to fall.
4. Average domain name character length will continue to become shorter.
5. More companies will use descriptive domain names (buy.tickets, visit.london).
6. " Meta ", " metaverse " and " xr " related domain names will be become more popular, as will sub categories including " vr ", " ar ", " mr " and other gaming related domain names.
7. I do not expect there to be a noticeable surge in " immersive " keyword domain names (no source).
8. " Eco ", " solar ", " sustainable ", " electric / e... / electro / electricity ", " enviro(mental) " no pun intended, " ethical ", " canna(bis) ", " cbd ", " hemp " and related environmental / organic / medicinal domain names will become more popular.
9. " virtual " related domain names will become more popular as people continue to isolate socially and work remotely professionally.
10. " machine learning ", " ml ", " ai " and " (ro)bot(ics) " related domain names will become more popular.
11. " invest(ing) " " crypto(currency) ", " loan " and related financial domain names will become more popular.
12. " app " domain name sales will continue to surge as mobile phones take over the world and Google airdrops solar powered Google Chromebooks to Chief Madidi of the uncontacted Toromona tribe living near the upper Madidi River in northwestern Bolivia (no source, but stranger things have happened).
13. More domain name marketplaces will have https landing pages by default for free (no source) while Estibot gives all paid Namepros members free access to domainleads.com (no source).
14. More domain name marketplaces will accept cryptocurrency transactions (no source).
15. TikTok will remain the world's most popular domain name, ahead of Google, by traffic.
16. Brand protection will become critical with more companies acquiring their dot com (and exact match social networking names).
17. The number of W.I.P.O. domain name U.D.R.P. dispute cases will continue to rise noticeably in 2022 as it has for the past three years (2019 saw 3693 cases, 2020 saw 4204 cases, 2021 saw 5051 cases), and over 90 % of U.D.R.P. complainants will continue to win their cases and have domain names transferred.
18. Physical business address will become more important for SEO as Google robustly pushes Business Listings as a core part of its organic (and to a lesser extend paid) algorithms.
19. Consumers and search engines will expect everything on the internet to be faster, especially when visiting domain names (domain name marketplaces and domain name portfolio owners, you have been warned), oh and they need to be mobile friendly, and voice search friendly, and stray cat friendly....
20. LiFi might become a thing, in which case I predict " lifi " domain names will also become a thing.
21. Crafty domainers will be monitoring the S.S.A. (Social Security Administration) website to find the latest trending baby names and swiftly register any new ones twenty years before an end user is old enough to actually use them, before which they will probably never be developed or sold and therefore dropped many times over by different registrants before anyone makes any profit (apart from the registrars, of course).
22. Your taxes will be due in both the U.S. and U.K. in April of 2022 (multiple sources).

As always, I could be wrong.

Sources

• https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/registry-reports
• https://www.verisign.com/assets/domain-name-report-Q32021.pdf
• https://www.nominet.uk/news/reports-statistics/uk-register-statistics-2021/
• https://www.heartinternet.uk/blog/7-domain-name-trends-for-2022/
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/265677/number-of-internet-top-level-domains-worldwide/
• https://blog.cloudflare.com/popular-domains-year-in-review-2021/
• https://www.rackspace.com/blog/three-technological-challenges-predicted-2022
• https://www.networksolutions.com/bl.../what-is-cybersquatting-and-how-to-prevent-it
• https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/search/2021-year-in-search-digital-strategy/
• https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/con...ng-visual-stories/google-search-data-insights
• https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/2021-search-insights/
• https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/statistics/cases.jsp
• https://giga.law/blog/2021/10/27/domain-digest-q3-2021
• https://www.akamai.com/blog/security/2021-soti-security-year-end-review
• https://www.iop.org/explore-physics/technology-our-lives/lifi
• https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/
• https://namebio.com/
• https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/201543014.pdf

 

[BrandableDomain]

This chart from the US Census Bureau displays the last nine years of business formations.

NAICS means North American Industry Classification System.

The data in Europe and other advanced economies is likely to be comparable since the pandemic is a global phenomenon.

Prior to when the impact of the pandemic hit, US monthly business formations grew slightly each year and had reached around 300,000 per month.

