Domain Registry reveals some premium domain sales data.
More than 100 channel partners have sold over 250,000 premium domains total. For comparison, there were 72,000 premium domains registered across its portfolio as of May 2016.
Its TLD portfolio has expanded substantially since then due to new launches and the acquisition of Rightside. It now has 240 top level domains, so its average premium revenue per TLD is about $220,000.
The company has been testing lower price points for its premium domains and has observed price elasticity of demand. Lower prices have pushed the needle on premium domain purchases by end users, increasing the share of premium purchases by end users to 50%. (The rest are domain investor sales).
Wise men say only fools buy in… 🙂
When you got 1,10,100 fools i understand but when you got 250,000 of them? I wonder.
No need to wonder Rich… Its becoming too much apart of the architecture now to ignore.
Navigation happens now through search. That’s a pretty big shift that we don’t talk about nearly enough. Just look at the top 100 google searches for evidence, or better yet at your own behavior. Direct navigation is almost not happening anymore, which has been argued continually for years as being the lasting value proposition for legacy TLDs.
The most under reported aspect is just how many of them are ranking and performing.
Google stopped display url’s in mobile, they now display as brands. That means people searching are not going to get “bumped” by a “strange” urls, because they don’t even see them. I doubt they really would hesitate to click even if they did display the url, or really care to think about. People feel really safe navigating via google more than ever , and thats because Google has gotten great at forcing down the riff-raff.
Is a ntld keyword domain name a magical SEO hack or silver bullet? nope… But its clearly not a hindrance either. Look at one like http://www.Modern.energy. URL displays great, looks cutting edge, ranks dead 1st, and didn’t require the $250k investment to secure the .com.
Go to Google domains homepage right now, the first thing they are doing is highlighting new domain name endings. “They say alot about you and can help you stand out in the web”. Seems like a pretty clear indicator that Google sees these as a way to create “equity” in search. In a hyper competitive landscape, these bring fresh equality of opportunity. Real access to keywords that simply were not possible. You think Google wants to really make “fools” out their end users?
The domain kings and ntld skeptics out there think the only role of domain names, is to act for THEM as investment vehicles, and judge them accordingly based on that performance metric. They stopped following the advances in search after they stopped getting their “mail box money checks” from parking many moons ago. They are not end users or developers. Most end users do not see their own domain name as an “investment”, they see it as a tool. (thats what they are) and by all accounts, they are pretty good tools.
I know its crazy, but the world at large does not think about domain names. Ntlds rolling out slowly over the course of years isnt enough of a shiny object to keep the attention of even the folks in this industry, let alone garner the awareness of the masses.
Google is clearly creating more in the way of equality of opportunity. Not the same thing as equality of outcome. To get lasting organic placement, you actually have to deliver value in the quality of your content, accessibility, and page load speed. (Hint : light house)
I think it took a longer than expected to get to this point, but its pretty clear that if ntlds are on a equal footing, and if more concise keyword sets can be optimized equally, were in for a quite a ride.
Your starting to see some of the smartest guys in the room, the folks with real technical prowess and a decade of hands on SEO work, be more forward about it now too (most recently guys from online.casino via domain sherpa).
Will it make great .com’s less valuable? Nope. There is no alternative to 1 word .com (look at voice.com)… but if your search target or brand name can span the dot into or more 2 words… well then it gets interesting.
Check out this “fool” Bill Gates using http://www.b-t.energy... what a dummy 😉
Agreed, the main idea is the content it self, thats why im starting invest on new gtld like this one Tekno Today. Cheers Up,
Think you might need to do some “fact checking” on these claims.
Let me know which ones, and I will do my best to dig deeper.
I have read your posts for years now. I respect that at the core, your looking for truth, you want people to make informed decisions. I appreciate what you do, even if I don’t agree all of the time.
I was seriously nervous about posting because I was going to feel the sting of “the snoppy”, so this reply actually comes as a relief. 🙂
It would be nice if we all started to have a more balanced conversation around the intersection of domain names and the change in the systems that have repeatedly and clearly helped define their value.
I hope we begin to see more interest in the application and development of domain names as tools, and not just as vehicles for investment. That said, I think the investors will benefit from watching and looking at the broader trends.