GoDaddy Releases Top 20 Sales From February - Seven Reach 6 Figures Including a $792,000 List Topper

GoDaddy has released a list of their top 20 domain sales for the month of February 2021. The industry giant reports their top sales a few months in arrears which helps assure they are meeting their obligation as a public company to fully vet any financial information they release. As a company that handles a major slice of high end domains sales, their lists provide valuable insight into aftermarket sales results and trends. 

That was shown once again in the February list that is led by seven 6-figure sales, including a $792,000 sale of AVA.com at the top. The domain currently resolves to a teaser page promising a January 2022 launch of new unspecified product. LiveWire.com was next at $623,500, followed by Monero.com at $316,250. Also ringing the six-figure bell were Unchained.com ($174,999), Verano.com ($115,000), Terry.com ($114,000) and Aquilius.com ($102,000). The complete list is comprised of 16 .com domains, 2 .nets and 2 ccTLDs. The complete list is below.

Image from Bigstock

We will be adding all of these sales to our charts when our next bi-weekly domain sales report comes out Wednesday evening, August 4. As of this writing, AVA.com would be ranked at #11 on our Year to Date Top 100 Sales Chart.

Here is the full list of GoDaddy's top 20 public reported sales for February 2021:

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ICA Public Webinar August 4 to Address Plans for a Second Round of New gTLDs 

While an exact timeline has not yet been set, ICANN is continuing to formulate plans for a second round of new gTLDs. Hard to believe nine years have passed since the first round opened the door to hundreds of new domain extensions in 2012, with the initial wave of those added to the root the following year. Anyone interested in learning more about how the process is expected to work this time around, especially those with an interest in applying for a new gTLD, will be happy to hear that the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) has scheduled a free public webinar on the topic for August 4, 2021.

The event, that will begin at 1pm U.S. Eastern time, will feature a panel of seasoned industry experts and new gTLDs veterans who will provide actionable intelligence and guidance on the next application round. The panelists - left to right in the photo below - will be attorney Jeff Neuman (a co-chair of ICANN committees on new gTLDs who assisted multiple applications in round one), Jothan Frakes (CEO of ICANN Accredited Registrar PLISK.COM, Co-Founder of NamesCon and consultant for registry/registrar strategic and operational projects) and Phil Buckingham (CEO of Dot Advice Ltd, a UK-based consulting firm, which provides advisory services to gTLD applicants), with Christa Taylor hosting the session (Christa, the Fpunder at dotTBA, has been launching and driving TLD registry businesses since 2014 and supported over 50 new gTLD applicants in the 2012 round).  

They will address material changes from the first round, as well as expected timing and operations that anyone thinking about pursuing a new gTLD for their new entrepreneurial venture, global brand or growing business will want to know about.

You can register now to reserve your spot and receive a Zoom webinar link for this free, open to the public event. For newcomers to the industry, the ICA is a non-profit trade association that advocates on behalf of domain name registrants and domain related companies. You can learn more about the ICA here.  

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Andrew Rosener Confirms MediaOptions Sold Wise.com for $2 Million Last Year Giving Our 2020 Top 100 Chart a New Leader

In our latest bi-weekly Domain Sales Report that came out Wednesday evening (July 22, 2021), we shared some major domain sales information that George Kirikos had discovered while looking through a prospectus released by a money transfer service, previously known as TransferWise, that had rebranded as Wise and gone public. The prospectus pointed to the acquisition of Wise.com at $2 million in 2020 but the disclosure referred to "domain purchases" in the plural. Given that Wise.com is a domain worth $2 million alone, we speculated that perhaps some low value domains registered for defensive purchased were also part of the deal. With that question still up in the air we couldn't add Wise.com to our sales charts.

Today, MediaOptions.com CEO Andrew Rosener was able to give us the definitive answer. Andrew confirmed that MediaOptions had brokered the Wise.com sale, the price was $2 million and no other domains or assets were involved. Rosener has completed many deals at this level but his brokerage normally will not comment on prices paid unless the information has become public through other sources. The information Kirikos turned up made it possible for him to do that with Wise.com and that, in turn, clears the way for us to add Wise.com to the 2020 Top 100 Domain Sales Chart in our Archive. We will be doing that when it is next updated August 4 (the release date for our next bi-weekly report).

