Last November Guta.com, a domain brokerage firm that has established itself as a bridge between the Western and Chinese domain communities, launched a new quarterly Premium Domain Sales Observation Report. The free publication includes valuable information for anyone interested in selling to or buying from the Chinese market.  Guta's bilingual Founder & CEO George Hong maintains homes and offices in both the U.S. and China which has put him and his staff in the middle of many high end sales between and within the two nations.  

Guta just released their latest report covering the 1st quarter of  2019.  The quarter was a mixed bag with some categories reaching new highs while others cooled after being red hot a year ago. The report summary noted that strong demand from end-users, especially those involved with the cryptocurrency market, resulted in a number of rare two-letter .com domains selling for big prices in 2018. However, Guta said, "from the last five quarters of data we have collected, we have noticed a consistent decline in the sales of LL .com domains. It is not a coincidence that the market conditions for cryptocurrency changed from bull market to bear market in 2018 and the cryptocurrency winter continues into Q1 2019."

George Hong
Founder & CEO, Guta.com

In contrast, Guta found "sales of premium one-word dictionary domains have generally been growing steadily over the last fi ve quarters. More and more global end-users are purchasing their brand-matched one-word .com domains. Likely encouraged by publicly reported high prices for  dictionary .com names, domain investors have been very actively buying one-word dictionary .com domains for investment purposes."

The report is also filled with information on sales in other popular categories Guta specializes in, including 3-letter .coms and short numeric .com domains. You will find many examples of the exact prices paid for specific domains in the new issue that you can read here.

Escrow.com's new quarterly Domain Investment Index report covering the first quarter of 2019 includes a lot of good news for domain investors. As the world's largest online escrow provider for domain names (and a wide range of other assets), Escrow.com has access to a treasure trove of domain sales information. While they do not disclose

details on individual sales (to protect the privacy of buyers and sellers who use their platform) Escrow.com does compile data on total sales transacted on their platform that provides a great deal of insight into the current health of the domain market. 

The new Q1-2019 report (.pdf file) disclosed that Escrow.com's total domain sales (including domains with and without content) in the most recent quarter produced over $85 million in sales. That is a 10.4% jump over the $77 million recorded in the previous quarter as well a solid increase year over year. Escrow.com also reported their sales of developed websites reached an all time high as domains with content hit $15.2 million in Q1-2019. In terms of median prices, Escrow.com said their median domain name sale held steady at $2,500 while their median developed website sale price rose to $9,800.

Escrow.com also broke out sales results geographically, noting, " the United States still leads the way in total transaction value but Canada was among the biggest gainers. In the U.S. total domain sales (with and without content) jumped from $55.6 million in 4Q-2018 to $62 million in 1Q-2019 - an 11.5% increase. That is particularly impressive because the 4th quarter has historically been a strong one for domain sales. Canada moved past the United Kingdom into the #2 slot with $9.16 million vs. the UK's $8.58 million). Meanwhile, the China boom continue to recede. After hitting a high point of $18.4 million in Q2-2018 China sales were down to $5.8 million in Q1-2019.

The 2018 edition of China's Global Digital Summit at the Swiss Hotel in Xiamen was so well received show organizers decided to stage the upcoming 2019 conference at the same venue. This year's event, that will again attract Internet business leaders from around the world, will run Friday May 31 and Saturday June 1. It will be co-hosted by Badidu AI Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Bizcn, GoDaddy and several other well-known companies.

While the domain industry has been a centerpiece of GDS from the start, many other topics are covered as well, including blockchain technology applications,

new media marketing, cross-border integration and innovation of digital assets, digital media and digital ecology. Here are some more specific examples of sessions on the agenda:

Domain-related topics:

• Current Situation and Trend of Global Domain Names

• Opportunities and Challenges for the Development of Domain Name Industry under the Intervention and Support of National Policy

• Diversified Development of Domain Name Transactions

• How Domain Names Help Chinese Enterprises Develop Cross-Border E-Commerce Business

Topics related to AI, Big Data & Cloud Computing:

• How will AI, Big Data, Cloud Computing Move Towards Industrial Application and Commercialization

• Sharing of Innovative Technologies in AI, Big Data, Cloud Computing

• Future Development and Opportunities AI, Big Data, Cloud Computing Industries

• Solutions and Products of AI, Big Data, Cloud Computing Driving Enterprises’ Intelligent Transformation

Cross-Border E-commerce:

• Industry experts and excellent cross-border E-Commerce enterprises to discuss new trends in the industry, sharing marketing experience of overseas E-Commerce and intellectualized reform of overseas E-Commerce, and help cross-border E-Commerce to quickly open up the market.

