Frederick Schiwek
CEO, Zonat S.A.

As I moved a bit away from regular domain investing and developed some premium domains in the hosting vertical for example,  yourwebsite.com and webhosting.club, my focus switched. Of course NamesCon Europe and Namescon Global are still two of the most important events, but so is Cloudfest, the giant annual hosting event in Rust, Germany. One of the latest important events is the switch of control in .org, and I wonder if this is becoming a trend if non for profit organizations are giving up and transferring control of TLDs to pure investors.

Overall we have been seeing a consolidation for some time on the Registry level, so I would say the diversity is at risk. What happens if registries take more control of ccTLDs? I wonder if this the right way.

Now, it's a New Year, new Game, new Luck. We will focus in 2020 on  strengthening our position in the website builder and hosting market. We will develop more of our Premium Hosting Domains to extend our network of Hosting Brands. 2020 will be an important year for us as we will acquire more WebHosting companies to grow faster.

James Booth
Founder & CEO, Phenom.com

The most significant thing for myself was seeing the markets change during 2019. The .io and .co market has really picked up both wholesale and retail as a secondary option to .com and also short .coms are stronger than ever, such as short powerful English words like Let.com and Woke.com. I have also seen the markets with short brandables do well for names like FPay.com, BetX.com, GBet.com. These short brandables are gaining a lot of attention right now. I feel the market is still very strong on a retail level but it is getting quieter on a wholesale basis. 

Looking ahead, I honestly believe 2020 will be the biggest year to come for me. I think domains on an end user basis are hotter than ever and getting much more scarce so companies will do what they can to acquire their EMD (exact match domain) or domains to protect their brands. I see the .io market especially doing well going forward. If you are an end user you can likely pick up a one-word .io for under $100k right now which I think will change shortly as more get taken and the prices will soon reach 6 figures on those. My focus for 2020 will be similar, Short English .com names, short brandable names like BetX.com, short powerful one-word .io names and of course LLL.coms. 

Joe Uddeme
Principal, NameExperts.com

As a broker I think two things stick out from 2019. 1. GDPR/ privacy, It has become increasingly more difficult to locate the rightful owner of certain domain assets. As a result there has been an uptick in buyside requests. Clients are having a hard time deciphering proper ownership via traditional Whois search tools. Experienced brokers can add exceptional value to clients searching for domain name inventory for sale. 2. Mergers and Consolidation are also a major trend in the aftermarket domain space. Clients are merging or being acquired and domain name inventory becomes unused and held for long-term equity, or a potential business plan down the road. 

2020 should be a fantastic year for aftermarket domain names. I expect continued growth in .COM and a gradual decline of GTLD registrations. Clients will continue to look for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. Short, brandable and pronounceable words, ending in .COM is where the market will continue to flow. I also think it will be a good year for .CO with continued growth for 2020 and beyond. There is always the challenge of a economic market correction, but for now things continue to blossom in the domain name aftermarket. 

Kate Buckley
Founder, Buckley Media

For me, the biggest event of 2019 in our industry was the pending sale of the dot-org registry (PIR) to a private equity firm (Ethos Capital). If you haven’t been following along, here’s an excellent recap. The backlash was voluminous and vociferous, attracting coverage even from the redoubtable New York Times.  

And now .COM is also up for price hikes. The Department of Commerce has extended Verisign's contract to run the registry until 2024, lifting a price freeze imposed by the Obama Administration. That means that, starting December 2020, Verisign will be able to increase the price of .COMs by 7% each year. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to join the Internet Commerce Association—the ICA is a staunch advocate working to protect the ownership rights of domain owners. This is an important non-profit trade association that every serious domain investor and operator should join.

The spectacular sale of Voice.com for $30 million cash to Blockchain-based social media platform Block.one also made quite a splash, as did the accompanying mainstream press, including this quote by Michael J. Saylor (CEO of the selling entity, MicroStrategy): "Ultra-premium Domain Names like these can help a company achieve instant brand recognition, ignite a business, and massively accelerate value creation.” MicroStrategy also partially ascribed the record-setting price to billions of search results for the term “voice.” Isn’t that interesting?   

