Answer: rarely.
There’s an old adage in the domain name industry that a .net domain name is worth 10% of the same .com. Some also like to say that other extensions (.biz, .info, etc.) are worth 1% of the .com’s value.
The problem is it’s simply not true. Or rather it’s impossible to determine. The main problem is that the sample size is too small. Believe me, I’ve tried too look through the data and figure out what these ratios are. Here are the problems I’ve run into:
1. Finding .com domain sales that have sold in other extensions and where both sales were made public is extremely challenging.
2. Comparing a .net domain sold to a domainer and .com sold to an end user (and vice-versa) is like comparing apples and oranges.
3. A .net (or .org) domain might be generally more accepted in a certain industry (such as ISPs and .net) than in others.
Having looked at many samples, I’ve found the ration to be all over the place. If one company were to have to data to solve part of this equation, it would be NameMedia. But even that would be limited to a small segment.
About the only thing I can say with certainty is that .com domains sell for more than their peers. But to put a ratio on it just isn’t feasible. You need to look for another way to express value in your non-.com domains.
Alan says
Ah – the question always asked.
Trying to create a formula to use for generalizing domain name values such as this is a fool’s gold errand. It always has been and always will be.
All domain names are unique
All domains have different value to a multitude of different types of buyers.
There is no right or wrong value to any domain – it’s a matter of finding a price where both the buyer and seller are happy. You most always could have got more (or less) from another buyer.
Comparing values to those reported on DN Journal etc is impossible. 95% of all domain sales defeat any kind of logical comparative value.
Real estate can be compared using many variables and appraisers will often find within 15% of one another using common variables.
Domainers only use comparable factors and data to support a value they WANT a domain to be worth.
If you want your domain to have a value of $500,000 you can find data to support it from public sales information. You can not find data to support a $500,000 valuation for a $60,000 house.
Its nice to see a value on your screen how much your domain is worth or read about a $150,000 .com sale and believe your matching .net is certainly worth a defined percentage of that but its not true.
All you can hope for is to find a buyer who will pay your asking price and that is up to you define – not some data that is illogical to begin with.
Shadowbass says
I know one thing is for sure:
Almost NOBODY ever contacts me about a .net for sale.
It’s extremely rare.
Rob Sequin says
From my many years or buying and selling and brokering, here are my thoughts.
I don’t ever remember selling a .net in the ten plus years I’ve been in this business.
I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $xxx for a .net ever. Sure, that could be part of the reason I’ve never sold one but that’s my experience.
I’ve NEVER had anyone ask me to act as buyer broker for a .net. I have had client’s under contract for .us and .tv and .info as a domain buyer broker.
I sold a .tv for high five figures and voip.us for $25k. I sold a .org for five figures. Otherwise, all .com domains.
I’d say that development of .net and interest in .net is maybe 10% of the .com so maybe valuation would follow generally speaking.
I have seen such a flight to quality (pure .com) in the past year and a half, it is amazing.
I know of several deals where clients could have had the .net etc or dashed version for CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP money but had no problem throwing five and six figures at owners.
.com is king… more than ever.
Alan says
Rob,
“I know of several deals where clients could have had the .net etc or dashed version for CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP money but had no problem throwing five and six figures at owners”
AMEN
Tony says
Interesting timing. I just offered $10K for laptops.net and was turned down over the weekend. They wanted “a far higher price” for it.
I think if your intent is to develop, .net is the next best thing outside of .org in limited cases.
BuyBestDomains says
We sold some NETs and we are buying premium NETs.
Of course, COM is King but Net is a king brother, lol!
So can we say: Is a .Net Worth 10% of .Com?
Yes, almost!!!
Brad says
I sell .NET keywords all the time. It is one of my better extensions ROI wise.
There is no set multiple. In general it could be as low as 0-1% for a brandable, or as high as 15-20% for a top tier category defining keyword.
It depends on the buyer, venue, and other factors.
