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!

 

[Reyginus]

I didn't say I've used DAN.com. You asked me if I'd heard of DAN.com. The answer is yes, of course I've heard of DAN.com. It's mentioned on the forum often and appears in banner advertisements on a regular basis. DAN.com is currently ranked as the best aftermarket of 2021 in the thread started by @equity78 that I'm watching and receiving updates for: https://www.namepros.com/threads/best-aftermarket-for-2021.1256384/. Maybe you'd like to share the feature on DAN.com which solves the above problem?

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

 

[fatter]

Sad to say domaining will be pretty much a thing of the past, like the dotcom era. I believe this because for 9 dollars and a good name you could make some good money in the past. Now instead of regging 100 domains you can buy 100 startup crypto coins and make a killing in crypto market. There will still be a domain industry but I think there will be few newcomers, because crypto is much easier to strike it rich. I will let a bunch of my names where i was waiting for the technology to advance, or legislation to advance expire. So instead of keeping names for ten years i will buy 100 xrp tokens. There will still be a market for the best in this industry, but for the average domainer like myself Doesn't look like it. I learned a lot and made some good money but won't put much time in it anymore.

 

[Global Rebrander]

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!

I think once again new developments in new technology will eventually bring in much of the new hot domains just like the words coin, token, crypto, nft, metaverse had in the last few years. It will be interesting to see what new developments we see in the crypto space as well as what new technologies under RND currently go into mainstream like LiFi

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thank you for all the views, everyone, and hope we will have many more come in.

Particularly interested in predictions on hot niches, of course understand if people do not want to share!

What about voting for your favourite @Bob Hawkes blog post of 2021?

I would, respectfully, vote against that idea, but thank you for the thought, @redemo. I find that the existing system gives me lots of feedback on the type of posts people most appreciate. I am truly appreciative of NamePros for allowing me the opportunity to write a weekly blog post, and this amazing domain community.

What about voting for the best posts from all members in 2021, ranking the top ten and giving the top three a prize like a free subscription to Namepros

Offhand I don't know if this has been proposed or not. Probably this thread is not the place to discuss it (but I do see the link with year). There is a section for suggestions to NamePros, or its own thread are probably the best place to discuss it.

Thank you everyone, and best wishes for 2022.

Bob

 

[RogueWriter]

Still early days in poll, but surprised how positive everyone feels about the momentum continuing.

Bob

For me, my offline business was extremely strong in November and December, which finally gave me balance to move forward. I am feeling confident looking at the new year, and I think that confidence is simply flowing into my other side hustles, such as domaining. I am setting a goal of finding and buying a xx,xxx domain to develop by the end of 2022. It is not something that will happen right away, and I will probably have to buy on contract. That may not sound like a huge leap, but given most of my acquisitions are hand registrations, for me that will be quite the commitment.

 

[ixex]

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

this would be great!

 

[jim h]

Metas, NFTs, Daos and even ENS are rising rapidly in 2021,many can clearly feel that .I think in 2022 .app will continue to rise slowly but powerfully. This year the large transaction of .APP has not been disclosed,according to the confidentiality agreement or other reasons. Transaction amount will increase significantly next year. Personal view.

 

[redemo]

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

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.

 

[Business Brands]

smart people dont take such risks from what I know

are you getting what you are putting forward? probably

 

[.X.]

I feel the longer and broader that covid 19 goes .. the market will drop with it.. covid - 19 as well as world outlook and events ..

 

[Bob Hawkes]

@Bob Hawkes. I had an idea. Probably already been done. Create a domain name questionnaire with some ten or twenty questions. Answer all of the questions yourself. Then open the floor for everyone else to post their answers to the questionnaire below.

I did that when I conducted a NamePros Community Survey on how people were pricing their domain names. You can see a summary of the results here.

At the time I did the survey, it was not possible to have a set of linked questions within the NamePros poll format. So I had to set up different questions in different threads, then link them from a central page. It is not the best. Clearly one can go outside NamePros to third party products such ad SurveyMonkey, but that in itself has some issues.

I agree an easier way to do community surveys, even if they allowed only 5 or so linked questions, would be helpful.

Bob

 

[Reyginus]

For sure 2022 will be better than 2021. Considering how we lived in the early quarters of the year and the experience we gained in the process, the losses we experienced as a result of those conditions are not bound to be repeated.

Will meta sales drop? Not at all. In fact, it will get bigger as what simply happened this year was mere introduction. The ground work is been laid and after that they'd surely be a boom before we begin to consider the potential of the industry dying off like the stages all businesses experience.

I see the VR and AR domain names getting hotter as a consequence of the development of the Metaverse. The omniverse will experience a rise at the middle or late end of the year.

