Update to this story: Shortly after this article was posted we learned that even though the SEC filing noted the sale of a single domain, a second "sound a like" domain, Go2.com, was apparently included with GoTo.com. Go2.com would constitute a small portion of the transaction value but since we can only chart individual domain sales (and exact prices paid for them) we won't be able to add GoTo.com to our charts. Even so, it was clearly valued at a higher level than any sale that has been charted thus far in 2018 and is very noteworthy news.

It looks like  our Year-to-Date Top 100 Domain Sales Chart will have a new leader when it our next weekly domain sales report comes out Wednesday evening (May 2, 2018). Unless a bigger sale is revealed between now and then, the honor will go to - appropriately enough - GoTo.com at $2.5 million. That is more than double the amount paid for the previous 2018 leader, Super.com, a domain that sold for $1.2 million.

As he has done with so many other major previously unreported  major domain sales, veteran investor George Kirikos uncovered the Goto.com sale while going through corporate SEC filings today. In this filing, made by LogMeIn, Inc., the company stated on page 17 that they had spent $2.5 million for a domain

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name earlier this month. By using DomainTools Reverse WHOIS and WHOIS history George was able to identify GoTo.com as the name that was purchased. LogMeIn is already using the name as a shortcut to their popular GoToMeeting.com site.

Kirikos also pointed out, "GoTo.com is a domain with a quite rich history (it was an IdeaLab spinoff, was publicly traded itself at one time, won money from Disney, was a pioneer in pay-per-click advertising, was renamed to Overture, etc.)"

As he has done past, Kirikos broke this news on his Twitter feed. If you are not already following him you might want to start. Were it not for his financial research skills there are countless top tier sales that might never had appeared on our charts. In addition to being the first to learn what George  uncovers on that front you will benefit from the steady stream of domain industry information and insights that he provides.

Uniregistry has closed the books on a very impressive opening quarter of 2018 domain sales. While touching base with Vice President of Sales Jeff Gabriel I learned that the company logged over $13 million worth of aftermarket sales in 1Q-2018. The company could not disclose all of their individual sales information due to NDAs, however Jeff was able to share a long list with with me that was led by four previously undisclosed six-figure sales. 

Those headliners (all of which will be added to our YTD Top 100 Sales Chart when our next weekly sales report comes out Wednesday evening, April 25) were CrosswordPuzzles.com at $249,980, Presto.com at $150,000, EMX.com at $120,000 and Hosts.com at $100,000.

Uniregistry's highest reported Non .Com gTLD sale in 1Q-2018 was AAH.org at $63,700 while the top ccTLD sales they were able to share were Token.tv and Wallet.tv at $21,275 each. The biggest new gTLD sale on their list was Music.audio at $15,000.

Jeff Gabriel
Uniregistry VP of Sales

The tables below will show you the 30 highest reportable Uniregistry sales across all extensions in 1Q-2018 as well as their top tens for both Non .Com gTLDs and ccTLDs. We will take a deeper dive into the numbers in Wednesday's weekly domain sales report. 

Veteran domain investor  Abner Duarte from PremiumDomains.com.br was one of the first people I bumped into at this year's NamesCon conference in Las Vegas. I couldn't help noticing Abner was wearing a T-shirt promoting a new event called Domaining Americas to be held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in October 2018. I asked what that was all about and Abner, a native of Brazil who now lives in Boston, told me he was putting together a major domain conference for South America with only a few details - primarily picking the hotel and exact dates - left to nail down. He told me he would let me know as soon as that was done and the news came today.

The debut edition of Domaining Americas will be held at the five-star Grand Hyatt Rio De Janiero on Saturday and Sunday, October 6-7, 2018. The conference website is now up including the registration page where early bird tickets priced at $275 (+ $17.39 ticketing fee) will be available through June 1. After that tickets rise to $475 through September 1 then reach the full $699 rate that will be in effect from that point forward.

The show site notes, "Domaining Americas will bring people together from around the globe, including investors, startups, registries, registrars, registrants, hosting and eCommerce

Abner Duarte
Domaining Americas Founder

companies.  You will be able to  interact with industry leaders such as Nic.br, GoDaddy, Verisign, ResellerClub, Sedo, AfterNIC, HostGator and many more.  Win prizes, collect swag, and hang out at beach on your spare time. Our exciting After Hours Party will be another way to network with people from the industry. With over 200 attendees expected, DomainingAmericas will be the first of its kind in Latin America."

The conference agenda and list of featured speakers will be finalized in the weeks ahead with those updates to be posted on the show website as they develop. With its location in one of the world's great cities and a currently underserved market for face to face domain industry networking opportunities, DomainingAmericas looks like an event with great potential - one that is a welcome addition to the global conference calendar.

Donuts Inc., the world's largest operator of new generic top level domain registries (new gTLDs), announced a record-breaking sale for that category this morning after closing a $500,300 all cash transaction for Vacation.rentals. The sale was brokered by Brooke Hernandez, senior domain broker at Uniregistry. The buyer was VacaRent LLC, a newly formed company led by veterans in the vacation rental space. The founders include longtime resort owners and entrepreneurs Michael and Handan Kugler, Marshall Hart, William Whelpley, ITM Investments, Kalus Enterprises and Jim and Wendy Sherrill.

The Kuglers, who operate Hunter's Friend Resort in Branson. Missouri,  have 14 years of experience in the short term rental market. Michael Kugler, who is VacaRent's CEO, said "While online rentals are well established, there is a growing unfulfilled need with property owners. We aim to give owners the best online destination for them to easily market their properties. The term "vacation rentals" is THE most frequently searched term online for vacation properties; it's a name I've had my eye on for a while and finally it's our brand. We're excited to leverage our name and our website to benefit both property owners and vacationers."

VacaRent wasted no time in putting their new acquisition to work. They quietly launched their vacation rentals website on the domain on March 30, 2018. According to the release announcing their acquisition of the domain they expect to differentiate themselves in two ways: "First, they wanted to offer property owners a more responsive online experience from a trusted provider with direct understanding of their needs, and a business model that was based on annual subscriptions – not on bookings transaction fees. Second, they wanted to empower vacationers with the ability to easily find what they need and interact directly with property owners."

Donuts Senior Vice President of Sales Matt Overman noted, "Vacation.rentals is a terrific domain name and already has "page one" ranking on popular search engines. We look forward to following the growth of Vacation.Rentals and supporting its success."  At $500,300 the Vacation.rentals sale eclipses the previous new gTLD record of $500,000 that was paid for Home.loans in another Donuts sale that was reported in January 2018.