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As
the CEO of Saw.com, Domain Brokerage and
Marketplace, I have the opportunity to see trends
from two different angles…That of what our
domain investor customers are buying, selling, and
adding to the marketplace, what buyers are
predominantly inquiring about, and what buyers who
have hired us to purchase domains on their behalf
are wanting. I can say with conviction that one
word .COMs are still the most sought-after. It
is made clear by the consistent offers they receive,
further supported by the size of the sales they
support. There is a dark horse that has been
sneaking in over the past few years, and that is dot
AI. We are finding ourselves in situations where
our clients prefer the .AI over the .COM even when
the price of .AI is MORE than the .COM. Does this
signal a shift? I do not think so, I think it is a trend.
When AI becomes something that all businesses
employ, it will change.
Despite
other industries and businesses slowing, we have
not seen a slowdown in opportunities, sales
volume, or average sale price. Unless there is a
major economic downturn, I do not see it slowing
in 2026. We, as a company, respond to this by
doing what we have always done: education. History
repeats itself. We have seen different extensions of
varying popularity come and go, as well as different
types of domains and spellings. On our seller side,
we provide as much data as possible so they can make
the right choices to maximize their business
returns.
Jeff
Gabriel hosting a popular Guru Table at the 2026
Internet Commerce
Association Annual Member Meeting in Las Vegas
January 16th.
I
think buyers in general are a lot more
sophisticated than they were a number of years ago.
When money could be borrowed very cheaply and was
flowing out of VCs, buyers would reach for the stars
to get the budget to buy that domain name. Now it is
not that way. VCs are now asking about profits
rather than growth and hiring. Buyers seem to be a
lot more concerned about ROI, the board, the
business, and are very quick to make a hard and fast
line in the sand. If that number cannot be made to
work, they will have no trouble walking away, and
either not purchasing anything or immediately
leaving .COM. In general, companies are not
necessarily married to Com or AI either, and feel at
certain points it becomes physically irresponsible
to spend over X amount and they will just decide
to do nothing.
On
the other hand, many sellers have had it good for
many years, and the expectations for the value of
their names seem high; in other cases, the
motivation to sell is not there, or they do not
believe the final offer is the true final offer.
Trying to balance a more frugal group of buyers
with sellers that think their domains are rising
sharply in value is challenging at times, and
difficult to find a meeting of the minds to make
sales work. So far, 2026 has kicked off to be one of
our best years, and hopefully, if you are reading
this, your year has as well. Let’s
make it our best! Giddyup!
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