Speaking of interesting, I was fascinated by Aron Meystedt’s foray into fractional domain ownership this past year with NNR.com. (Meystedt sold 300 shares in the domain for $100 each, valuing it at $30,000). I think that’s smart and timely, and—with proper strictures and structures in place—could be an incredibly important path-to-ownership for (to purloin a phrase) .COM “Dreamers” (domainers who would like to own premium domains but can’t afford them). 

Lastly, I saw increased end-user interest in turnkey digital solutions, e.g. a dotcom that comes with other notable TLD extensions, and/or trademark, and/or exact-match social handles. It’s a valuable strategic opportunity for well-funded startups, and I’m seeing a lot of interest in our assets under brokerage that provide these one-stop solutions, as well as requests for these sorts of assets with our buyer-brokerage services.

Kate Buckley speaking at the 2019 NamesCon Global conference in Las Vegas.

In 2020, we’ll continue to see growth in the top 2% of names (ultra-premium .COMs), with end user sales of one-word, English Dictionary .coms increasing dramatically in both sales numbers and volume. I also think we’ll see nice growth with solid two-word .COM, as many companies can’t afford a short .COM and are leery of many, if not all, of the new gTLDs as long-term platforms for their brands. On the other hand, I expect continued depression in the bottom end of the market. In a word: Polarization. Great names will be even in more demand, lower-quality domain names will continue to lose momentum.  

All signs point to continued consolidation in the space as well as more private equity deals. And, I hope, significant collaboration and innovation within the industry. Whether that’s in cooperative efforts between companies—including brokerages!—or continued development of the fractional ownership model and other options, this is an industry ripe for disruption.  

Lastly, a strong opportunity I see for domain investors is the uncertain economic forecast. There are storm clouds on the horizon; when the dam breaks, many investors will need to liquidate their holdings at prices much lower than previously offered. A wise move would be to have cash on hand for that time. As my father is fond of saying, “Keep your powder dry.”

Ryan McKegney
CEO, DomainAgents.com

We often act as a buyer broker and it's hard to quantify, but it felt as though during this past year we didn't have to explain why a premium domain would be valuable to a startup or company rebranding. We may have reached a tipping point and the number of large sales this year lends weight to that theory. Education is always an ongoing endeavor, but I think more and more companies are realizing that they need to own their brand. Having a big following on social media is great, but the rules there are always changing. Owning your .com gives you a home that you control.

The domain industry is fairly mature now. A few years ago, it seemed new TLDs may shake things up, but that didn't happen, at least not in the aftermarket. A mature industry is ripe for rollups and private equity, as we've seen with .org and GoDaddy over the past number of years. I expect that will continue. Registrars and registries provide predictable income and that's attractive in this low interest rate environment.

Where we may still see a shake up is in larger macro issues in the broader culture and economy. The US election looms large with some candidates talking about breaking up the tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Privacy and data security are also huge issues that have to be addressed. Given the controversy around .org and countries setting up their 'own' Internet, I wouldn't be surprised if ICANN found itself in the spotlight during the election.

While these broader issues don't usually directly address domain names, we saw recently with GDPR how policy decisions outside our industry can have unintended or unexpected consequences. Overall, I'm bullish about domain prices, but there are a lot of storm clouds that I'll be watching.

Tess Diaz
Business Development Coordinator
Media Options

WITH MY DOMAIN SHERPA HAT, I SEE:

Communication and relationships are vital and rare in this all digital industry, and 2019's focus and growth in this area will pay off in 2020 and beyond.

- Behind the scenes at DomainSherpa, I see panelists and experts jumping at the opportunity to connect with other panelists, chatting beyond the professional filming section, and sometimes meeting for the first time. A new generation of true domain experts is arising, too!

- Rick Schwartz initiated the Asheville meetup with considerable positive feedback, inviting not only domainers but their families. DNJournal already highlighted the first business partnership resulting from the conference!