Andrew Rosener
CEO, MediaOptions

Wise.com will not only be added to the chart, it will move into the #1 position on the 2020 leader board at double the price paid for the previous chart topper, Bullish. com, a domain that sold for $1,080,000 in November 2020. Prior to confirmation of the Wise.com sale, Bullish.com was the only publicly reported 7-figure sale in 2020 (although there were undoubtedly many in that range that were never reported due to non-disclosure agreements). While Wise.com gives 2020 two publicly reported 7-figure sales, 2021 is blowing the old year out of the water on that count. We are just over half way through the new year and have already had a half-dozen sales in the 7-figure range reported. The latest was the headliner in our latest report, EE.com at $1.35 million (placing it at #4 on the 2021 YTD Top 100). 

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There is a New Dan in Town! Dan.com 2.0 Arrives With Stylish New Interface and Enhanced Feature Set

The first iteration of the innovative domain sales and escrow platform Dan.com was a hit right out of the gate when it appeared in June 2019. By the end of 2020 over 9 millions domains were listed on the blockchain-powered platform. Domain sellers were attracted by Dan's low fees, ease of use and lightning speed in getting transactions done. 

Over the past few months Dan CEO Reza Sardeha has been teasing the impending arrival of Dan 2.0 and he was clearly excited about how it was shaping up. The new Dan finally arrived Thursday (July 15, 2021) and a quick spin around the revamped site reveled it was clearly worth the wait. The look is all new - more modern, stylish and easier than ever to navigate. Features are better organized and there are many more options to  customize the look of both your account and your individual landing pages. 

There has even been a subtle change in the company's name itself,  from DAN (all in caps that stood for Domain Automation

Network) to the more personal Dan. On the surface, that looks like a minor change but their was a big reason behind it. As the company has grown it has focused more on becoming the partner of entrepreneurs, stakeholders, and the rest of the industry and now stands for more than just the automation that was its original calling card.

Dan released a very detailed letter that will show you all of the improvements they made (as well as what remains the same) and tell you why each change was made - from the choice of fonts and color options to more impact landing pages and everything in between. As a company that is always looking to innovate there is also a section on additional features they have in the works.  It is great insight and well were the read.

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VIP Brokerage & DomainAssets.com Close 7-Figure Sale of EE.com in One of Year's Biggest Sales to Date

Due to their rarity, we don't see many 2-letter .com sales, especially ones with repeating letters and ones that can be publicly reported - but today we have one for you! We have learned that Mark Thomas at VIP Brokerage and John Mauriello at DomainAssets.com worked together to close a $1.35 million sale of EE.com. Mark told me that he and John have actually been going back and forth with the parties to sale for several years before an agreement was finally reached. As has been the case with so many two and three letter .coms in recent years, this one also went to a buyer in China.

When we chart this sale in our next bi-weekly domain sales report July 21, it will rank as the fourth highest sale reported year to date (assuming nothing higher comes in before then. It will be another coup for Thomas, who already has the biggest publicly reported sale of 2021 in Christmas.com at $3.15 million. VIP Brokerage and has yet another in the YTD Top 20 in #19 (tie) Arizona.com at $350,000.

Mauriello, who has been closing big deals since 2002, opened his own shop in 2015. DomainAssets works with large Enterprise level accounts, small and medium size corporations, start-ups, entrepreneurs, technologists, and investors from Silicon Valley and around the world.

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New Quarterly Reports From Guta.com and GGRG.com Reveal Domain Sales Gains in  2Q-2021

With the 2nd quarter of the 2021 domain sales season now in the books, we have just gotten new quarterly reports from two of the industry's leading international domain brokerages, Guta.com and GGRG.com. 

Guta's latest Premium Domain Sales Observation Report (.pdf file) reported the strengthening of a trend we've been watching develop all year - a rush by end users to acquire one-word .com dictionary domains for their online businesses. Guta reported 112 one-word .com dictionary domain sales in 2Q-2021 with 68 of those - 60.7% - going to end users. That is both the largest number of one-word sales and the highest percentage of end user sales they have seen since 2018. 47 of those 68 end user buyers were based in the United States. 

