Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
Median Domain Sale Prices
Increase In 1Q-2010 But Lack of Blockbuster Sales Sends Total Dollar Volume Down
Our
latest free monthly
newsletterwas
emailed to opt-in subscribers Sunday night. In
it we broke down domain sales results for the 1st
quarter of 2010. While total dollar volume
was
down 18%
from the same quarter a year ago, the entire
year over year difference can be attributed to
the three biggest sales in each of those quarters.
In 1Q-2009,
the three largest sales; Toys.com at $5.1
miilion, Fly.com at $1.76 million
and Auction.com at $1.7million
totaled $8.56 million. In 1Q-2010
the three biggest sales; Flying.com at $1.1
million, Poker.org at $1 million
and Credit.fr at $851,000 totalled
just $2.95 million. That is a difference
of $5.61 million in the top three sales
alone - accounting for more than the $5.2
million drop in the entire market total,
year over year.
While
total dollar figures are subject to wide
fluctuations depending on the value of high
dollar sales, a more revealing figure - the median
sales price - gives us a more accurate view of
the overall market. The median is the price at
which half of all sales were higher and half were
lower. By that standard 1Q-2010 showed a slight improvement
over both 1Q-2009 and the last quarter
(4Q-2009). The median sales price reported to us
in 1Q-2010 was $2,643. In the last quarter
that number was $2,610 and in 1Q-2009 it
was $2,600. That number shows us that
overall domain values have held up and even
improved a bit over the past 12 months.
The
numbers also showed continued momentum for ccTLDs.
In 2009, the average total of quarterly ccTLD
sales was $4.47 million. In 1Q-2010 that
number jumped 23% to $5.49 million
and represented 24% of all reported sales -
continuing a hot pace the country codes set in
2009 after they had accounted for just 11%
of all reported domain sales in 2008. You can
read
the entire report here.
The
newsletter also includes details about the
.CO registry's Founder's
Program that will give early
adopter developers a chance to get rights
to build out an unassigned high profile
.CO domain of their choice with no cost
for the domain. You will need a
development track record to be considered
and the application deadline is June 15.
Registry officials say you can typically
expect to get an answer to your
application within seven days.
By
the way, the .CO global sunrise
period for trademark holders gets underway
today and continues through June 10.
Land Rush will be held June
21-July 13 followed by general
availability of .CO domains beginning July
20.
Also,
in case you missed the introduction on our
home page, our latest Cover
Story was published Sunday. It
is a profile of 30-year-old Canadian
domain developer Bill Karamouzis of
Hallpass
Media who is building an
online gaming empire. Bill is the guy who
stunned the domain world by paying
$350,000 for CookingGames.com
in January and he talks about why the name
was worth so much to him in our story.
Karamouzis
grew up playing online games and he is one
those lucky people who has been able to
make a living (and a very good one) doing
something he really loves. He has already
had huge success building and selling two
major game sites to large corporations; FlashPlayer.com
(a name he got for $80!) and AddictingGames.com,
so this is a man who knows how it is done
and he has some sage advice to share with
you.
Bill
Karamouzis
Hallpass Media
Finally,
we will be on our way to New Orleans
this afternoon. Diana and I decided to
spend a couple of days visiting favorite
places in the Big Easy before the GeoDomain
Expo gets underway there Wednesday
(April 28). We will be covering the show
Wednesday through Friday and, via long
distance, I'll also try to keep up with
what is happening at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Milan conference that gets
underway in Italytomorrow
(Tuesday, April 27) and runs through
Thursday.
We need your help to keep giving
domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