Brad
M. Menius says
There are no constant ratios like 10:1 or 100:1. Particularly in regard to premium quality domain names.
Automated appraisals are the worst, and are completely unable to account for the complex variables that feed into domain name value. I have proven these to be invalid over and over again. It’s very easy to demonstrate.
Johnny says
I think .net of 7-figures .com can have a reasonable expectation of selling for 5-10% of .com. .net of a 6-figures .com is 1-5% of .com. The rest of .net have very little value outside nominal seo value.
Josh says
There is no formula, too may factors, including the word itself.
Gerry says
Dot-com rules.
However, never before has there emerged a class of TLDs that cant be put down and are growing faster than .com. (ccTLDs)
And never before has there been a threat directly to the top/prestige aspect of .com, which holds it together. (new TLDs)
Maybe as things mature we’ll have a better cumulative ‘index’ to use to judge, but folks dont count on the past equaling the future.
Leonard Britt says
I would agree .Net domains have a lower resale value but given .Net seems to get a comparable search rank benefit and that type-in traffic is small relative to search volume for the same phrase, the primary price differential comes down to branding. The .COM brand is well known but a factor of ten times the .Net doesn’t seem logical. Note I have sold several .Net domains in the last few weeks including a tie for my largest sale ever.
Bob says
I remember having a discussion about this topic a couple of years ago at a well known domain conference, with some domainers that I really respect .
The consensus of our little group at the time was that with the usual exceptions, a *good* .net (1/2 word category killer types) – could easily be considered to be worth 2-3% of the comparable .com. Sometimes up to 5%, if there’s a competitive/brand defense issue. 10%?! Not for most of the kids that I know!
Probably like a real skinny Bell Curve? I was real interested in their opinions because I had just bought Condominiums.net. And since then I’ve had only a few inquiries, nothing serious yet……STILL waiting! LOL!
Huw says
Personally, I think .NET domains can be worth in excess of 50% or sometimes more in relation to the .COM equivalent.
If you have a .NET for sale and you have an END USER with the intention of developing – sometimes the sky can be the limit!
In fact, I sold a .NET for more than the .COM went for one month previously reported at Ron’s DNJournal – it didn’t take much pushing either!
jeff says
on that category killer name i would agree .net is in demand
there have been a lot of .net names selling in auctions it seems and fetching for major cash.
mixed views on my part, i dont really like .net ..
my problem is these so called developers who love there .net developed sites but dont get .com. they also dont get lost traffic. i am 0 for 3 in selling my .com names to .net developed owners. all names under 2k, 2 of them were priced at 750. i thank them for the extra traffic to my parked pages and i appreciate the income. one guy replies back who dosent get .com and calls me every name in the book because i have .com.
jeff says
the true person to ask this is from frank.. im wondering what he says on .net and interest.
he owns a lot of generic .net names, long tails and im also wondering if he plans to keep renewing them. he says he will never drop a domain name but if there is no ppc income coming inn, no offers on names on his .net stuff is he going keep renewing? not an asset if its losing money each year.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Jeff – I don’t think Frank has enough data on this, either. He sells relatively few domains, and how often has he sold both a .net and the same .com to different people?
Huw says
.NET is also excellent if the site is community based “network”.
Plus, when Google recognizes that it is a network and it’s promoted that way, that makes a difference. Don’t forget that initially .NET was intended as an extension for hosting/technology networks, it’s perfect these days for community sites or any site involving groups of people – isn’t that what MOST sites are about..
another domainer says
Most domainers value .net at 10% or less of the .com values.
As stated, many times the .com is not available (not for sale or fully developed) so they buy the .net. (.ie, Bob Olea)
There are 2 totally different, distinctive groups that will buy the .net.
Domainers/webdesigners and endusers.
1. Domainers want to buy it for 10% or MUCH less of the .com value (if it can be determined).
2. Enduser has a serious interest and use for the domain and is not as much price sensitive as a domainer. Plus, the enduser might have sticker shock by the cost of the .com So, they settle for the .net,
not realizing the traffic bleed over.