In contrast, most 3-letter .com sales continue to go investors, rather than end users, and to buyers in China rather than the U.S.  Of the 17 three-letter .com sales Guta saw in 2Q-2021, only four went to end users. Seven of the 17 went to buyers in China, with only four going to American buyers.

There is much more data on all of the premium domain sales categories in Guta's free report that you can get here.

Thanks to Guta.com Founder George Hong and GGRG.com Founder Giuseppe Graziano for their ongoing research into the latest market trends and making their findings available for all of us to benefit from.

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Born on the 4th of July! .US Gets Its Own News & Information Website - American Domain Names at ADN.US

I've been in the domain business for almost 20 years now but I never would have discovered it if it weren't for a single magazine ad I saw back in the spring of 2002. The Internet and CD burning had killed my previous business - a string of record and CD stores in Florida - so I was trying to figure out what to do next when the latest copy of PC World magazine arrived in my mailbox (computers had dramatically improved every part of my personal and business life by then and I had started building my own PCs). 

I opened the front cover and saw a full page ad placed by the  .US domain registry (operated by Neustar at that time) announcing that, for the first time since .US was created in 1985 it was being opened up to all U.S. citizens and others who do business in the U.S. Prior to April 24, 2002, the TLD was reserved for use by government agencies, schools and a few other special uses.

I had only one domain  at the time, the one I had built a website for music business on at MusicParadise.com in 1997. MY stores were actually named Rock Island but RockIsland.com was already taken, even back then. So when I saw the .US ad, even though

 May 2002 edition of PC World magazine

I didn't know what I would do next, I decided I should register a few in areas I had the most experience in, media and music. 

In the course of researching business ideas and relevant domains I stumbled upon a link to DNForum.com where most of the domain investors of that era hung out. I was astonished to learn people were buying and selling domain names alone. I thought domains only had value if something was built on them! It was a revelation that set off a chain of events that continues to this day. I started buying names in .com. .org and .us, with far more purchased for investment rather than development. That led to founding DNJournal on New Year's Day 2003 because I couldn't find a trade magazine about an industry I was rapidly falling in love with. That led to what has been an amazing two-decade run that has taken me all over the world and given me the opportunity to meet hundreds of remarkable people that I never would have met otherwise.

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Daina Burnes & Morgan Linton's Bold Metrics Scores Massive Win With Men's Wearhouse

For the past 7 years, veteran domain investor Morgan Linton has been splitting his time between the domain world and the start up world. In the latter, Morgan, as CRO, has been working side by side with Daina Burnes on an innovative new fashion based company called Bold Metrics that CEO Daina dreamed up back in 2014 (one we wrote about in 2016). The idea was so good the dynamic duo quickly  accumulated more than $1 million in capital investment, with billionaire Mark Cuban among the first to get on board.

By using a comprehensive set of machine learning and A.I technologies to accurately predict customer body measurements, Bold Metrics promised to help apparel brands unlock the power of body data to reduce their ecommerce returns, improve sustainability, and optimize operations. They have been tirelessly improving their processes (their technology can above 92% accuracy in garment fit) and adding customers ever since with the grand slam home run finally coming this week.

As Esquire Magazine's Singapore edition just reported, Tailored Brands Inc., who operates more than 650 Men's Wearhouse and Jos A Bank men's clothing stores, has adopted Contactless Fit tech developed by Bold Metrics. During the global pandemic more people than ever were ordering clothes online. That made Bold Metrics's already attractive solution a true no-brainer. 

The technology works for both men and women so this is likely just the first of many big wins to come for Daina and Morgan, and all who know them well tell you it could not happen to two nicer and more deserving people!

Morgan Linton
CRO, Bold Metrics

Below: This screen shot of the Men's Wearhouse/Bold Metrics experience on an Ipad shows how easy it is for a customer to enter a few data points that will assure a near perfect fit.

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Another Blockbuster for Kate Buckley! Buckley Media Group Closes 7-Figure Sale of eBike.com 

Buckley Media Group, one of the world’s top boutique premium domain name brokerages, has just closed another blockbuster sale. The firm, founded by CEO Kate Buckley, brokered a $1,008,900 sale of the domain name eBike.com to Robert Bosch GmbH. Bosch operates Bosch eBike Systems as well as COBI.Bike. 

