|
The
domain aftermarket experienced a major comeback in
2010 with increases seen in all cetegories, including .coms,
ccTLDs and non .com gTLDs. Of course the
general economy was mired in one of the worst recessions
on record at this time a year ago. We are still not out of
the woods even now, but the 2010 figures that we just
finished brteaking down show things brightened
considerably in 2010.
The
total dollar volume of all sales reported to us in 2010
rose 10.6% from the previous year, jumping from $102
million in 2009 to $112.8 million in 2010. That
was still shy of the all-time record $120 million reported
to us in 2007 but we are finally moving in the right
direction again. (When reviewing the numbers in this
article, note that the minimum levels that we track and
report in our weekly
domains sales reports start at $2,000 for .com
domains and $1,000 for all other extensions. Total dollar
volume levels would be considerably higher if we tracked
the vast number of sales at the lowest end of the market).
|
Image: renjith
krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
|
|
2010
certainly got a huge boost in the 4th quarter when
the largest all cash domain sale ever reported - Sex.com
at $13 million - entered the record books. That
sale helped propel dollar volume for 4Q-2010 45.5%
higher than the same quarter a year ago - $40.9
million in 4Q-2010 vs. $28.1 million in
4Q-2009. If you break out .com sales only, the jump
is even bigger - 68% better than 4Q-2009 -
with reported .com sales volume rising from $19 million
to $31.9 million. Still, there was more to the
market rebound than the Sex.com sale alone as you will see
in the detailed breakdown of numbers below.
Take the ccTLDs
for instance. They continued to be a bright spot,
rocketing 25.2% higher in 2010 as reported sales
rose from $17.8 million in 2009 to $22.3 million
in 2010. Even the non .com gTLDs (.net, .org,
.info, .biz and others), which have been lagging behind
the other categories, registered a double digit
increase. They jumped 11.8% from $10.2
million in 2009 to $11.4 million in 2010.
|
|
As the
Sex.com sale amply demonstrates, one or more
unusually high sales can skew the dollar volumes
from one quarter to the next in a big way. So, we
also look at the median sales prices (the
number at which half of all reported sales were
higher and half were lower). The impact of a few
blockbuster sales has almost no impact on the
median figure which gives a better indicator of
where prices in general are going. |
In 2010, the median price
for all sales reported to us (regardless of extension) rose
6% from $2,597 in 2009 to $2,750 in
2010. The .com median did better than that, jumping
16.7% from $3,000 to $3,500. The
other categories also improved. The median price for non
.com gTLDs went up 11.7% from $1,791 to $2,000
and country codes also improved a bit, going from $2,045
to $2,070.
In addition to increases
in dollar volume and median prices we saw more
transactions reported in 2010 than 2009. 15,900
sales were reported to us in the year just past vs. 15,600
in 2009. While that wasn't a major difference for the
market at large the ccTLDs were a notable
exception. They had the biggest percentage jump of any
category - soaring 25.9% from 3,775 transactions
reported in 2009 to 4,752 in 2010.
| Now
let's take a look at most recent quarter (4Q-2010)
as that is the freshest market information we
currently have available. I already noted the year
over year 4th quarter dollar volume increases for
the market at large and for .coms above. How about
the remaining categories?
Those remained
stable in 4Q-2010 with minor movement vs. the same
quarter in 2009. The dollar volume reported for
ccTLD sales dipped slightly, from $5.9 million
to $5.5 million while the volume for non
.com gTLDs rose a bit from $3.2 million to
$3.4 million (as you can see the non .com
gTLDs still trail the ccTLDs by a large margin -
the volume of reported country codes sales in
4Q-2010 was 62% higher than the volume for
non .com gTLDs).
When you look at
the more telling median prices, all categories
were stronger in 4Q-2010 than the same quarter a
year earlier. The median prices for all extensions
enjoyed a very healthy 27.2% jump from $2,200
to $2,800. Taken alone, .coms saw
their median price rise |
Image: Salvatore
Vuono/FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
| 12.9%
from $3,100 to $3,500 while ccTLDs
moved up slightly from $2,132 to $2,150
and non .com gTLDs saw a 10.4% bump
from $1,888 to $2,085. |
Regarding medians, again
remember that we start tracking .coms at $2,000 and all
other extensions at $1,000. If we threw out the ccTLD
& non .com gTLD sales below $2,000 (so that their
medians would be based on the same range as .coms), then
those non .com median prices would be considerably higher.
We will probably do that in future reports to give you
still another perspective on aftermarket sales.
In summary, we are
starting off the New Year on an upswing. No ones knows
what tomorrow will bring, but the momentum looks to have
shifted decisively back to the upside for domain
sales prices. Let's hope the train continues to gather
steam as we continue through 2011!
*****
|