Xiamen is a beautiful waterfront city on China's southeast coast with nearly 2 million residents in the metropolitan area. Many view Xiamen as the "domain capital" of China because so many industry companies have offices there, including Guta.com, the well-known brokerage firm run by George Hong that also has a Philadelphia office in the U.S.

You can get more details on GDS2019 at the conference website (available in both English and Chinese versions) at www.gdsdays.com.

16 years ago we started our weekly domain sales reports (that come out every Wednesday evening) as an educational tool. Showing the exact prices paid for specific domain names each week gives all of us a chance to learn more about domain values, gain insight into the latest trends (what's hot and what's not) and have access to a large pool of comparable sales that can be pointed to when buyers question domain valuations. We recently came up with a new feature aimed at providing additional insight into how domains are being valued -  a periodic Name Vs. Name poll and discussion in which two similarly priced but otherwise different kinds of domains are matched against one another.  

In our latest weekly sales column a couple of domains jumped out at me as being very good values. One was Chicago.info at just $2,200 and the other was Opinions.org at only $2,100 (both are non .com gTLDS that were sold through NameJet). I was actually shocked to see Chicago.info at that price as it is one of the world's great cities and the .info TLD is a good match for geodomains.

Image from Bigstock

The name itself implies being a definitive source of information about the destination and Chicago is one that attracts well over 50 million visitors annually! I also very much like Opinions.org  - an excellent, versatile one word domain in a popular long established legacy extension. It would be a perfect name for unbiased consumer reviews or a site curating opinions from thought leaders on a wide variety of topics related to the public good. At $2,100 that was also a terrific buy in my opinion. It came in what was an especially good week for the .orgs as they swept the first 8 positions on our weekly Non .Com gTLD Top Sales Chart. 

So having introduced the contestants - let's get ready to rumble! (The poll will remain open for 5 days (closing on Tuesday afternoon, May 14, 2019). We will share the final results with you in our next Name vs. Name battle where it will be listed in the table of past battles you see at the bottom of this post).  Chicago.info or Opinions.org - which was the better buy and, if you are willing to comment, we would like to know why you feel that way (the View button will let you see the poll numbers and comments):

Investors who buy and sell domain names employ a variety of different strategies. Some are able to specialize in high end assets that often run into six figures but a more common approach is trying to sell a higher volume of easily affordable domains. One drawback to the latter approach has been that minimum sales commissions can take a big chunk out of seller proceeds 

and minimum bid requirements make it harder for buyers to justify buying a lot of domains.Aftermarket giant Sedo just tackled both of those problems head on with a major change that is bound to be a popular one with a lot the buyers and sellers who use their global platform. They have eliminated their minimum sales fee (going from $60 to $0) for most TLDs and dramatically lowered minimum bid requirements (from $90 to $20) for the rest of 2019. 

For sellers, that will mean more net profits from domain sales priced at the lower end of the price spectrum and for buyers it creates more purchase opportunities for all budgets. Sellers will pay just the commission of 10%, 15%, or 20%, depending on the type of sale and where the buyer came from, regardless of the sales price. This promotional offer applies to domains within Sedo's Category I TLDs (which 

Image from Bigstock

is the vast majority of TLDs). Category II TLDs (that tend to have premium price structures) aren't included in this promotion. Expiring Domains Auctions and External Transfers also aren’t included in this promotion.

Sedo's announcement included some examples of the impact the new pricing initiative can have on the bottom line:

Three possible outcomes if you sell a domain for $100:

1) The domain had a Buy Now price AND was parked at Sedo AND the buyer came from the Sedo platform: There is only 10% commission, so you pay $10 and earn $90. With the minimum fee eliminated, you earn $50 more.

