Marchex thinks “Local is the New Black”. Is it right?
2008 has been a hot year for geo domain names as internet advertising experts push local advertising as the next wave of internet advertising. Call it a coming out party: people have been successful with geo domains for over a decade but are finally getting recognition.
Perhaps it’s fitting that local-centric domain name and advertising company Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) filed a trademark for the term “Local is the New Black” earlier this year.
Is local really the new black? This year was the year geo domains finally received wide scale recognition. A geo-specific blog network launched. Attendance at the GeoDomain Expo surpassed that of some of the mainstream domain conferences. There’s even a geo-domain specific domain sales list.
And geo domains have been selling well, too. Here are some examples of both geo location and long- tail geo domain sales in 2007:
SanJuan.com $150,000
Bellevue.com $150,000
MyrtleBeachCondos.com $120,107
EdistoBeach.com $115,000
Sevilla.com $102,000
Yemen.com $100,000
FollyBeach.com $98,000
(Sources: RickLatona.com and DNJournal)
I’ve bought in, too. I’m working on launching a geo domain, Lakeway.com, to cater to the affluent city outside of Austin. eDirectory is currently working on customizations. Although it’s taking longer than I’d hoped to launch, it should be done by year end.
What do you think? Is local really “the new black”? How will it fair in 2009 compared to this year?
Sammy Ashouri says
Geos, IMO, are an absolutely safe investment. I’m always on the lookout for great deals on worthwhile geos ;).
Patrick McDermott says
Andrew,
Would you write more about eDirectory.com sometime as it pertains to domainers?
Frankie says
Call me naive but what does the statement “Local is the New Black ” mean?
Andrew says
@ Patrick,
Yes, I plan to write about it as soon as Lakeway.com is up so I can give a concrete example.
Andrew says
@Frankie –
Sorry, here’s a definition from Wikipedia.
It basically means something that is suddenly very popular
RegFeeNames.com says
Geo domains are an excellent and 100% safe investment
If anyone on here is looking to spend some serious cash own some excellent geo domains please contact me.
I am brokering five country.com domains
See my site for email details.
Geo domains are going to be very strong next year and the comming years also!
Regards,
Robbie
Guy says
Geo is where its at. Developed correctly you effectively own the keys to the city or country.
Steve Morales says
Andrew,
I predicted 2008 would be a hot year for geo domains in December 2007. I also said that prices were going to skyrocket for these undervalued assets in 2008. All of this has happened and will continue into the unforseen future. (No I am no visionary, just saw the writing on the wall early on)
It is all about local with future innovation on the internet. Even while offline businesses are feeling the pain with the current economy crisis, geodomains are seeing increased demand and traffic/revenue growth from consumers looking for services from businesses that take advantage of the internet. This trend will continue to grow as geodomains gain consumer trust and provide effective content and resources.
2009 will be an interesting year, and it “may” take many companies in the local industry additional time to launch local platforms and services due to the current state of the economy. If the economy rebounds, local is going to skyrocket, if not, then it may stay idle. According to our contacts, Many Local tradeshows saw a 25% decline in attendance in 2008. We can estimate that sales of local platforms and services additionally dropped in 2008. This is apparent looking at financial reports from those in the local industry.
People/companies are not willing to travel to shows and spend large sums of money on local platforms as in the past due to the current state of the economy.
Local is the new black, but it takes a good economy for it gain momentum on exponential levels IMO.
Perhaps growth in the local industry will skyrocket as the economy gets worse? As I said, 2009 is going to be an interesting year.
However, geo domains will continue to grow in value/traffic and demand, and become much needed assets for traditional media and businesses who want to corner their market.
The sale of Richmond.com (Rumored to be a 8 figure deal) is only the beginning to an emerging industry, the Geo Domain industry.
Great to be in the business where the whole world is headed online.
Have a great day!
David J Castello says
I can’t say enough good things about eDirectory and their staff. We just started using their system for our local directory on Nashville.com and are quite pleased.
DR. DOMAIN says
I have a big chunk of geo-domains in .com
Hope ’09 is the year they blow up.
Johnny D says
Local is in. If you have a domain name such as californialocal.com or newyorklocal.com etc, your going to be in the black. These type of names will give city names run for their money. Visitors or out of towners look up city and state names, local people look up local sites.
Mick McGee says
Im still waiting to see comparative values for geo-domains in Australia. It hard to value my portfolio of geos since there are very few geos sold here to my knowledge and tracking down the sale prices of the ones that sell is almost impossible.
On the other hand I see geos turning over in the states but still the fluctuations in values has me more confused.
Can someone give me a formula that approximates the value of a geo domain that has never been sold before and whether cityofcity.com domain names have credible value.
Develop Domains says
This is pretty ironic, as I have been looking to purchase some Geos for my portfolio. Anyone have some Florida Geos for sale?
Rob Sequin says
My definition of a pure geo domain is a village/region, city, state, county, province or country .com domain.
A secondary geo domain to me is a destination or city/state/country + industry keyword .com
A brandable geo domain is something like icity/state/country .com or visit city/state/country .com AND ALL OTHER EXTENSIONS. Brandable meaning the value is in the branding not in the generic nature of the domain.
I put the “all other extensions in there because one will have to brand that domain to get people to go to the non .com extension.
I’m sure people will argue with me on this but this is how I define geodomains.
Maybe we can agree on some terminology and definition of the different kinds of geodomains and get it posted somewhere so we can all refer to it and direct people to it.
Lastly, ispringfieldplumbers.net is should not even be considered to be a geo domain but some people might call it a geo domain and that is bad for anybody who own a pure or secondary geodomain.
Perchboy says
Anyone care to weigh in on how they’d define names like
SeattleWashington.com
or
AnaheimCalifornia.com
or
EugeneOregon.com
?
They seem like a reasonable ‘pure’ geo, particularly when there are multiple cities like Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine.
Rob Sequin says
Very good question. I don’t think I would have a problem defining those as pure geo domains but they might be defined as secondary geo domains by some.
I’m interested to read other people’s comments.
I will say that something like SeattleWA.com or SeattleWash.com is not secondary but brandable.
Even Seattle-Washington.com would be “brandable” to me.
What do people think about new-york.com, pure, secondary or brandable?
Johnny D says
Nay, if it has local combined with a state name it is gold. It is the future, people are buying local, its all coming back.
Mick McGee says
New-york.com, brandable. Hyphenations are ‘2nd best’ but as with New-York.com still a valuable domain name. Im still trying to work out what to do with West-Germany.com. Any ideas?
Mick McGee says
Just looking a little harder, FollyBeach.com sold for $98,000.00. When i wiki’d that town the result was ‘As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 2,116 people, 1,060 households, and 489 families residing in the city.’
That’s an awful lot of money for such a small population.
Now consider EdistoBeach.com it has an even lower population and sold for $115,000.00.
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 641 people, 329 households, and 221 families residing in Edisto Beach.
Unless the name was purchased by Wyndham Resorts, which i don’t believe it has, I cant understand the sale price. In saying that, Im happy to see those high prices being paid for these geos, I would hope the prices are maintained. Considering this it looks like I’m a millionaire again today. 🙂
Perchboy says
For West-Germany, perhaps could be sold to a history buff or a German national, or someone who’s written a book about West Germany.
As for small town geos selling for high prices, my guess is that there could be very high incomes and/or property values there. A domain savvy, local high-end retailer of certain kinds might be interested.