2025 will witness the high demand in premium short domains for upgrading company names and for the startups. With the new AI based domain name search tools and the existing ones including DotDB which will give the advantage of utilizing them in a better way to research and buy quality domain names. Being a domain investor, if someone is willing to diversify into areas like domain brokerage, domain leasing or digital marketing services, there are plenty of opportunities to have an additional revenue stream. By providing AI-powered services for domain discovery, pricing, and portfolio management, one can cater to both investors and businesses seeking to stay competitive.

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Andrew Allemann

There are a couple of things that had an outsized impact on the industry in 2024.  

First, the base of domain name registrations is barely growing. New registrations are a barometer of overall business growth, and this stagnation impacts everyone in the industry. Registries can only increase their revenue by increasing prices, registrars are fighting each other for new customers, and with fewer people searching for domains, the aftermarket is impacted.  

I believe a big reason for this stagnation is that demand was "pulled forward" during the pandemic. Every brick-and-mortar business suddenly needed to register a domain and create an online presence to survive the pandemic. Many of these companies would have gotten around to it now but did so a few years ago instead.  

Another big topic for 2024 was the aftermarket. GoDaddy introduced Afternic Boost, which effectively increased commissions or dialed back promotion for domain investors depending on whether they opted in. At the same time, many new aftermarket options appeared, including Saw.com, DomainEasy, and others.

The overall stagnation in the industry creates a challenge in 2025. How do companies grow their revenue in the face of lighter demand?  Many companies will fight each other for market share, but that's nothing new. They can also raise prices for existing customers, who tend to be sticky (especially for registries).  

But hopefully, we'll see some innovation that drives demand. Although it won't happen this year, ICANN is getting ready to launch another round of top level domain expansion. It will be interesting to see if this grows the pie for everyone or just siphons off registrations from existing top level domains.  

The domain industry has gone through sluggish times before and has persevered. Domain names are critical building blocks of the internet, and I'm sure the industry will find ways to overcome these challenges.

Andy Booth

I don't think my view is going to be very different from anyone else's when I see it's the year of AI, the overarching branch of everything else related including ASI and AGI. The world is changing and accelerating rapidly, and the implications of AI and its impact on humanity are pretty incredible.

I still don't think everyone understands that AI already has the ability to learn itself. Of course it requires significant foundational data, but it can then perform once allowed to much more efficiently and effectively than a human counterpart.

There were concerns that AI was a buzzword and that it would just become assumed, but I don't necessarily think that's the case. There are still very human businesses out there, and I think it's important the AI aspect of a company's work is highlighted. It brings with it different connotations and expectations.

As mentioned before, I think it's important not for individual egos, but for those with data to release it to help progress. There's a bigger picture in play. 

As Elon Musk said recently, AI is going to be proficient at cognitive tasks in the near future, and I think start-ups and tech companies are going to want to position themselves as leaders. In domain terms, that could translate to increased adoption of generic words in .ai (and still .com) as well as brand names. Prices will likely continue to increase as the gap decreases between alternate TLDs and .com.

The most important part of domain investing is patience and understanding how to handle negotiations when the right user comes along. Belief and conviction is such an important part of that, so stay patient and keep your eye on sales patterns.

Overall, I think 2025 is going to be a great year for tech in general which naturally spills into domains. Sub-standard brand names will struggle to gain a competitive advantage, so smart leaders will adapt accordingly.

Braden Pollock

The most significant trends last year probably relate to the advent of mainstream AI as well as the resurgence of crypto values in Q4. We obviously saw expired and aftermarket .ai sales go through the roof but we also saw .com domain sales for AI companies increase. Similarly, with BTC hitting all-time-highs we saw crypto related startups and other Web3 companies acquire or upgrade their domain names. Due to the year-end gains, some crypto investors diversified into domains as alternative digital assets, providing for additional downstream sales.  

Looking ahead, AI and crypto will continue to drive sales and dominate industry headlines. High value, one word .com domains will continue to sell and, I believe, we'll see some solid 8 figure sales that get publicly reported. While I had some 7-figure sales last year that I couldn't report, I've noticed more buyers have been willing to disclose purchase prices. I think this trend will continue.   