And I don't see i.o, .co or xyz dropping off. Considering the merge of Crypto and Metaverse the xyz extension will experience a rise. If all marketplaces can also add a crypto payment option it will surely sway and benefit sellers.

My biggest concern about domaining is AI. Obviously, in years to come, except for the good names we are holding today, the AI will take over curating names and they will do it with so much perfection that marketplaces will invest in AI curators to compete.

 

[Reddstagg]

2020 was armageddon
2021 was sending Bruce Willis
2022 will be happy ever after...I don't wanna miss a thing

New company registrations and registrations of .IE extension are up over a quarter this year and I can see this trend continuing into 2022. The Irish seem to be predisposed to work for themselves and be their own Boss. We don't like being told what to do lol. The Fighting Irish.

Technological advancements will continue to be the playground of the bold and the 1% ers. I've heard of most of them but I will not be investing money in any of them apart from having $6 invested in a cool exact match keyword domain.

Health and wellness and the way we live our lives will continue to rise year on year for at least the next 5 years as we try to address the abuse of our bodies. Eat better. Sleep better. Be better. Be fitter. Be less stressed. Be less. Anything that can contribute to this worthy cause will be generating billions every year. Buy the solution...not the dream.

NFTS, Metaverses etc etc is like comparing a 100 year old black and white film to a $200 million film of today or comparing 'Snake' to the latest $1Billion 8K must have video game lol. Videos...what ever happened to them lol.

I am optimistic for the future...mine and yours. Never stop learning...never stop believing. Never STOP!!!

Rgrds,

Reddstagg

 

[redemo]

new technologies under RND currently go into mainstream like LiFi

That's one I hadn't heard of before reading your post. Cheers mate. Living is learning. Sharing is caring. Anybody investing in LiFi domain names?

 

[Global Rebrander]

That's one I hadn't heard of before reading your post. Cheers mate. Living is learning. Sharing is caring. Anybody investing in LiFi domain names?

LiFidevice.com

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I will be starting to write the article on Jan 2, with aim to publish probably Jan 11 or 12, so if you have not yet shared your thoughts, please consider doing so by around the end of coming weekend. I will check for last minute additions just before I publish, though.

Also, thanks to everyone who voted in poll, and please vote if you have not already. I continue to be surprised by level of optimism, given that 2021 was already a strong year.

Bob

 

[imwangi]

Show attachment 207161

Show attachment 207162

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.)

Great analysis. I agree with your tempered optimism. You say you sold 102 domains in 2021. That's out of a portfolio of how many domains, if I may ask?

 

[Tewksbury]

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

With Internet fragmentation accelerating, premium, exact-match Internationalized Domain Names offer great investment opportunities.

Happy New Year!

 

[Jamor]

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

I think yes, there will be, just like NFT, meta, they'll be others in future

• Are domain name prices on way up or down?

They'll be going up more

• Will ETH, meta and NFT stay strong?

In the near future yes, But in the long term I dont think they'll stay for a long period

• Will there be more, or fewer, million dollar sales?

There will be more

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

I'm sure it will be better

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Still early days in poll, but surprised how positive everyone feels about the momentum continuing.

Thanks for all the predictions so far! I hope many more will respond. Remember that I am looking for any predictions. Don't feel constrained to the topics I listed - that was just to give some examples of things you might want to comment on.

Bob

 

[Business Brands]

Scwarz is going to purhcase 9th home, Oaxley is going to purchase another tank and this YouTube channel is going to grow https://www.youtube.com/c/InvisiblePeople/videos

As this channel growth, tho, I become less and less optimistic of the future price of apartments and tanks.

I've seen apartments go down underwater and tanks just stop, so this is business as usual.

 

[Business Brands]

By accumulating 8 apartments in the wake of housing shortage, you are taking a huge security risk.

 

[redemo]

By accumulating 8 apartments in the wake of housing shortage, you are taking a huge security risk.

No risk no reward.

 

[redemo]

If all marketplaces can also add a crypto payment option it will surely sway and benefit sellers.

But what happens if the cryptocurrency value drops Reyginus? The domain name marketplace will lose money. That is unless directly after the transaction they immediately sell the cryptocurrency for it's cash value, and this will incur fees. Who should pay for these fees, the marketplace or the buyer/seller? sometimes transactions can take more than one week to process - enough time for the cryptocurrency value to plummet (or sky-rise). It's a risky business for the marketplaces without safety processes in place.

 

[Reyginus]

But what happens if the cryptocurrency value drops Reyginus? The domain name marketplace will lose money. That is unless directly after the transaction they immediately sell the cryptocurrency for it's cash value, and this will incur fees. Who should pay for these fees, the marketplace or the buyer/seller? sometimes transactions can take more than one week to process - enough time for the cryptocurrency value to plummet (or sky-rise). It's a risky business for the marketplaces without safety processes in place.

Have you heard of Dan.com?