Kate has closed so many marquee sales over the years she is practically a permanent resident in the upper reaches of our domain charts. With eBike.com, Buckley Media now has one of five biggest domain sales reported so far this year (we will be adding it to our YTD Top 100 Chart when do our next bi-weekly domain sales report July 7).

Ms. Buckley said, “eBike.com was created in 1998 and purchased by my client, Legendary Names, Inc., at auction in 2018. They approached Buckley Media after receiving several unsolicited offers to acquire the domain name. Legendary Names researched brokerages who were known for achieving legendary results with domain names and ultimately signed with Buckley Media."

A statement from Legendary Names said, "When our partner Reza Sardeha from DAN pointed us 

Kate Buckley
Founder & CEO, Buckley Media Group

to the opportunity of acquiring ebike.com in an expired domains auction, he stated: ‘that's a domain worth $400K sitting right there.’ And it would've indeed been a $400K sale if it wasn't for Kate's persistence and vision, chasing high-quality buyers and not letting the domain go for less than what it's truly worth: one million dollars. Well done, Kate!” The ROI Kate achieved on this sale is especially remarkable as Legendary paid just $71,938 to win the expired name auction for eBike.com at DropCatch in February 2018!

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Entrepreneur With the Best Startup Idea Will Win Big in Pitch.Tech Competition Backed By Radix and Startup Grind

With well over 1,000 new gTLDs now available it is very hard to stand out in the crowd. It takes a lot of marketing money, persistence and fresh ideas to break through the clutter. Radix has been one of the most consistently successful registry operators on that front and the Pitch.tech competition that is currently underway, is a great example of how they keep beating the odds. 

To help promote their .Tech TLD (one of nine Radix operates), they teamed up with the world's biggest startup community, Startup Grind, to create a "pitch competition" for idea-stage entrepreneurs that will give the winner $10,000 in equity-free funding and over $100,000 in startup benefits through Startup Grind. 

Every competitor submitted their pitch on a video, with each video then hosted on a pitch.tech subdomain - for example, the link to Arbol's 3-minute pitch for their idea (a platform that enables low income students to get financial support from online sponsors) 

is www.arbol.pitch.tech. Startup Grind members in over 600 local chapters in more than 125 countries around the globe view the pitches and vote for their favorites. Chapter level voting ends today (June 18, 2021) with the top vote getters moving on to the Chapter Finals next week. The winners from the Chapter Finals (to be announced June 28) then advance to Grand Finals voting June 29 - July 5 that will determine which entrepreneur has the best start up idea.

This is the kind of win-win initiative that helps everyone grow. .Tech gets more attention for their industry defining TLD, Startup Grind adds more members who can benefit from the boundless resources they offer startup entrepreneurs, and the competition's winners take home cash and valuable resources that will help turn their great idea into a reality. Everyone that entered also wins, gaining pitch experience and seeing techniques others used to move their ideas forward. 

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Veteran Domain Industry Exec Jebidiah Burnett Joins Above.com's New Managed Domain Portfolio Service

There is news on two fronts from Above.com today. On one hand, the company is announcing a new Above.com Managed Domain Portfolio Service that is designed to make it easier than ever for domain investors to maximize their domain traffic revenues. On the other, in a sign of the importance Above is placing on the new offering, they have brought veteran domain executive Jebidiah Burnett on board as the newest member of the company's management team. 

Many of our readers already know Jebidiah well. Over the past decade he has been a key player in domain brokerage and account management with several top registries and registrars including Enom, Donuts Inc. and GoDaddy. With the Above Managed Domain Portfolio Service  Burnett will use his expertise to connect top domain investors with increased revenue opportunities aimed at boosting their payouts. He will also help identify new growth opportunities for Above.com’s registrar and brokerage service.  

Jebidiah Burnett
Above.com
Managed Domain Portfolio Service

Warmuz added, “Since the soft launch of Above’s Managed Domain Portfolio Service, Above.com clients using this option have experienced initial revenue increases as high as 40% on top of continued month-over-month growth.”  Much of this revenue growth is attributed to traffic sold on Above.com’s Maximizer, which provides domain investors with an exclusive source of premium advertisers, performance marketers and established brands to bid on their domain traffic. These pre-screened advertisers come from Trellian Direct Search Network, which is Above.com’s own exclusive, premium ad network.