Since, Bob mentioned his domain. I find it interesting that Valuate .com values Bob’s domain as $11K. and the .com as $372K.
(the singular .net $17K and .com $313K).
I’m sure Francois has built in his own bias of non .com domains. Basing it on published sales data which is generally domainer to domainer sales. (snapnames, Namejet, domain meeting auctions)
Most enduser sales are not published.
As a general rule, endusers are reluctant to contact domain owners because they don’t understand the buying process of domains and they don’t know what a domain is worth. They are fearful of making a mistake.
Bottomline, endusers will pay much more than 10% of .com if you can find that buyer.
That is why NameMedia sales team is successful in selling .net. They have buyers coming to them and the NM salesman can shift the buyer over to the .net if price of the .com is too expensive.
Andrew Allemann says
@ another domainer – I don’t think Francois controls anything about Valuate.com’s #s, it’s all from Estibot.
another domainer says
Stand corrected.
Then, we can blame the bias on Estibot.
🙂
Mr. Joe Saladino says
To say a .net is worth 10% of a .com or whatever is LUDICROUS!!! All of us in the domain industry need to STOP THIS NONSENSE of putting SCREWING evaluations on ext. We need to put more interests in emphasizing the quality of the word and not so much the extension. DUHHHHH! This way the people outside looking in to purchase ie;, business.es or .us.com or whatever aren’t thinking they shold get your domain for $90 like a bunch of YOYO’s!! Come on people! We need to stop undercutting each other! ANY BUSINESS EXPERT will tall you if you are in WHATEVER business domain selling, karate schools WHATEVER – DON’T lower the stakes to beat the other but raise the stakes to raise the market value!! All of you people who disagree need to GET YOUR HEADS OUT from where the sun the shine and hoke yourself to death to avoid wrongfully ruining the industry with your cheap crap ways!!! Estibot is nice but USELESS!!! Run some GREAT keywords like sex and business etc. and put an off key extension in it and it comes up as $102 dollars! USELESS and WRONG misleading the domain industry into a CHEAP selling off CRIMINALLY!!!! It reminds me of some great local bands I know. Some YOYO fools like this people selling domains for pennies the Bands under cut each other and are playing for 5++ hours with setting up more like 8 for about $10 bucks an hour or less each! DISGRACE!!!! RAISE the stake DON’T lower them!!!
Mr. Joe Saladino says
also estibot doesn’t have all the sales of domains which occured! i have had recent sales like lawenforcement.com which SLEEPY ron jackson the self claimed domain news man sleeping at the wheel and estibot both do not have listed in their sales findings which is also ILLEGAL and MISLEADING of the industry! Once again little kids RAISE the stakes like Rick Schwartz DON’T lower them like a CHEAP prostitute!
byDomainers says
Is a .Net Worth 10% of .Com? = ERROR!!!WARNING
Simply because the value of domain names depends of the end user use and vision.
Many end users prefer to use a .info domains for an informational website, or .net for network solutions & services than .coms domains.
Later,I have found .coms domains available for reg and the .net was taken and developed into great websites, Take a look at my portfolio and you’ll see my latest registred domains.
another domainer says
Joe,
Congratulations on the sale of LawEnforcement. However, that was 2 to 2.5 yrs ago. It looks like it changed hands around Feb. 08. And, a press release was released by the buyer in 07. I assume it was an instalment sale.
It looks like it was partially/fully developed when you sold it.
You also talked about the vague price approx. 1 yr ago on Elliot’s blog.
It is not my job to defend Jackson.
However, he will not mention a sale unless he has documented facts. He doesn’t often mention a domain sold for a vague number.
Like – “it has been rumored to sold for 6 figures.”
He will not include a domain on the ‘list’ if it is a developed website. However, he will mention a developed domain sale if he has documentation.
I assume the sale included a ND agreement.
