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Canadian
ccTLD Takes Top Spot on New Domain Sales Chart While Investors
Ponder Market Prospects
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The past couple of
weeks have been interesting ones with some competing forces
at play that may affect how well the domain aftermarket
performs for the rest of this year. Today (September 21) the U.S.
Federal Reserve hiked the interest rate by three-quarters
of a point for the third consecutive month (other governments
around the world are taking similar steps in an effort to
fight inflation). These increases have pushed mortgage rates
to levels not seen since 2008 and, as expected, is slowing the
pace of home sales dramatically in most markets.
Many
view domains as "digital real estate" though there
are some major differences between the two (for one, every
domain
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name
is unique). So, the question is, will the rate hikes cool off
what has been a hot domain aftermarket? It's too early to say
but while we saw a lot of solid sales over the past two
weeks, none of those that were publicly reported reached
the $50,000 mark. Of course, the past fortnight included the
Labor Day holiday and the closing days of summer.
That brings us to
the other competing force I mentioned - the calendar.
The summer of 2022 (which officially ends today,
September 21) was a strong one overall, but slow stretches do
occur with so many people away for vacation, moving, getting
ready for a new school year, etc. The fourth quarter
is usually the one that everyone looks forward to for a pop in
domain sales. As we get ready to begin the 4Q run down the
stretch, will the historic high demand in that time frame offset
considerably higher costs to borrow (and to buy almost anything
given current inflation rates)? It remains to be seen, but we
will almost surely have some clear answers by the time we
reach the Christmas holidays this year.
My view is that it
is still far easier and more cost efficient to do business
online than anywhere else. No need to for customers to buy
gas to go shopping there either. Even if domains are
negatively affected (and they certainly could be if money gets
too tight) I would expect our sector to continue to be one of
the best performers relative to most others in the overall
economy.
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Now - let's get to
the latest sales! Ilze
Kaulins-Plaskacz at ExcellentDomains.ca
gave Canada's .ca ccTLD a nice turn in the spotlight by
disclosing the C$62,475 (US$46,856) price she received
for MA.ca, the domain that sits at #1 on our
latest bi-weekly all-extension Top 20 Sales Chart. The
next two spots went to Sedo
where GroupSocial.com sold for $33,000 and, in
the top non .com gTLD sale, QR.org went for $24,999.
Two more ccTLD sales followed with IT.com expanding
their collection of "IT" country code domains with a
$20,000 acquisition of IT.com.br and DaaZ.com
selling Indian ccTLD Rise.in for the same price. DaaZ
also sold #18 (tie) OpenLearning.in for AscendDomains
at $15,000 to help the ccTLDs pile up six chart entries
in one of their best outings of the year to date. Another
notable one from that group hit the top ten - Andy.co.uk's
£16,632 ($18,960) sale of #7 ET.uk through Dan.com.
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By Ron Jackson
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Speaking of ccTLDs, we don't hear
a lot about sales being made in the important Australian
aftermarket, so it was interesting to see a post on George
Kiriko's FreeSpeech.com
blog Monday about Banxa selling a package of
three crypto-related domains and sites in a deal valued at
AUD $3 million (nearly $2 million USD). Check out
George's article for the details on that transaction. At
the same time the ccTLDs were enjoying their time in the
sun, the .coms went about their usual business of
locking up the majority of chart entries, claiming 14 of
the 22 openings overall (the extra spots resulted from a
five-way tie for the final position). Sedo posted nine of the
.com sales and swept 11 places overall. SnapNames
added three more with sister site NameJet
bagging two.
Here is how all
of the sales leaders stacked up for the two weeks
ending Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022:
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The DN Journal Top 20
Highest
Reported Domain Sales - Mon. Sept. 5- Sun. Sept. 18, 2022
(Foreign
currency to U.S. Dollar Conversions Based on Rates in
Effect Sept. 21, 2022) |
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Domain
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Sold For
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Where
Sold
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1. |
MA.ca |
C$62,475
= $46,856 |
ExcellentDomains.ca |
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2. |
GroupSocial.com |
$33,000 |
Sedo |
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3. |
QR.org |
$24,999 |
Sedo |
4.
tie |
IT.com.br |
$20,000 |
Pvt
Sale |
4.
tie |
Rise.in |
$20,000 |
DaaZ |
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