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At
the 2014 T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
West
conference that closed in Las Vegas
at the end of May I presented a report on how 2013
domain sales compared to the previous year. I
haven't had a chance to get those numbers down in
article form until now, but I think you will find them
worth waiting for. The
numbers are based on sales reported to us by most of the
leading aftermarket platforms as well as many private
sellers. Those numbers are used to compile our popular
weekly domain
sales report that comes out on Wednesday
evenings. Of course, the reported sales represent only a
fraction of the overall market because the majority of
sales are never reported. Even so, the tens of millions
of dollars worth of sales we do record each year give us
some useful insight into market trends. Before
we get to the year over year comparisons let's touch on
the closing quarter of the year because I just
released results for that time frame for the first time
at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. as well. At first glance, 4Q-2013
was a bit of a downer with the |
TLDs
in cart image from Bigstock
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The
IG.com sale also demonstrates how just one or two big
sales can skew that one metric. That's why we also look
at other standards, like median sales prices - metrics
that showed 4Q-2013 improving over the previous
quarter as well year over year in other comparisons. In
fact, even by the total $ volume standard, 4Q-2013 was up
3% over the same quarter a year earlier.
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Percentage
increases image from Bigstock |
4Q
shined even brighter in the median sales price
competition. The median is the point at which half
of all sales reported were higher an half were
lower - a standard that, by eliminating the impact
of an ultra high sale or two at the top, gives a
truer view of the overall market. In 4Q-2013 the
median price of all sales reported to us jumped
9% over the previous quarter to $2,900
and also improved 5.5.% vs. the same
quarter a year ago. (Keep in mind that we do not
track sales below four figures so our medians are
higher than would be the case if we tracked the
lowest end of the market as well).
Now
let's move on the full year comparison
between 2013 and 2012 and also dig
deeper by breaking out comparisons in
sub-categories like .com only, ccTLDs,
and non .com gTLDs. We'll start at the
highest altitude, total $ volume across all
extensions. In 2013 $101.9 million worth of
sales were reported to us - a very healthy 13%
jump from the $90.4 million reported in
2012. When you break out .coms only - they rose
more than the overall market, soaring over 18%
year over year on reported 2013 sales of $79.9
million. |
The
other categories were not as fortunate. The ccTLDs
saw a 9.5% drop in total $ volume in 2013,
sliding form $14.7 million in 2012 to $13.3
million last year. Meanwhile, the non .com gTLDs
(.net. org, .info, .biz and others) treaded water, eking
out a 1% gain with $8.6 million in sales
in 2013 vs. $8.5 million the previous year.
| However,
when you look at median prices all three
categories had something to smile about.
Median numbers tend to move in small increments
because it takes a lot of sales the move the dial
in either direction - again making that number a
better barometer of the market as a whole. Across
all extensions, median prices were up 2.6%
(to $2,750) in 2013. .Coms only again fared
better than the overall market with medians rising
2.6% to $3,180). The ccTLDs, despite
seeing a significant dip in total $ volume, could
celebrate a 1.6% improvement in median
prices (to |
| $1,958).
The biggest surprise had to be the non .com gTLDs 4.9%
rise in median prices (to $1,888), the
best percentage gain of any category for this
metric.
As good as the
2013 year over year numbers were, the opening
quarter of this year was even better - way
better! The numbers make it look like the
market has finally broken free of the recession
with some exceptionally high percentage
gains. I'll be breaking down 1Q-2014 for
you, against both the previous quarter and the
same quarter a year ago, in my next newsletter. |
1st
Quarter image from Bigstock |
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