| Those sales
illustrate how just a few sales can dramatically
skew total $ volume numbers from one quarter to another.
A better indicator of overall market health is the median
sales price (the price at which half of all sales
were higher and half lower). That number, buoyed by a
busy market for mid-priced domains, jumped 20% in
3Q-2012 compared to the same quarter a year ago (rising
from $2,588 to $3,103 across all
extensions).
Keep in mind that we do
not track sales below four figures (to be
specific we track .com sales of $2,000 and up
and all other extensions from $1,000 or more). As
a result our median figures are higher than they would
be if we tracked the entire universe of domain sales and
conversely, total dollar volume is considerably less
than it would be if we tracked sales at the lowest end
of the market). However by tracking the same metrics
quarter after quarter, year end and year out, we have a good
snapshot of overall market activity and
trends.
| Another indicator of a
bustling aftermarket was the huge jump in the number
of transactions reported in 3Q-2012 - 4,342 across
all extensions - a 65% rise from the 2,634
reported in 2Q- |
|
Image
from Bigstock |
2011. Of course, while this is good news
for brokers, sales venues and escrow companies, it is
not necessarily good for some sellers who were pressured to put more names on the market to offset
shrinking revenue from domain parking.
Now let's drill down
further and break out results for .com only, for
country
code domains (ccTLDs) and for non .com gTLDs (such
as .net and .org). The .coms alone fared better in the
year over year total $ volume comparisons than the
market as a whole did. While the entire market dipped
17.6% (as noted above), .com sales were down only 10%
in 3Q-2012 vs. 3Q-2011 (sliding from $18 million
to $16.1 million). That $16.1 million in 3Q-2012
also represented a 4.5% increase over the
previous quarter (2Q-2012).
|
The .coms also saw a huge
jump in transactions year of year, soaring 161%
from 1,089 reported in 3Q-2011 to 2,841 in
3Q-2012. On the other hand, the median price paid for .coms
remained virtually unchanged from last year ($3,002
in 3Q-2011 vs. $3,000 in 3Q-2012).
The next biggest category
was ccTLDs with $3 million in total $ sales
volume. That was a surprisingly weak quarter for the
country codes, off 40% from the $5 million
reported in 3Q-2011. However, the lion's share of that fall can be
attributed to a single sale in the 3rd quarter of last
year - Aktien.de at $725,000. Even so, the
ccTLDs were also off 14% from the previous quarter
(2Q-2012 when $3.5 million in sales were reported).
Year over year the country codes also saw their median
price slip 2% (from $1,865 to $1,830)
and the number of transactions fall 29% from 1,156
to 823.
|
The non .com gTLDs
had lower total $ volume and fewer transaction than ccTLDS
but this category enjoyed a higher median price. The total
$ volume figure dropped 25% from 2.54 million
in 3Q-2011 t0 $1.9 million in 3Q-2012 but the
median sales price rose 5% from $1,800 to $1,888
and jumped 11% from the previous quarter (2Q-2012
when it was $1,700).
Since we have three
quarters of 2012 now in the books, one other number we can
look at is total $ volume for the first nine months of
this year vs. the first nine months of 2011. That figure
was off 9% this year from $70.7 million to $64.3
million. Again, that edge for 2011 came from a much
better performance at the high end of the market. There
were three 7-figure sales and nine others of
$500,000 or more in the first nine months of last
year. In the first nine months of this year we saw only one
7-figure sale
|
Image
from Bigstock |
| (PersonalLoans.com at $1 million
in February) and one $500,000 sale - Jackpot.com
at an even $500,000 in April. |
With ICANN planning
to start rolling out hundreds of new gTLDS some
time in 2013, one of the most interesting stories in the
upcoming year will be how that development will (or will
not) impact the sales performance of current TLDs. |
