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We've
just finished crunching the domain sales data
reported to us in the first quarter of 2013
(ending March 31) and as always the numbers were very
revealing. For starters, the total $ volume of
reported sales across all extensions in 1Q-2013 fell
below both the same quarter a year ago (1Q-2012) and the
preceding quarter (4Q-2012).
A total of $21.8
million in sales was reported in 1Q-2013, a slight
slip of less than 3% from the $22.4 million
reported in 1Q-2012, but a bigger 16.5% decline from
the previous quarter (4Q-2012) total of $26.1 million.
The fall off in both cases can be attributed entirely to
very slow reported activity at the high end of
the market. |
Crunching
numbers image from Bigstock |
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In
the first quarter of this year, no seven-figure sales
were reported and only 9 six-figure transactions were
recorded, with all nine of those falling well short of
the $500,000 mark. The top sale was Booker.com at
$375,000 and all nine of the six-figure sales added
together came in at $1.83 million, far below
the amount fetched by 4Q-2012's top sale alone - Investing.com
at $2.45 million. Similarly, the top two
sales from the same quarter a year ago (PersonalLoans.com
at $1 million and Silver.com at $875,000)
totaled more than the nine biggest sales in 1Q-2013 put
together.
As
always, keep in mind that many of the largest sale are
subject to non-disclosure agreements and are
never publicly reported, so our universe of data is
limited to the numbers the various sales venues and
private parties divulge to us.
Though
things appeared to be slow at the ultra high end in
1Q-2013 there was plenty of activity in the
aftermarket overall with 4,509 transactions
across all TLDs reported to us, beating both the 4,306
from the same quarter a year ago and the 4,022 in
4Q-2012 (11% less than the latest quarter).
|
.Com
image from Bigstock |
Despite
the overall drop in reported $ volume we actually
saw .com defy gravity to top the same
quarter a year ago in both volume and
median sales price (the median price is the point
at which half of all sales were higher and half
were lower). The total $ volume of the 2,789
.com transactions reported to us in 1Q-2013 was $16.1
million - 6% better than the $15.2
million reported in 1Q-2012. The year over
year median .com sales price also rose by over
3% from $3,000 to $3,100. Those
2,789 transactions represented an 18% jump
from 2,367 in 1Q-2012 and a 12% rise from
4Q-2012.
.Com did not fare
as well compared to the robust 4th quarter of 2012
(one that was greatly aided by that $2.45 million
sale of Investing.com). 1Q-2013 .com sales
volume |
| was
down 21% from the $20.5 million
reported in 4Q-2012 and the .com median slipped 3%
from the $3,200 median recorded in the
final quarter of 2012. |
(As
always, we want to remind you that we do not track sales
below four figures (to be specific we track .com
sales of $2,000 and up and all other extensions
from $1,000 or more). So, our median figures are
higher than they would be if we tracked the entire
universe of domain sales. Conversely, total dollar
volume reported to us is less than it would be if we
tracked sales at the lowest end of the market).
While
.com managed to log year over year increases in both
metrics, the other extensions were not as fortunate. In
1Q-2013 the ccTLDs saw their total $ volume slide
24% from the $4.6 million reported in 1Q-2012
to the $3.5 million banked in the latest quarter.
However, that number represented a drop of less than 3%
from the $3.6 million recorded in the previous
quarter (4Q-2012).
Median
ccTLD prices behaved in a similar manner. The 1Q-2013
median sales price reported was $1,937, off 2%
from $1,979 in 1Q-2012, but virtually identical
to the $1,935 median in 4Q-2012.
| The non
.com gTLDs turned in a mixed performance.
While that category saw a 15% drop in year
over year sales volume from $2.6 million in
1Q-2012 to $2.2 million in 1Q-2013, it
managed to improve by 10% from the $2
million reported in 4Q-2012. The non .com gTLD
median price behaved in just the opposite
manner. The 1Q-2013 median price of $1,800
was almost 2% better than the $1,769
in 1Q-2012, but it was off almost 5% from
the $1,888 median the previous quarter
(4Q-2012).
In a nutshell we
saw a lot of sales activity in the opening quarter
of 2013 especially in the low to mid ranges
of the market. There are also undoubtedly more
sales happening at the high end than we know
about, but based on the available data, things
have either slowed down considerably in the upper
atmosphere or parties to such sales have become much
more tight lipped about them than they have been
over the past 10 years we have been tracking
sales. |
Arrows
image from Bigstock |
| From
talking to sellers I think it is the former rather
than the latter. Everything goes in cycles though
and we're now in a new one - 2Q-2013. I'll
let you know how that race turns out three months
from now! |
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