Web3 has given a new life to terms like NFT, airdrop, token, coin, prompt, agent, and many 

others.  This has led to increased registrations and  aftermarket sales of domains containing these terms. I expect we'll see even more terms become valuable in 2025. Be sure to check your portfolio and reprice accordingly.  

And blockchain: Web2 will finally meet Web3 in the domain industry. My prediction is that D3 is going to lead that charge by providing the backend for registries to move domains on-chain. Additionally, their tech will allow for real tokenization of domains and portfolios which will allow for liquidity from non-industry investors.

Michael Castello

One of the greatest changes in 2024 was an election that charted a drastically different direction for the country and its economy. With that comes an incredible opportunity for those willing to act and take calculated risks. We are emerging from a pandemic-induced economic downturn that persisted through much of the past four years. A new administration brings the hope of rising consumer confidence, which can stimulate growth. Historically, many have turned to the stock market as a hedge against inflation and skyrocketing prices. It wasn’t that long ago that the richest person in the U.S. was valued at $50 billion. Today, that figure has soared to $400 billion. With such vast wealth, investors are likely to move significant capital into new ventures. 

Additionally, 2024 has brought artificial intelligence to the forefront as an emerging technology poised to dramatically change our world. While I use AI as an assistant, I consciously ensure it does not intrude on my work. Human creativity, imagination, and spirituality are innate qualities that I firmly believe AI will never 

fully replace. This is our enduring strength. The .ai extension is having its moment, which I predict will experience a two-year period in demand for buying and selling. Brands will remain the paramount to new enterprises, and extensions like .com are trusted by emerging businesses and consumers. Domain names are more than digital addresses; they are brands that bridge the trust gap in today’s increasingly illusory digital landscape.

For over a decade, I have advocated for an Internet Bill of Rights. Although the Obama Administration proposed working on a measure in 2015, progress has been slow. An Internet Bill of Rights is essential, but significant questions remain: Who will monitor and enforce it? Will it be universally accepted as fair? Given the trillions of dollars and control of online traffic at stake, willingness among those who currently dominate the digital economy is unlikely. The U.S. government may ultimately be the entity that establishes standards ensuring access to the growing virtual economy. Similarly, ICANN’s control over the Domain Name System (DNS) and its contractual authority represents the ultimate leverage to make it work. 

I have noticed a growing interest from acquaintances who previously never considered maintaining a website but are now learning how to build them and immersing themselves in the process. Domain names remain the best foundation for realizing visions and building businesses. Now is the time to invest in this space. I expect some of the most significant domain sales to occur in 2025. 

Mike Mann

DomainMarket.com and AccurateAppraisals.com both grew in 2024, although it wasn’t easy considering the up and down trends from month to month. Cash flow is always a challenge. Potential domain buyers were even more difficult than usual last year. On average they were unreasonable, and therefore we had to refuse the overwhelming majority of offers. As you know my team does the most detailed appraisal process by far of any domain sellers or brokers, so our list price (BIN) is meant to be spot on; if the prices are too high in general we wouldn’t be able to make many sales, and if they are too low we would be giving away the fort, so to speak; neither of which we are interested in. So, we try our best to gather exhaustive data sets and do a thorough study of each domain before setting the current appraised price. Average sales prices have trended upward consistently every year for the last 25 years for the best .com domains, which is practically all we offer; and we expect it to continue.

BTW, I invented Buy It Now in the domain industry, being the first company with listed appraised prices of premium domains who could accept a credit card (at my former company 

BuyDomains.com (which started out as RareDomains.com). I also invented the expressions Premium Domains and Super Premium Domains for names sold greater than their registration price; and the expression Domain Speculation, previously called “cybersquatting”, which was of course very derogatory and could lead to litigation; and certainly not a decent marketing term conducive to growing the market space.

At that time there were no specific rules or laws around domain ownership but there were still trademark laws. Nowadays, famous trademarks in a domain or some other violations could ostensibly still be called cybersquatting and subject to UDRP or law suits, but common domain offerings are no longer referred to in that manner by any serious businesspeople.

We also built a whole new main website with a very advanced new search interface in 2024.