2) The domain was bought through a negotiation or via auction on the Sedo platform: There is a 15% commission, so $15. You earn $85. With the minimum fee eliminated, you earn $45 more.

3) The buyer came from a SedoMLS partner site: There is a 20% commission, which is $20. You earn $80. With the minimum fee eliminated, you earn $40 more.

The bottom line is, for a domain sale of $100 you earn between $80 and $90, instead of $40 as has been the case in the past. In all three scenarios, you earn at least twice as much as before.

Sedo also noted that you don’t need to adjust any settings or make any changes in your account to activate this promotion, it will update automatically. List all of your domains with Sedo to get the most from this savings. You save the most when you park at Sedo AND set a fixed price on your domains.

It is also important to note that sellers do NOT have to adopt the new $20 minimum bid. You can customize your preferred minimum bids in your account or by contacting your Sedo sales rep to set the amount manually.  

Last month I told you about a  remarkable portfolio of 20 big city .com geodomains that has been put on the market by Geocentric Media. The portfolio, that already included Houston.com, Philadelphia.com, SanDiego.com and Denver.com, among others, has just gotten even more eye popping. We've learned from Geocentric Media CEO & Founder Fred Mercaldo that LosAngeles.com and SanFrancisco.com have just been added to the unprecedented lot. 

While an exact price tag has not been placed on the portfolio, Mercaldo told us last month that the  number would likely fall in the $20 million range. An argument could be made that the two new additions - LosAngeles.com

San Francisco image from Bigstock

(representing America's 2nd largest city) and SanFrancisco.com (like LA, a major global tourist destination) - sold together, could be worth that on their own. That being the case, the full portfolio price will likely rise in concert with the added luster to what is now a coast to coast major market network of 22 great city domains. Here is the complete updated list of names in the portfolio being offered:

The 11th annual NamesCon Europe conference, coming up June 20-22, 2019 in an attractive new location, the Pestana Cidadela Cascais resort –a 5-star hotel located in the Pousada & Art District in the city of Cascais (just north of Lisbon), has released the first draft of the show agenda. It includes five expert panel discussions that will cover these topics:

* Dark Horses and Long-Shot Opportunities: Where to Invest in Today’s nTLD Market

* On the Basis of Trust: What to Look For in a Domain Broker

* Does Silicon Valley Still Need Domains?: How to Approach Tomorrow’s Startups 

* No Exit: How to Maximize your Portfolio’s Value Without Selling

* Navigating Appraised Value vs. Market Value of Your Domain

The full list of speakers for each session is still being finalized but Braden Pollock is already penciled in for most of the moderating duty that he consistently excels at. Organizers have also made sure to set aside plenty of time for networking, socializing, and enjoying the beauty Cascais is famous for. In fact, the last day of the conference will be dedicated entirely to unwinding with friends and colleagues at a day long beach party.

For the first time, NamesCon Europe will also feature a live domain auction, with carefully selected premium names set to go on the block while guests enjoy premium wine and tapas to match. As they did at NamesCon Global in Las Vegas in January, NamesCon has teamed up with industry-leading domain auction experts RightOfTheDot and NameJet to run the sale.

NamesCon Europe was founded by Dietmar Stefitz (under the Domaining Europe banner) who, after a decade of producing outstanding events, truned the reins over to NamesCon early last year. Tickets for the three-day event are priced at €649, however NamesCon Europe has given us a discount link allowing our readers to purchase tickets for €399 (+ €75.81 VAT) until June 1, 2019.

16 years ago we started our weekly domain sales reports (that come out every Wednesday evening) as an educational tool. Showing the exact prices paid for specific domain names each week gives all of us a chance to learn more about domain values, gain insight into the latest trends (what's hot and what's not) and have access to a large pool of comparable sales that can be pointed to when buyers question domain valuations.

