Looks like July, 2 months ago, was just a dress rehearsal for September at NameJet. During July, the auction platform set its all-time record by selling an LL.com for $555k. As for September? $694k. Also, back in July, NameJet set a record total for individual sales at or above $2k: $1.05 million. And September? $1.32 million. Both months are less impressive once that outlier LL.com result is removed. (Last month’s 102 sales don’t begin to approach the 148 we saw in January.) Yet even subtracting its top sale, September amassed $628k. Only 13 out of 52 months (25%) have done better.
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| GJ.com | 694,095 |
This LL.com domain isn’t much of a story, really. These days, 2-letter .COMs predictably sell very high; and that’s news to nobody. Often they retail in the 7 figures. No, here’s your real story, folks: As many as 52 out of 102 sales (51%), totaling $1.088 million out of $1.323 million (82.3%) can be credited to the Chinese domain market.
That includes LLL.com’s:
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| RXR.com | 37,400 | SBX.com | 32,599 |
| SNX.com | 31,250 | UWY.com | 17,410 |
| QVA.com | 15,200 |
And LLLL.com’s … Yes, even GUTE.com, which is a good German word and a brand name in Canada, has gone to China, as I predicted it might. Yoink!
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| GUTE.com | 11,110 | WWDC.com | 8888 |
| HTEC.com | 6732 | LZLZ.com | 6600 |
| PMSC.com | 6000 | PALU.com | 4400 |
| APER.com | 3750 | ALLC.com | 3677 |
| CDGS.com | 3611 | AGER.com | 3550 |
| MPAS.com | 3433 | NDCC.com | 3200 |
| OLOG.com | 3100 | CDYS.com | 2500 |
| NBNN.com | 2500 | UFFA.com | 2500 |
| HFCU.com | 2306 | HEXX.com | 2100 |
| MSBA.com | 2012 | KRAV.com | 2000 |
China buys Pinyin too. I’ve already discussed HaoZhan.com and CaiQi.com, which may or may not be related to a watch brand. The only Ying Huang I know of sings at the Met:
Chinese speakers are welcome to chime in with meanings or possible end users for the rest of these – or to point out something that isn’t actually Chinese:
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| HaoZhan.com | 27,288 | YingHuang.com | 26,800 |
| CaiQi.com | 13,020 | ZhanChang.com | 10,019 |
| DuoLaiMi.com | 5750 | RuiZhan.com | 3400 |
When I say that 82.3% of spending on auctions ending over $2k is directed at China, I am naturally including 5-digit numerical domains:
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 59977.com | 15,525 | 84678.com | 6000 |
| 69689.com | 4000 | 54599.com | 3320 |
| 28099.com | 3311 | 63318.com | 3100 |
| 89300.com | 2720 | 77121.com | 2708 |
| 58807.com | 2700 | 87559.com | 2210 |
| 27126.com | 2110 |
And 6-digit numerics … During 1 week, the top pair eclipsed all other expired domain auctions at NameJet:
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 597888.com | 7500 | 576888.com | 7300 |
| 877787.com | 2507 |
These mixed alphanumerics also seem to be a Chinese delicacy:
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1AA.com | 5020 | 2222BE.com | 3100 |
| JS188.com | 2601 |
As it happens, the only short non-.COM domains to make this September chart were .ORGs. Further inspection may reveal that these are not aimed at China. Often, .ORG isn’t.
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| RW.org | 10,099 | RNT.org | 2200 |
| CCHit.org | 2100 |
That concludes the list of domains I marked as being of possible Chinese interest. Before returning to .COM, here is everything else NameJet sold above $2k in other suffixes. .XYZ has been heavily marketed at NameJet ever since it was released, and “cloud” is a keyword much collected by domainers. So if any .XYZ domain could be relied on to sell to this audience, Cloud.xyz was it.
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud.xyz | 6600 | TransgenderLaw.org | 4000 |
| HACK.co | 3500 | Helix.net | 2505 |
It’s striking that half the dictionary-word .COM domains that sold last month aren’t English: Allegria.com (Italian), Strategia.com (Italian), and Grattage.com (French) have all been discussed in my weekly articles on the expired domain market. So has Maltose.com, which is an English word you can be forgiven for not knowing.
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Institutes.com | 10,500 | Allegria.com | 3600 |
| Strategia.com | 3610 | Maltose.com | 2519 |
| Ascendance.com | 2475 | Grattage.com | 2150 |
After that list of real words, here’s a list of single-word brandables. Or is it? Lavanta.com might be Turkish.
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lavanta.com | 2409 | Tinda.com | 2320 |
| Flightz.com | 2000 |
Next is a much longer list of 2-word brandables. Some of these probably correspond to established brands, in which case the price would be based on a company’s motivation to upgrade its domain rather than on the name’s intrinsic value to a startup.
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| EarthTech.com | 15,300 | BioScan.com | 12,999 |
| WorldPages.com | 6201 | ProTime.com | 4200 |
| DailyDollar.com | 3433 | WorldX.com | 3100 |
| SuperJet.COM | 3010 | FireLily.com | 3000 |
| FraudCheck.com | 3000 | AppTec.com | 2766 |
| StreetPhotography.com | 2601 | MyConnections.com | 2410 |
| WebBiz.com | 2055 |
NameJet also sold a trio of real-world phrases:
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| LimeGreen.com | 6100 | NetEffect.com | 4109 |
| OldHouse.com | 2601 |
I’ve bundled the next group together as proper nouns. That’s a bit arbitrary, I admit; but I found they matched preexisting identities. Those include people (Neutra.com, a modernist architect), cities (Westland.com in Michigan or Baglan.com in Wales), websites (KenWen.com), or offline brands (Google thinks Addas.com is a typo for Adidas).
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westland.com | 16,200 | Britton.com | 8237 |
| KenWen.com | 3805 | Souru.com | 3110 |
| Neutra.com | 2601 | BKBank.com | 2600 |
| Baglan.com | 2402 | Addas.com | 2356 |
Finally, I’ll leave you with a group of what I’ve called “veristic” domains – self-explanatory, real-world stuff. Both during September and August, long 3-word domains have sold at NameJet for mid $x,xxx.
| NameJet | End $ | NameJet | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| LandSurvey.com | 26,471 | GolfSchool.com | 8000 |
| ToyReviews.com | 4725 | MobileHome
Insurance.com |
4300 |
| BuildingInspectors.com | 3755 | ChinaGoods.com | 3519 |
| SilverPlate.com | 3500 | PrivateNurse.com | 2411 |
| CarPainting.com | 2398 | MechanicalSeals.com | 2350 |
| StreamingVideo.com | 2220 | MakeupGuide.com | 2166 |
| ReserveBank.com | 2033 |
So, domain investors, out of these 102 purchases, which domain do you think was the best bargain?
Thank you—interesting data. Allegria.com and Strategia.com are a sleek couple of ponies. What good deals. The “non-English” dot-com is, amazingly, still an undervalued pocket. Autodidacts chirping back and forth about who already knew what the word meant…mnemonics on the cheap…Esperanto value…generic assets back home in Italy, France, etc….strong trademark in counterintuitive fields of trade… possible free traffic… So much to love! (Except not ‘avvin em…)
I agree about non-English domains being undervalued. That’s an area I’ve paid attention to ever since I began domaining. My first domain sale (and more than a few since) have been in other languages. And I’m not referring to Chinese Pinyin.
Allegria and Strategia both function well in English too … as “brandables”.