Jackson might be sleepy because of all of the effort he puts into the weekly sales report.
I would suggest you stop buying the weekly sales report from DNJ. Sounds like a few sales are omitted.
Robert says
Here’s a related question that I have never seen answered:
What is the value of a parked .com domain Vs. a fully developed and trafficked website using a .net, .biz, .info, etc. extension?
I live near a large US city. The .com domain for this city is currently parked with minimal monetization. The .net, .org, .us and .biz are also parked and none are owned by the same people or companies. However, the .info is listed for sale for under $1,000.
1) If I were to purchase the .info and develop it over time into a “real” website with backlinks, page rank, traffic, etc., could this .info website displace the parked .com domain in value?
2) If after several years of continuous operation of the .info website, the .com was developed, what would the potential impact be on the .info that had been in developed existence for years?
I am very interested in reading responses to my 2 questions.
Huw says
Just noticed this in Sedo’s newsletter today from Tim Schumacher:
PengYou.com sold – $100,000
PengYou.net sold – $100,000
Looks like the .net is worth as much as the .com there..
Alan Dunn says
It’s amazing to see how many people here who are actually trying to define a theory
There is no formula and will never be – every sale is unique
gpmgroup says
@ Robert
The value .com has over other extensions is it is the natural first guess or assumption of many people especially in the US, in other countries like the UK the ccTLD .co.uk is often guessed and appended a similar amount to .com.
While people guessing the generic + .com provides a steady revenue stream for PPC as a proportion of a fully developed website this type in traffic is tiny compared with traffic from bookmarks, links and search engines. And while this loss of traffic isn’t ideal in the overall scheme of things it’s not really a big deal for a fully developed website. Further this loss of traffic can easily be minimized by branding (logo’s etc.) of the website on the cityname.info rather than just cityname.
Whether the value of the .info passes the parked .com will depend on several factors
Once any site is developed its value comes from the revenue it provides rather than the potential value (times the probability of a sale) domainers are looking for/valuing at.
The percentage of traffic coming from direct type ins varies by keyword for example it is more important for keywords offering high value transactions like “loans” and “yachts”. Cities are somewhat different in that people are not looking to transact an actual “city” but rather find out information about something in or from the city – therefore each visitor has a less likely chance of converting a quick sale of tangible goods and the problem shifts more to one of visitor retention and repeat visits hence the need for compelling content and a great brand.
Huw says
Also interesting to see how many of us are rooting for .NET’s and rightly so 🙂
But I wouldn’t give Estibot the time of day, never have, never will. When I get a lead from a user quoting an Estibot figure for one of my .NET’s – I’ll drop the lead there and then – it’s a none starter – they’ve already set the game for lowballers!
Estibot should rethink the method for “their” .NET valuation and it certainly shouldn’t be a mere 10% of a .COM – absurd!..
Bottom line – Estibot is loosing people time and money! Same with Sedo’s valuation system, obviously they want to set figures so they can sell more, and more efficiently..
Emma says
Anyway, with the launch of .CO the time came for .COM to be overtaken, to make it look nothing
End User says
You domain brokers make me sick…. pathetic middle-men who only drive up prices on domains that the rest of us would actually like to USE. You add no value to the product, or the industry, at all! You’re just leeches – no better than ticket scalpers.
Sherpa says
I think the price varies from niche to niche.
I’ve sold .com in six figure and the .net to the same client for high five figures, they wanted to acquire the name for brand security.
From an investment stand point, if the .com is selling for $200k the buyer is likely to acquire the .net for $20k. Most companies look to acquire the .com, .net, .org and cctld for their name and are likely to acquire names in their niche.
Virgin airlines owns virgin.com, virginairlines.com, virginairlines.net and airlines.net amongst some 4200 domains.
Airline.com is being auctioned at namescon 2016 with a reserve price of $200k while I see airline.net is currently in auction on flippa.com and will likely sell $15k-$25k.
All depends on the niche and the name.