As sales data comes in each week I often notice very different kinds of domains selling for about the same (or exactly the same) price and thought this might present another interesting educational opportunity. In this case, seeing how our reader's currently value various kinds of domains by running a periodic Name Vs. Name poll and discussion in which two similarly priced but otherwise different kinds of domains are matched against one another. We ran a couple of these contests last month (links to those are in the table at the end of this post) and the response was good, so let's return to the battle field for round three!

Image from Bigstock

This time around we are going to pit a ccTLD again a non .com gTLD. Both have great keywords and sold for about the same price. As you may have seen in last week's domain sales report those two - eCommerce.co and RealEstate.asia - earned places on our weekly all extension Top 20 Sales Chart with eCommerce.co coming in at $16,650 and RealEstate.asia close behind at $16,095.  .co is officially the country code for Colombia but it was re-purposed several years ago to mean "company" and has had success with that re-branding (so much so that Neustar swooped in and bought the .co registry for $109 million in 2014). .Asia was launched in 2008 as a sponsored gTLD that serves as the regional domain extension for Asia and the Pacific. Now that we've introduced the opponents - let's get ready to rumble! The poll will remain open for 5 days (closing on Sunday afternoon, May 5, 2019. We will share the final results with you in our next Name vs. Name battle (or you can return to this page any tim after the voting ends and click the poll View button to see the winner). So, which one - eCommerce.co or RealEstate.asia - was the better buy and, if you care to comment, why? (the View button will let you see poll numbers and comments):

Domain registrants are up in arms about an ICANN proposal to remove all price caps on popular .ORG domain names. Price increases have been limited to no more than 10% annually under .ORG's current contract with ICANN (already a far higher increase than the rate of inflation), but if this proposal is enacted,

the Public Interest Registry could increase prices to any number they want for .ORG registrations and renewals. If that happens you can bet demands for unlimited .com and .net increases won't be far behind. 

If you were among the millions around the world busy celebrating Easter over the weekend you may have missed one of the most bizarre domain related stories of all time even though it was reported in dozens of mainstream media outlets Sunday.

It involved a social media influencer named Rossi Lorathio Adams II whose company, Social Snaps, has been attracting over a million visitors to his pages on platforms including Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter. According to CNN, for two years, Adams had been trying unsuccessfully to buy a domain he wanted, DoItForState.com, from the owner who lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Adams finally got the not so bright idea that he could just hire someone to pay the domain owner a visit and force him to transfer the domain at gunpoint. After all, what could go wrong?!

Image from Bigstock 

Well, plenty, as the guy he picked for the job, his cousin Sherman Hopkins Jr., soon found out. In 2017 Hopkins went to the domain owner's house, pulled out the gun and directed the man to his computer where he was told to log into his registrar account and transfer the domain. All the while Hopkins kept a gun against the man's head. Unfortunately for him, the domain owner decided to fight back and successfully wrestled the gun away from Hopkins and shot him several times with his own weapon. To add insult to insult Hopkins was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year. 

Meanwhile, authorities followed the trail from Hopkins back to the guy who hired him, Adams, who is now in custody awaiting sentencing himself. As CNN noted, "he faces a maximum 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release." I'm pretty sure he could have bought the domain for a LOT less than that though, on the plus side, it looks like he may get free room and board for the next two decades.

While this is obviously a very rare set of circumstances, it will likely cause a lot of domain owners to think about using the WhoIs Privacy option on their domain names so their address and other contact info is not readily available to someone who wants to pay them a visit!

In our last post we told you about Australian entrepreneurs being up in arms over a proposal that country's domain governing body, auDA (administrator of the .AU ccTLD), was considering that could have effectively banned domain investing in that country's TLD. From the moment the idea was broached a crescendo of protests began growing with everyone from a former auDA board member (Simon Johnson) to the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) lodging strong objections to what would have been an unprecedented development in the domain industry.

The united stand taken by the domain business community apparently caught the attention of auDA leadership because today they announced they have rejected the proposed policy changes for the Australian namespace. The auDA decision said “there is no evidence that domain name flipping as an investment strategy is having a negative impact on the utility of the .au domain nor resulting in a scarcity of domain names."