“So far, we are seeing high levels of interest for this service for a variety of reasons. Some clients would prefer to focus on selling domains, yet own traffic domains that could at least pay for themselves and then some if managed properly. Another example would be those who are running other businesses and just do not have the time to consistently make sure their domains are going to the highest paying monetization channels.”

For more information on the Above Managed Portfolio Service, David passed the baton back to Jebidiah who will be the point man in providing a full overview of the service and a review of your portfolio. You can email him Jebidiah@above.com.  

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Brannans.com Books $1.25 Million Sale of Meme.com in One of Year's Biggest Sales to Date

The Meme.com domain name has  been sold in a private, confidential transaction for $1,250,000. Brannans.com represented the seller under an exclusive agreement and partnered with buyer representative Dotkeeper and Escrow.com to facilitate the transaction that closed in May.

Brannans CEO David Clements said, "I congratulate both the buyer and seller. The seller had the foresight to maintain the domain asset and trusted the process — allowing us time to find the right buyer at the right time. The business that acquired 

Meme.com now has a powerful, brandable domain to drive their business forward. We could not be happier for everyone involved.”  The Meme.com sale is the latest example of how valuable top tier domain names are as business assets in our  digital age, serving as both virtual real estate and corporate brand. The Meme.com domain has been registered and in use by the original registrant since 1996.

This is the fourth verified seven-figure sale reported so far this year. We will be adding it to our YTD Top 100 Sales Chart and our bi-weekly Top 20 Sales Chart when our next domain sales report comes out June 23.  

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ROTD Will Run a Unique Domain Liquidation Auction With Bidding to Start at $2.5 Million

Update: By court order this auction has been rescheduled for Wednesday, June 16 at 1pm US Eastern time.

RightOfTheDot (ROTD) will be conducting a a unique online auction on Thursday (June 10, 2021) at 1PM U.S. Eastern Daylight Time - a court ordered liquidation of The Income Store. Over 3,000 domain names (including more than 200 revenue generating websites), intellectual property, computers and office equipment will be offered as a single lot with bidding to start at $2,500,000.

The Income Store was a business that purchased and built revenue-generating websites for investors. The company made the Inc Magazine Top 5000 in 6 out of 7 years before the roof caved in on them. They were charged with paying older investors with funds derived from new investors, a tactic that caught the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who then forced the company into receivership.

Interested parties will be required to sign a non-disclosure and non-affiliation agreement to participate in the auction. Bidders will also have to make a $50,000 deposit that will be held in escrow and refunded unless the bidder is the winning bidder. Once approved, bidders will be given access to the complete list of domain names, websites and other financial and intellectual property information included in the auction sale. Additional information can be found at http://www.incomestorereceivership.com/. 

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.COM Registrations Grew 5% in the Past Year But Verisign Reports Total Regs Down Due to New gTLD Slide

Verisign (the administrator of the .com and .net TLDs) has released their latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief covering the 1st quarter of 2021. The quarter ended with 363.5 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs) worldwide, a slight decrease of less than 1% from both the previous quarter and the same point one year ago when then total was 366.8 million.

All of the decline in total registrations came from non .com categories, especially new gTLDs. That category plummeted over 29% year over year, losing 9.5 million registrations to land at 22.8 million at the end of 1Q-2021. That number is also a 12% drop from the previous quarter. 

ccTLDs also slipped but much less precipitously. Total country code TLD registrations edged down less than 1% (0.6% to be exact) to 156.5 million from the same point a year ago. They were off 1.5% from the previous quarter.

In contrast, the .coms continued to grow despite competition from hundreds of other TLDs. At the end of 1Q-2021 there were 154.6 million .coms registered, a healthy 5% increase from the 147.3 million registered at the same point last year. The .coms added 2.8 million domains in the most recent quarter, a 1.8% rise from the end of 4Q-2020. Meanwhile, Verisign's .net has remained unchanged with approximately 13.4 million registrations on the books, the same number we saw at the end of the last quarter as well as year over year.

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