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Image:
digitalart
/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
2011
domain sales got off to a slow start with no
7-figure sales (and none above $500,000) in the opening
quarter of the year. However, the climate
changed in the 2nd quarter when the year's
five biggest sales to date were logged, including
a pair that broke the million dollar barrier
- Social.com at $2.6 million and DomainName.com
at $1,000,000.
Those
blockbusters boosted the total dollar value of
sales reported to us in 2Q-2011 to $28.2
million, a 20% increase over 1Q-2011.
However, the 2Q-2011 total was down a hair (off 3%)
from the same quarter a year ago. For the first 6
months of this year, total sales volume is also
running just a bit behind the first half of 2010 -
down less than 1% from $52.2 million
to $51.7 million. |
When considering those
numbers and the breakdown that follows below keep in mind
the parameters for the sales we track and include in our weekly
domains sales reports. We track .com sales
starting at $2,000 and all other extensions
starting at $1,000. Total dollar
volume levels would be considerably higher if we tracked
the vast number of sales at the low end of the market.
By the same token, the median sales figures we will be
discussing below would be less if we tracked the lowest
end of the mark. We have always used the same parameters
so the changes in our quarterly numbers provide a
reasonable barometer of sales trends for domains
that change hands for four figures or more.
Now let's take a closer
look at how various segments of the domain aftermarket are
performing, starting with the world's most popular
extension - .com. The total dollar value of .com
sales reported to us in 2Q-2011 was $20.8 million,
a healthy 27.6% rise from the $16.3 million
reported the previous quarter. However, as was the case
for year over year sales across all extensions, 2Q-2011
ran slightly behind the same quarter in 2010 - down 5.5%
from $21.7 million to $20.8 million.
As we have noted
repeatedly in the past, total dollar volume figures can be
easily skewed by just a few blockbuster sales in
any given quarter (those sales also skew average
sale price numbers) so we always look at median prices
too - the number at which have of all sales were higher
and half were lower. That measure is not affected by
outliers at the highest end of the market.
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median sale price of domains reported to us across
all extensions in 2Q-2011 dipped slightly
from both the previous quarter and the same
quarter a year ago. In 2Q-2011 the median number
was $2,700, off less than 2% from
2Q-2010 (when it was $2,750) and down 3.6%
from the previous quarter (1Q-2011) when the
median was $2,800. That would indicate that
while sales volume was up, the prices being paid
for most domains were down a bit in the price
ranges we track.
For .coms,
the median price in 2Q-2011 held steady
compared to 1Q-2011 with the figure being $3,000
for each quarter in the first half
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Image:
jscreationzs
/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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2011. 2Q-2010 had a considerably higher median
though - $3,800 (21% above 2Q-2011). |
The country codes
(ccTLDs) enjoyed a 7% rise in total dollar volume
in 2Q-2011 compared to the previous quarter, up from $4.3
million to $4.6 million, However year over
year, the ccTLD total was off just under 10% from
2Q-2010 when $5.1 million worth of country code
sales were reported.
The median price of ccTLD
sales in 2Q-2011 was $2,002, about the same as the $2,025
figure from the previous quarter. If you look at ccTLD
sales above $2,000 (the same measuring stick we use for .coms)
it is interesting to note that the median price for ccTLD
sales in 2Q-2011 was $4,000 - well above the .com
median of $3,000. Also, looking at the 2K and up
country code sales, the median rose 15% from the
$3,475 figure for ccTLD sales in that range the
previous quarter - another positive trend for the ccTLDs.
For the non .com gTLDs
(.net, .org, .info, .biz, etc), the total dollar volume of
sales reported in 2Q-2011 was very close to the previous
quarter, dipping 3.4% from $2.9 million to $2.8
million. However, the non .com gTLDs were the only
category that showed an increase in dollar volume
from the same quarter a year ago (2Q-2010). Total volume
in this quarter a year ago was $2.3 million so the
2Q-2011 number represents a nearly 22% increase in
dollar volume year over year.
Looking at median prices
for non .com gTLD sales of $2,000 and up, the 2Q-2011
median was also better than the previous quarter, up 8%
from $2,800 to $3,024, However, the median
was down slightly (-2%) from the $3,088 median
for this category in 2Q-2010.
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Image:
renjith
krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Domain
sales are reported to us by almost all of the
major sales venues as well as many private buyers
and sellers. Two of the biggest aftermarket venues
- Sedo
and the AfternicDLS
also issue additional information on their total
universe of sales. Those venues send us just
the sales that fall into the price ranges we track
(as noted earlier) but they both have thousands of
additional sales below the range we track,
as well as some big sales that are subject to
non-disclosure agreements but which can be
included in their gross sales numbers. So, it is
very worthwhile to look at their reports for
further insight into aftermarket trends at those
key venues. You can view Sedo's
highly polished 2Q-2011 market study here
(.pdf file) and see this AfternicDLS
press release about their sales
results for the first six months of this year (the
company said it saw a 94% jump in
year-over-year sales volume for the first half of
2011, marking the strongest growth in its
history). |
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