Australia image from Bigstock

The domain investment community in Australia is sounding a red alert triggered by new rules being considered by AuDA (the overseer of the country's .AU top level domain) that many there see as attempt to institute an outright ban on domain investment. If

enacted domains that have already been registered and paid for could be taken away from their current registrants. AuDA is currently inviting public commentary on the proposed changes but the window is about to close with the deadline for submissions set for 5pm Australian EST Friday, April 12 (AEST is 14 hours ahead of U.S. EST which would make the deadline 3AM Friday morning in the eastern United States).

In a related noted, the ICA is hosting an open public webcast Friday afternoon (April 12) at 1pm US Eastern Time. Anyone can sit in on the session by registering here. The controversial AuDA proposal is one of several topics set for discussion on the webcast.

If you been in the domain business for any appreciable length of time, odds are you are already familiar with industry veteran George Kirikos who, in addition to his record of success in domain investing and development, also operates Leap of Faith Financial Services Inc. 

from his home base in Toronto. When we launched DNJournal.com in 2003 George was already widely known for the quality of his domain and website holdings. Examples include Math.com (which serves millions of visitors annually) and a more recent acquisition,

School.com. Kirikos also has Options.com and StockOptions.com under development in the financial arena, and many others in an assortment of industry verticals.

The financial domains fall in Kirikos' wheelhouse - he holds both Bachelor's and Masters Degrees in Economics from the University of Toronto. For years now he has used those skills to uncover previously unreported major domain sales and acquisitions while poring through public  corporate filings. If you are a regular reader of our weekly domain sale report you have seen Kirikos credited for finding some of the biggest sales that have ever appeared on our sales charts (sales that likely would have remained undiscovered to this day if George hard not dug them out).

Over the years Kirikos has proven to be just as adept at uncovering actions that threaten domain registrant's rights, especially when it comes to governance issues handled by ICANN, the overseer of the global domain name system. Since the early days of domain forums and more recently on his Twitter feed, Kirikos has repeatedly taken ICANN to task. 

You can bet these early fireworks will not be the last at FreeSpeech.com. Kirikos's record of  straight forward, no punches pulled commentary on a wide variety of industry matters warrants adding a bookmark to his blog if you want to hear both sides of the industry's hot topics as well as broader issues beyond the domain world related to free speech. 

It is rare for any major city .com geodomain to be put on the market so the sale of a portfolio full of such domains is something few would ever imagine seeing. Well, the unthinkable is now a reality as GeoCentric Media has assembled just such a dream portfolio and is now brokering it with a price tag in the $20 million range. 

That's certainly not pocket change, but when you look at the assets included many would consider it to be a bargain. especially when it includes three of America's largest cities - Houston.com, Philadelphia.com and SanDiego.com - as well as big league cities like Denver.com, Detroit.com, Indianapolis.com and Oakland.com. 

As a point of reference, LasVegas.com alone was sold in 2005 for an up front payment

Philadelphia skyline image from Bigstock

of $12 million with additional payments continuing until 2040 that could make the final value of the deal $90 million.  Here is the full list of domains in the new offering:

• Scottsdale.com

• Houston.com

• Denver.com

• Detroit.com

• StLouis.com

• Philadelphia.com

• Indianapolis.com

• DistrictOfColumbia.com

• Minneapolis.com

• Boulder.com

• SanDiego.com

• Raleigh.com

• Oakland.com

• Sausalito.com

• Burbank.com

• SantaClara.com

• Mesa.com

• Albany.com

• LaJolla.com

• Shreveport.com

It's a long way from Long Island to North Dakota, in terms of both mileage and differences in culture. So it may surprise you to know that the new developer (and pending co-owner) of NorthDakota.com is native New Yorker John Colascione, a veteran online entrepreneur whose successful businesses have included LongIsland.com and his home base, Searchen Networks (founded in 2002).

John doesn't live in North Dakota - in fact, he recently moved from Long Island to Florida so he is even further away from North Dakota than before. Even so, John knows it is rare for any state or major city .com domain to come on the market and he wasn't about to pass up a chance to get involved in the acquisition of one when the opportunity arose. To find out how that came about and how John is tackling long distance management of the new website at NorthDakota.com we connected with Colascione for the answers.

John Colascione
NorthDakota.com