International domain brokerage firm Guta.com has released their latest quarterly Premium Domain Sales Observation Report (.pdf file) covering the first quarter of 2020. With offices in both the U.S. and China, Guta, founded by CEO George Hong, has a great vantage point to see what is happening in the domain aftermarket in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Their reports focus primarily on .com domain sales in these categories: 1-4 Numbers, 1-3 Letters, 2 Characters and one-word English dictionary domains. 

As you would expect with China battling the coronavirus  epidemic for the entire quarter and the U.S. doing so in the final month of it, sales activity was negatively impacted. The Guta report tells the story in an extensive series of charts then, in a final summary, notes "relatively low sales volumes across all categories of 

premium domains. Total sale counts of domains in LL .com, NN .com, NNN .com, NL .com, LN .com categories dived to 9-quarter lows. Total sale counts of domains in NNNN .com and one-word English .com categories fell to the lowest level in 4 quarters."

It goes on to say, "The world is experiencing uncertainty and hardship due to the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. In Q1 2020, cash was indeed king for many investors, who were selling everything from stocks to bonds to gold to bitcoins aiming to raise cash. Under the circumstance, many premium domain owners were more motivated to sell, however most premium domain buyers suspended their purchases or lowered their budget substantially."

Still the report found some bright spots, adding "The end-user purchase rate of one-word English .com domains showed year-over-year growth." The Guta chart showed this category has rocketed to a 41.67% market share in Q1 2020 after holding just 25.8% of it two years ago. Guta reported that, "End users are still actively buying domain names. Businesses adapt to the pandemic by moving online. There will be a higher demand for premium domains from end-users. The new online businesses probably will start with hand registered domains or low priced aftermarket domains. Some of the companies will choose to upgrade their domain names to premium ones when their online business flourish, and they have money to spend. There is hope ahead!"