Ai was a big issue and opportunity in 2024. We created over 200,000 landing pages for super premium .com domains leveraging ai, which was a very difficult process to ultimately get right. See Tasty.com or any of our other names listed at DomainMarket.com for an example of our landing pages. We also started using ai generated information as part of our data sets for speculative purposes in buying new domains, and to consider when appraising domains for sale.

Sales of .ai domains were relatively successful in the industry in 2024 too, however I think that phenomenon has peaked; the number of .ai registrations and premium sales and their respective prices are destined to go down; and as usual the propensity of sales and related high prices will be buyers flighting to quality .com domains. Super premium .com domains will always be the best for marketing and branding, which is the only relevant goal for premium domain usage and the related speculation in them. (We know this is the case for many reasons including since 500 out of 500 of the best CEOs and their top executive marketing teams at the ‘Fortune500’ largest US corporations all use .com for their businesses; so you can be positive it will always remain the correct choice.)

It has usually been a mistake for people to invest in domains other than the best .com, which are themselves very hard to sell even at great prices; so everything else is extraordinarily risky and usually leads to significant financial losses. A few strong published sales here and there confuse people as to the viability of non-.com domains overall and the likelihood that the ones they are registering and buying will sell at a profit. (Google: Daniel Kahneman availability heuristic) In reality it has always been a very low percentage, few and far between, that sell for a decent price. Some top experts and insiders might have unusual insight, skill and/or luck (or rackets), but presuming that will last or apply to everyone else (and millions of other domains within thousands of extensions) is just a fallacy. 

My programming team is also halfway done creating a free automated domain appraisal app, which will be much more accurate than the other 3 most popular apps; but none of them will ever be a good replacement for an expert human appraisal, particularly the ones we do.

Overall, I expect a growing state of confusion in the domain industry as many people have to decide what to do with their lowish quality collections and careers. Google now leverages ai results on top of their pages, which causes lower click through rates for web sites, and therefore causes less traffic to hit the domain URLs. So, there is suddenly an added risk in domain speculation. This may flatten out the ordinarily rising prices of the best .com domains, and further obviate the potential need for any other domains. But maybe not.

More innovation in Ai and big data quantum computing is likely to open up newer and better methods of domain purchasing and sales in 2025 which may help offset the Google ai issue to some degree.

We also have a new US administration which might help the economy and therefore the sales of expensive domains. At the same time there are endless risks in the world (including possible bad decision making by the government) that could hurt the economy.

My team is also peeling out some of our best domains to attempt to build out profitable websites in 2025. As usual I am still doing a lot of charity work and building unrelated businesses in 2025. Keep abreast and in contact by following me on popular social media apps, and check me out at MikeMann.com. Thanks a lot. All the best for the new year! 

Rick Schwartz

I think a plurality of domain investors would agree that AI was the most significant trend and event for 2024. It was unmistakable. I would call 2024 the inaugural year for AI in so many different forms. This was the birth and hit critical mass overnight. That's what success looks like.  

The business lull in 2024 allowed me to expand my empire by acquiring meaningful domains against little competition. I am very picky about the domains that I acquire.   

Ready, Aim, Acquire!  
Targeting one specific domain at a time. 2024 was fruitful:  

2024 Acquisitions = 50

Total Spend $176,396.84

Average Cost $3,527.94

Highest $24,977

Lowest $55

Regarding 2025, I will start where I left off in 2024. It's about Artificial Intelligence and what this toddler will do in its second full year. Will it meet or exceed expectations? Will it be slow adaptation or warp speed? 

Many businesses are paralyzed during election years. They don't want to make major decisions without knowing the direction the country will take. Now that that is behind us, people have an idea and will be much more comfortable with investment and expansion. So, the overall mood, the development of AI into many different sectors, and what new things are invented this year will drive much of what occurs.

This is the start of my 30th year investing in domains, and I've been bullish for 29 of them. Nothing is going to change this year. I am still bullish—more so than ever before. 

There is nothing that I love more than investing in great domain names and acquisitions are more exciting to me than sales are. But of course I enjoy the sales too. But my focus has always been acquisitions. Sales are the residue of great acquisitions and proactively listing your domains for sale anywhere or everywhere, just devalues them.