- Famously private first-rate domainer Alan Dunn built up his new Domain Stories podcast (announced Jan 2020), addressing the growing hunger for veteran perspectives.

- NamesCon put tremendous effort into creating networking and relationship-building opportunities at the Vegas & Portugal shows, shows, with their efforts extending even to transitioning to Austin for future conferences. In particular, the number of corporate brand managers in attendance continues to rise.

WITH MY MEDIA OPTIONS HAT, I SEE:

The world, outside of domains, is changing: consumers buy differently, consumers view buying differently, and everyone wants more streamlined payment options.

The overall trend towards fractional ownership (cars, planes, bicycles, etc) continues to not just skyrocket, but to become an integral part of consumers' perspectives. A key component to expanding user adoption with domain names is to minimize the organizational change needed for acquisition, particularly the payment process. With increased offerings via instant escrow, leases, payment plans, etc, this flexibility nurtures what Drew Rosener famously calls, "growing the pie for everyone." Jeff Sass and Names.CLUB were particularly forward-thinking in the payment processing arena, and the entire industry is watching with baited breath to see the longer term outcome.

FOR THE DOMAIN INDUSTRY OVERALL:

At DomainSherpa, stories educate. At MediaOptions, stories sell. To me, the Voice.com story summarizes everything happening in the domain industry:

When Voice.com was acquired by a crypto company for a venture targeting social media influencers, the $30 million all cash acquisition via GoDaddy became the titan among giants for 2019 in this industry. What I saw underlined in this transaction mirrored what I heard from our many panelists on DomainSherpa:

- GoDaddy's dominance in many facets of the industry

- The vital importance of relationships in this digital industry (This was a repeat client for GoDaddy.)

- Crypto companies/investors understanding & investing in premium domain names

- Social media influencers as coveted currency

- Brands' ongoing and increasing adoption of premium domain names

- Premium domain name price increases due to increasing scarcity and increased demand

- The slow but growing transparency, seen by publicizing a significant domain sale instead of burying it in SEC filings

However, I believe it's a significant part of the story that later in the year, the new Voice.com owner was fined $24 million by the SEC - not for anything to do with Voice.com itself, but because of how they managed their Initial Coin Offering. This speaks to an unfortunate but nagging trend of 2019:

- It's still the cowboys and visionaries who understand best how a domain name adds value. Others do understand, but it's still the thought leaders and dreamers who grasp the fullness of the opportunity that domain names present.

At the 2019 NamesCon Global conference in Las Vegas, Tess Diaz accepting the Escrow.com Masters of Domains Award from Escrow.com GM Jackson Elsegood. Tess accepted on behalf of MediaOptions CEO Andrew Rosener who was named the #1 seller worldwide on the Escrow.com platform. At the time the awards were being presented Andrew was on another NamesCon stage taking part in a panel discussion. 

Looking ahead, the ultimate need for every domain investor, company, educator, broker, etc is essentially this, in my opinion:

The foundation for one quality universal appraisal process for premium domains will likely start taking form in 2020. Not the end result, of course, but the serious conversations, relationship growth, and reporting, data retention, collection and analytics necessary. 2020 is the year where thought leaders will be making commitments to this key issue.

On a similar note, for the domain market as a market itself, Giuseppe Graziano and Ivan Rasskazov's "State of the Industry" Liquid Domain Market quarterly report is the longest-running. We're nearing the amount of years needed to truly build year over year pictures of the market. In 2019, Escrow.com inaugurated a quarterly Domain Investment Index as well. When we have 5 and 10 years of these types of reports, and hopefully more, we'll be able to move forward even more as a market, but in 2020 the collective data will indeed help the foundations begin!

Once an appraisal protocol is built, the industry will explode. It will take time - years - but once it is out and universally adapted, ancillary industries and products will explode, as well as domain values (see: supply/demand) and sales themselves. Here's to 2020: prosperity, growth, and connection!