Then, in March 2020 it dipped to 257,673 and April was even worse at 234,838.

Business formations must surely be correlated to domain name sales. I can remember making almost no sales around those months.

May was back to normal, June went way up and July peaked at 552,748. Formations then fell for about six months but now seem to have stabilised at around the 430,000 mark.

So business formations seem to have now settled at a consistent rate about 43 percent higher than pre-pandemic.

Since the pandemic is ongoing, it's likely business start-ups will continue at this new elevated rate, which means the accelerated demand for domain names should continue. The new normal.

The chart numbers may remain high in 2022 or they might go into decline, it's hard to say.

I sold 102 domains in 2021 compared to 73 in 2020. My results seem to correlate with this interpretation of this US Census chart.

I think 2022 sales will be a little better than 2021 due to normal growth, market forces and supply and demand, but don't have any reason to believe there will be a big jump in growth as happened 18 months ago.

Since the end game of the pandemic is uncertain, it's difficult to make predictions for 2022.

SOURCE:

https://www.census.gov/econ/current...Adjusted=1&submit=GET+DATA&releaseScheduleId=

(Then click on the Bar Chart option.)

 

[Robert27]

Newby perspective so please take with a pinch of salt.
I agree with the comment above that the newer extensions will become more valuable. If the demand for domains rely on someone wanting to start a business then surely it’s the state of the World economy that is the most important factor. There have been lots of warnings of volatility. Who knows? Tech seems to be a main driver and lots of money is going into it, I am not convinced that everyone wants all the new tech promised and is it the case that things take longer than first thought. For metaverse and all that I think lots of eyes are on Apple waiting to see what they do.

 

[branding]

seen apartments go down 90%

Seen appartments going up 90%.

 

[redemo]

You ramble on a lot about developing domains. As you wish people to continue to ignore this option it's quite the opposite of what you're doing. iow, hyping domain development.

Sorry if I ramble and this bothers you. I'll try to be more succinct in my future delivery. We can all improve.

I don't disagree on the fact that development can be a very successful pivot for a domainer but 99% lack the knowledge and skillset to do it.

They lack the motivation to be consistent rather than the the technical ability to be successful. Developing websites is extremely easy these days. Am I wrong?

Also, it's a totally different game. Apples to oranges.

I don't understand your fruit analogy.

 

[62.com]

I've gone for probably weaker (reported sales wise) and i hope i'm wrong about that.

The reason why i voted 'weaker' is because the first half of 2021 was fantastic for sales, 2nd half i don't think was quite as strong and the reason for that is NFT's, i think a lot of top domain sellers and domain brokers have taken their eye off the ball slightly, their full attention doesn't seem to be on domains anymore, most of these guys Twitter posts are now about NFT's and half of domain sherpa seems to be about NFT's lately.

Booth brothers made sales 2nd half of 2021, but a few of those came from BIN's on Dan - I'm just looking at one of their profiles on Twitter (Andy) he doesn't even call himself a full time domainer anymore, now it's "known as a domainer but considering new frontiers".

I can't agree with you more about NFT's have won the attention of many domain name investors even domain name brokers, which in many cases leading to the down on the 2nd half of 2021. But the actual value of good domain names will may draw back their sight in 2022, let's looking forward to the good things happening in the new year with the pandemic under control.

 

[Kingslayer]

I can't agree with you more about NFT's have won the attention of many domain name investors even domain name brokers, which in many cases leading to the down on the 2nd half of 2021. But the actual value of good domain names will may draw back their sight in 2022, let's looking forward to the good things happening in the new year with the pandemic under control.

Domains will always sell, but some need promotion and marketing out (even ultra-premiums). If the top domain sellers and brokers are now only spending half of their day on domain names (when they had their full attention year before) and the other half searching for the next sad ape jpg or focused on creating their own NFT range, it will effect domain sales.

I know a lot of people here are excited about NFT’s and are involved in it, but I think NFT’s are bad for domain names personally for the reason I’ve gave above.

As the owner of some single word .com’s, I’ve always got my eye which people seem to be taking their eye off the ball, end of the day you are trusting these people with your assets, so have to research the direction they seem to be going in before signing a contract with them.