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Will a domain be worth a billion dollar?

July 30, 2019 by Kassey Lee

A domain investor friend called me the other day. During our conversation, I was reminded that I once said that many domains would one day be priced in millions of dollars. So, what do I think now? Let’s talk about addresses first.

In 1989, Japan-based Mitsubishi Estate invested $1.6 billion to acquire a number of buildings at the address spanning West 48th and West 51st Streets and between 5th and 6th Avenues in New York. The purchase cost about 3 times the revenue (about $500 million) generated by the address. This is a physical address.

In 2012, Chinese entrepreneur Richard Liu acquired the digital address 120.52.148.118 which produced $67 billion in revenue last year. He invested $5 million for the digital address, but it cost only 0.0075% of the revenue. What a sharp difference in the prices! As the economy is shifting from the physical world to the digital world, this difference is even more significant.

The two addresses share one thing in common. The physical address is difficult to remember until you know it has a common name called “Rockefeller Center”. The second address is also difficult to remember until you know it has a “common name” called JD.com. Unlike physical addresses, each digital address has a “common name” called domain. In other words, domains are digital addresses.

Look at the numbers again. Mitsubishi put 3 times the revenue into the physical address but Liu paid only 0.0075% of the revenue for the digital address (domain). Physical addresses are limited in terms of local traffic, floor space, and trading hours. However, digital addresses give you global traffic, unlimited “floor” space, and 24/7 trading hours.

When I compare the prices and usefulness between physical addresses and digital addresses, I can only conclude that domains are still tremendously undervalued, even though their prices have risen a lot over the last 30 years – from being free to register a .com domain in the early 1990s to many domains being sold for 5 or 6 figures. The recent sale of Voice.com for $30 million is an indication of what more to come.

Join me on LinkedIn for further conversation

Originally published on Grandseeds.com

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Filed Under: Domain trends, Domaining 101, Grandseeds.com

About Kassey Lee

Kassey Lee is the publisher of Grandseeds.com, a Chinese domain market newsletter containing daily blog, news, and Q&A.

Comments

  1. Jon Schultz says

    July 30, 2019 at 3:56 pm

    I agree and very well written. Thanks!

  2. Snoopy says

    July 30, 2019 at 6:09 pm

    This a bit of a fluff article, the “domain” did not generate $67 billion revenue.

  3. Kelly says

    July 30, 2019 at 6:50 pm

    Cryptocurrency the actual term “Cryptocurrency” dot TLD will

    • Snoopy says

      July 30, 2019 at 11:08 pm

      Let me guess, you just registered a bunch of those names?

      • Kelly says

        July 31, 2019 at 1:28 am

        hey dummy Cryptocurrency dot TLD. those have been gone for years. for example Cryptocurrency .com and every other Cryptocurrency Dot TOP LEVEL DOMAIN (TLD) there is nothing to register you troll with no good domains of your own.

  4. Mike Sallese says

    July 30, 2019 at 7:57 pm

    Well said- totally agree!

    Cheers,

    Mike

  5. Varun Dev says

    July 30, 2019 at 10:00 pm

    Yes, I agree with you.
    Someone is listed
    NearbyGay.com for $1 Billion on Undeveloped ( Dan.com)
    One day domain names will be worth billion.
    Thank you very much Undeveloped to make me billionaire.

  6. Andrew Rice says

    July 31, 2019 at 12:27 am

    Good points, I agree that someday a domain will sell for over a billion dollars. It could take years, but short and meaningful domain names will only increase in value over the long run.

    • Kelly says

      July 31, 2019 at 3:22 pm

      a great domain doesn’t have to be short. for example PO.com and POR.com will never be more valuable than PORN.COM and PORNO.COM
      (MIC DROP)

  7. Billion Domain says

    August 4, 2019 at 4:49 pm

    If million dollars for domains was possible, billion may be possible in a decade

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